4 works of expressionism by KIRCHNER
“Doris with a high collar” (1906), “Woman under a Japanese parasol” (1909), “Five women on Potsdamer Platz street” (1913) or “Czardas dancers” (1920), are some of the Kirchner's most important expressionist works.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) He was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of pictorial expressionism. One of his main contributions was being one of the four founders of the expressionist group. Die Brückein 1905. An artist who evolved from impressionism to expressionism and has left us a work characterized by its hard and rugged themes and its synthetic and two-dimensional style.
In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we delve deeper into the Kirchner's works more important, one of the most important expressionist artists.
Index
- Characteristics of Kirchner's work
- Doris with a high collar (1906), one of Kirchner's first works
- Woman under Japanese parasol (1909), another of the works of expressionism
- Five women on Potsdamer Platz (1913), one of Kirchner's iconic works
- Czardas Dancers (1920), one of Kirchner's most typical songs
Characteristics of Kirchner's work.
Before delving fully into knowing the works of Kirchner's expressionism, we are going to discover the main characteristics of his work. They are the following:
- Kirchner was a self-taught painter and he came to painting from his architecture studies.
- His style is characterized by a arbitrary and autonomous use of color, thick brushstrokes and the simplification of shapes, these being flat and stylized, and with little interest in volume and perspective.
- His career evolved. from impressionism to expressionism.
- The most recurrent themes of Kirchner's work were nudes, panoramic views of urban spaces, natural landscapes, among others.
- He started with wood engraving, woodcut, reminding his forms of this technique by using thick, often irregular lines. A technique that he admired in artists like Dürer.
- Also important was the influence of Van Gogh, Gothic art, African and Oceanic primitive art, Fauvism and Matisse, in addition to showing attraction towards the ugly or the grotesque.
- Within this drift, Kirchner opted for themes such as narrow streets, circus artists, cabaret musicians, prostitutes, marginalized people, dancers, etc.
- His time at the front during the First World War affected him deeply, committing suicide in 1938 with the arrival of the Nazis and being considered a degenerate artist.
Here we discover the main characteristics of German expressionism.
Doris with a high collar (1906), one of Kirchner's first works.
One of Kirchner's expressionist works is this 71.9x52.5 centimeter oil on cardboard that is exhibited in the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. It is after the founding of the group Die Brücke, which took place in Dresden (Germany), in June 1905 and depicts the painter's second lover, Doris Grosse.
Die Brücke is considered as the first modern german art group, The objective being to renew the artistic panorama under the enthusiasm generated by a Van Gogh exhibition in Dresden. Under this influence, Kirchner made this portrait in which he uses vibrant and arbitrary colors, juxtapositions of short, pasted and thick brush strokes. The painter twists the figure and contorts it to make a portrait full of intensity.
Woman under Japanese parasol (1909), another of the works of expressionism.
This work by Kirchner is an oil painting on canvas with dimensions of 92.5x80.5 centimeters. An oil painting depicting a nude female figure, one of Kirchner's typical themes. The figure is under a Japanese parasol and is represented using yellow, red and orange colors, blurring the figure and transmitting all the sensuality and warmth of the woman and the desire that she awakens in the painter.
Five Women on Potsdamer Platz Street (1913), one of Kirchner's iconic works.
We continue to learn about Kirchner's expressionist works with this oil on canvas, measuring 12.05 x 91 cm, which represents five women dressed in the fashion of that decade, but drawn with angular strokes, flat colors, foreshortening and a primitivist air in the representation of the figures. Kirchner thus moves away from the fauve aesthetic to approach what would be expressionist aesthetics.
In the years prior to the World War, Kirchner expressed the tension and pessimism that existed in the environment. Thus, his works lose color, sensuality and the sinuosity of the forms to move to angular, almost cutting profiles, which manage to convey the trauma and anxiety caused by war.
In this work, Kirchner features five women in a city. Compressed figures and using a framing that will be typical in expressionist films. The colors are also darker and more muted, the influence of Van Gogh and Munch being evident.
Czardas Dancers (1920), one of Kirchner's most typical songs.
Another of Kirchner's most recurring themes was dance, especially the dancers. In this oil painting, Kirchner represents some dancers as suspended in space, without perspective, and with intense color.
Kirchner shows us the interior of a hostess place and the dancers who livened up the nights. But everything seems to be blocked, static, giving the figures an appearance of empty and depersonalized beings.
The intense, pure and warm color, the thick and angular lines in the style of woodcuts are some of the typical elements of the painter's style.
If you want to read more articles similar to Kirchner: works of expressionism, we recommend that you enter our category of History.
Bibliography
- BLÁZQUEZ MARTÍNEZ, José María. Greek myths in expressionist painting. Goya: Art Magazine, 2001, no 281, p. 113-123.
- DAHLMANNS, Janina. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, an architect of avant-garde impressionism. Architecture: Magazine of the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM), 2009, no 355, p. 106-111.
- PLAZA AGUADO, Cristina, Kirchner, degenerate art. Free thought, 2012, no 72, p. 94-96.
