Paris Art
Studies – German Expressionism
Die
Brücke (the
Bridge)
Die Brücke (The Bridge) was a group of German
artists formed in Dresden in
1905. Founding members were Fritz
Bleyl, Erich Heckel,
Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner and Karl
Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller. These
artists had a major impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th
century and created the style of Expressionism.
The founding members of Die Brücke in 1905 were four Jugendstil (Art Nouveau)
architecture students: Fritz
Bleyl (1880-1966), Erich
Heckel, Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.
Die Brücke rebelled
against the traditional academic styles taught in German art schools and sought
a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name)
between the past and the present. They responded both to past “primitive”
German artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald
and Lucas
Cranach, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements like
Fauvism and Cubism. As part of the affirmation of their national heritage, they
revived older media, particularly woodcut
prints. The group developed a common style
based on vivid color, emotional tension, violent imagery, and an influence from
primitivism
particularly African and Polynesian tribal art.
The group members initially "isolated"
themselves in a working-class neighborhood of Dresden, aiming thereby to reject
their own bourgeois backgrounds. Their meeting place was Heckel’s studio on
Berlinstrasse in an old butcher’s shop. Heckel was the main administrator and
organizer of events and exhibitions.The group composed a manifesto (mostly
Kirchner's work), which was carved on wood and asserted a new generation,
"who want freedom in our work and in our lives, independence from older,
established forces."
In September and October 1906, the first group exhibition was held in the
showroom of K.F.M. Seifert and Co. in Dresden.
Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein joined the
group in 1906. Bleyl married in 1907, and left the group. Otto Mueller joined in
1910. Between 1907 and 1911, the
Brücke artists spent the summers at the Moritzburg lakes and on the
island of Fehmarn. In 1911, Kirchner moved to Berlin.
Their art is received its first public acclaim when shown along that of the
French modern masters in the great Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne in 1912.The
group was dissolved with much bitterness and recriminations in 1913.
Die Brücke and Expressionist artists in Pinacothèque exhibition:
Otto Guttfreund
(1889-1927), Erich Heckel (1883-1970), Ernst
Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919), Otto Mueller (1874-1930), Emil Nolde (1867-1956), Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Christian Rohlfs (1849 –
1938),
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976)
Der Blaue
Reiter (the Blue Rider)
Der Blaue Reiter (The
Blue Rider) was a group of artists who were origninally members of the Neue
Künstlervereinigung München (NKVM) in Munich. The movement was founded
in 1911 and lasted until 1914, and forms the other aspect of Geman Expressionism before the
First World War. Wassily
Kandinsky, Franz Marc,
August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky,
Marianne von
Werefkin, Gabriele
Münter, Lyonel
Feininger, Albert Bloch
and others founded the group in response to the rejection of a Kandinsky
painting by for a NKVM exhibition. Paul Klee was also involved.
The name comes from Kandinsky’s frequent use of horses and riders (notably St
George) in his work and the spiritual meaning he attached to the color blue. It
was given to the group’s first publication, Der
Blaue Reiter Almanach (The Blue Rider
Almanac) conceived in June 1911 and published in early 1912.
Within the group, artistic approaches and
aims varied from artist to artist; however, the artists shared a common desire
to express spiritual truths through their art. They believed in the promotion
of modern art; the connection between visual art and music; the spiritual and
symbolic associations of color; and a spontaneous, intuitive approach to
painting. Members were interested in European medieval art, Russian and
Bavarian folk art, primitivism,
as well as modern French art. As a result of their encounters with Cubist, Fauve and Rayonist ideas, they moved
towards abstraction.
Der Blaue Reiter organized exhibitions in
1911 and 1912 that toured Germany. The almanac featured contemporary, primitive
and folk art, along with children's paintings and favored, like Die Brücke, the
revival of woodcut printing. In 1913 they exhibited in the first German
Herbstsalon. The group was
disrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in
1914. Franz Marc and August Macke were killed
in combat. Wassily
Kandinsky, Marianne
von Werefkin and Alexej
von Jawlensky were forced to move back to Russia because of their Russian
citizenship. There were also differences in opinion within the group. As a
result, Der Blaue Reiter was short-lived, lasting for only three years from
1911 to 1914.
Blaue Reiter artists in Pinacothèque exhibition:
Heinrich Campendock
(1889-1957), Natalia Goncharova
(1881-1962), Alexei von Jawelensky
(1864 – 1941), Wassily Kandinsky
(1866 – 1944), Mikhail Larionov
(1881-1964), Franz Marc (1880 –
1916), August Macke (1887 – 1914),
Gabrielle Münter (1877 – 1962)
Marianne von Werefkin (1860-1938)