Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 12 March – 13 May 1999 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) is today considered one of the seminal artistic personalities of this century. As a member of the “Brücke” group of artists, founded in Dresden in 1905 and moved to Berlin in 1911, he is one of the main representatives of Expressionism in Germany. After a phase of experimentation, Kirchner achieved the breakthrough to his independent style in 1909/10. Landscapes, portraits, interior depictions and still lifes were portrayed by him in quickly grasped form. A heightened attitude to life is expressed. His Dresden style is cheerful and colorful. When he moved to Berlin, his artistic language changed. The color palette becomes darker, the form more angular and brittle. The focus is on the human being. A high point of the Berlin phase is represented by the 1913/14 “Street Scenes”, the paintings with cocottes, in which Kirchner thematizes modern city life. The outbreak of the First World War plunged Kirchner into a severe mental and physical crisis. After several stays in sanatoriums, he settled permanently in Davos, Switzerland, in 1917. In numerous alpine landscapes and paintings with scenes from the life of mountain farmers, Kirchner found a calmer variation of his Expressionism. In the last decade of his life, stylizations of nature alternate with symbolic motifs taken from the imagination. In 1938 Kirchner took his own life, not least under the impression of being ostracized by the National Socialists. The exhibition included about 200 works from all creative phases of the artist. In addition to major works of painting, drawings, watercolors and prints documented the development of his style. The loans came from the collections of the Brücke Museum Berlin, the Kirchner Museum Davos, the National Gallery Berlin and the Stadtmuseum Berlin. More Less Exhibition Leaflet Past exhibitions of the Kunsthalle
