Five Women on the Street, 1913
Ludwig Kirchner
Oil on canvas

 This exhibition (no longer on display at The Museum of Modern Art) brings together German Expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s renowned Street Scenes series, created between 1913 and 1915. I saw this exhibit a few week ago in New York City and I just loved the colors he used in these.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), the subject of the MoMA exhibition “Kirchner and the Berlin Street,” is, in the greater scheme of 20th-century art, a minor painter, albeit one with a significant role in the shaping of German Modernism.

Kirchner was a founding member of “Die Brücke” (“the Bridge”), a collective of painters out to upset the establishment with art that was “strange to the normal person”—that is to say, Expressionism.

Berlin Street, 1913-1915
Oil on canvas

Considered by many to be the highpoint of Kirchner’s career as a whole, this series of seven paintings is showcased with sixty related prints and drawings. This series dates from Kirchner’s Berlin period, when the effect of life in the metropolis brought about a dramatic change in his work. Known as the co-founder of the early Expressionist group Brücke, established in Dresden in 1905, Kirchner moved to Berlin in 1911. Here his sense of rebellion against the confining principles of academic painting and the stifling rules of bourgeois society took a new turn, as the charged atmosphere and energy of the city was felt in an expression of acute perspectives, jagged strokes, dense angular forms, and caustic color.

Dresden Street, 1913-1915
Oil on canvas

The street life in Berlin, in particular the familiar presence of prostitutes, identified by their elaborate plumed hats, captured Kirchner’s eye and inspired this spectacular series. Shown together for the first time in New York, these works exude the vitality, decadence, and underlying mood of imminent danger that characterized Berlin on the eve of World War I.

Women on the Street
Oil on canvas

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (May 6, 1880 – June 15, 1938) was a Germanexpressionistpainter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or “The Bridge”, a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. In 1933, his work was branded as “degenerate” by the Nazis and in 1937 over 600 of his works were sold or destroyed. In 1938 he committed suicide.

Berlin  Street, 1913-1914
Oil on Canvas

Potsdamer Platz. 1914.
Oil on canvas

Berlin Street Scene, 1914
Oil on canvas

6 CommentsChronological   Reverse   Threaded

delete reply nemo4sun wrote on Dec 13, ’08 very interesting the colors and twisted proportion 🙂

delete reply starfishred wrote on Dec 13, ’08 Great post-I have a friend who ‘s father rescued a whole lot of these paintings and hid them till after the war and now he has a fortune in paintings but more important he saved them for the culture and the story they tell of that time-

delete reply sugarpiehuny wrote on Dec 13, ’08 interesting

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Dec 13, ’08 I loved seeing these paintings up close. They’re huge and the colors are just gorgeous !

edit delete reply lauritasita wrote on Dec 14, ’08 The paintings are no longer on exhibit, but you can view a couple of them online at the MOMA web site.

delete reply forgetmenot525 wrote on Dec 26, ’08 these are amasing paintings, how lucky we are to have them. I don’t think i have come across these before , what a treat, thanks for showing these paintings Laurita