Press release
Galerie Michael Werner Cologne opens an exhibition of works on paper by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner on March 6th.
Born in Aschaffenburg, Lower Franconia, in 1880, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner is regarded as one of the most important German artists of the 20th Century and leading figure of the German Expressionist movement.
While studying for his architecture degree at the Technical Institute in Dresden, Kirchner and his fellow students, Fritz Bleyl, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel founded ‘Brücke’ in 1905. The main objective of the group was the quest for new ways of artistic expressions and thereby breaking with the leading, conservative understanding of art in Germany at the time. In his work, Kirchner was influenced by a variety of artists, cultures and techniques, for example the erotic drawings of Rodin, Valloton’s and German Old Master woodcuts, the emotionally highly expressive drawing of the Art Nouveau, the shining colouring of van Gogh’s paintings or the sculptures of African and Asiatic primitive tribes. As the impelling force amongst the Brücke artists, Kirchner developed very quickly his own style and his work was showed in many exhibitions. Differing opinion amongst the artists caused the break up of the Brücke group in 1913.
In the years following the split of the Brücke, Kirchner’s work was dominated by health problems. His release from military service during World War I in 1915 was caused by a nervous breakdown and is followed by several long term hospitalisations in Swiss sanatoriums between 1915 and 1918. Thenceforward, Kirchner suffered from mental instability and occasional depression, which, however, never affected his artistic drive. After his work had been banned from public exhibitions by the Nazi regime and declared as ‘degenerate art’ in Hitler’s Munich exhibition in 1937, despairing and afraid of the approaching war, Kirchner committed suicide in Davos in 1938.
The exhibition at the Galerie Michael Werner gives a comprehensive insight in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s works on paper from the period between 1900 and 1937. The scope of the exhibition covers different periods, themes and techniques of Kirchner’s work: There are drawings from the years 1914-1918 influenced by his psychological crisis, nude drawings and mountain landscapes recorded around Davos, Switzerland, where he spent the last 20 years of his life.
Kirchner’s oeuvre is driven by the search for a simplified form of expression, which would enable him to draw every spontaneous emotion at any moment, dead-on and unaltered. This is essential the more the objects are in movement or Kirchner himself is moving around a stationary motive. Under the pseudonym of Louis de Marsalle, Kirchner wrote extensive descriptions of his own art, emphasizing the significance of movement and velocity for his work. Using simplified, sharp lines Kirchner was able to catch the most delicate and natural emotions on paper.
A full colour catalogue accompanies this exhibition. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday from 10am until 6:30pm. Please contact GALERIE MICHAEL WERNER, Köln for more information.