I actually enjoy Kirchner and will be discussing the Expressionists this semester in a fair amount of detail. But I must admit that the street scenes he painted just before the war and in the first years of the war were a bit strange. The brilliant colours were exciting but the large and distorted forms were a tad monstrous. I am assuming he found city life to be disturbing, or he was seriously depressed, or both.
You might find the "Twilight Over Berlin" Exhibition of German art 1905-1945 to be interesting. Thanks for the link
Hels melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au
February 8, 2016 at 3:59 AM
I am not fond of paintings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), as I've mentioned here. Biographical information on Kirchner is here for greater context.
That said, his works that interest me the most are street scenes he painted about 1913-15. New York's Museum of Modern Art had a show in 2012 dealing with those. More about that here.
Many images of Kirchner's street paintings are below. I find it interesting that V-shaped compositions are common.
Gallery
[Image]Berlin Street Scene - 1913
[Image]Five Women at the Street - 1913
[Image]Frauen auf der Strasse - 1915
[Image]Friedrichstrasse, Berlin - 1914
[Image]Leipziger Straße mit elektrischer Bahn - 1914
[Image]Potsdammer Platz - 1914
[Image]Rote Kokotte - 1914
[Image]Strasse, Berlin - 1913
[Image]Street Scene - 1913
[Image]Zwei Frauen auf der Strasse
[Image]Zwei Kokotten - 1914
This seems to be a study for the painting immediately above it.
[Image]Street scene - 1926
Kirchner occasionally did street scenes later in his career, but in a different style.
posted by Donald Pittenger at 1:00 AM on Feb 8, 2016
1 Comment
Close this window Jump to comment formI actually enjoy Kirchner and will be discussing the Expressionists this semester in a fair amount of detail. But I must admit that the street scenes he painted just before the war and in the first years of the war were a bit strange. The brilliant colours were exciting but the large and distorted forms were a tad monstrous. I am assuming he found city life to be disturbing, or he was seriously depressed, or both.
You might find the "Twilight Over Berlin" Exhibition of German art 1905-1945 to be interesting. Thanks for the link
Hels
melbourneblogger.blogspot.com.au
February 8, 2016 at 3:59 AM