Book Description
One of the most prolific and creative of the German Expressionists, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) is noted for his mastery of the human form and the startling contrasts of pure color in his paintings. This gorgeous book--the first publication in English in 30 years on this leader of the Die Brucke movement--presents almost 150 of Kirchner's finest paintings, watercolors, prints, and sculptures, together with essays by leading scholars. Of all the artists in the early modern period, Kirchner was most responsive to the underlying tension between nature and civilization that fascinated his generation. This preoccupation culminates in his paintings of metropolitan Berlin, where he combines elegance with fierce rawness to reveal the potential wildness of the crowd. His masterpieces from the years 1905 to 1915, his most important and innovative period, are the focus of this book and the exhibition it accompanies, opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in March 2003.
About the Author
Jill Lloyd is an independent writer and curator. Magdalena Moeller is director of the Brucke-Museum, Berlin.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner FROM THE PUBLISHER
"This publication, the most substantial on Kirchner in English for thirty years, accompanies the first major exhibition in Britain for three decades of the art of the versatile and brilliant founder of the Brucke group of Expressionist artists." "The book presents a focused display of works from the artist's most creative and innovative period, and considers how he was arguably the most responsive of all the artists of the early modern period to the underlying tension between nature and civilisation that so fascinated his generation. This preoccupation culminates in Kirchner's Berlin street scenes, in which he combines elegance with an almost tribal rawness to reveal the potential savagery of the city crowd." Containing essays by leading Kirchner and Brucke scholars, and magnificent reproductions of these too rarely seen works, this publication reaffirms Kirchner's importance within German Expressionism and his key position within early twentieth-century art.
Art & Photography
Book Info
