Munich celebrates one of Germany’s most influential artists’ groups
They stuck together for less than a decade. But in this short time, the Expressionist group of artists that got together in Dresden in 1905 was to have a profound influence on the European art scene. This month, the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung celebrates the 100th anniversary of the founding of “Die Brücke,” in an exhibition of works that were intended literally to “bridge” the gap between traditional German painting of the day and the art of the future, paving the way for a more original means of artistic expression. The exhibition runs until May 21, and is an absolute must-see for anyone who wishes to fully appreciate this period in German art history.
Die Brücke initially comprised just a small group of architectural students in Dresden—Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff—searching for a “space” to break out into new artistic territory. Soon joined by Max Pechstein and Emil Nolde, and in 1911 by Otto Müller in Berlin, the group’s founding essentially marks the starting point of the German Expressionist movement, which itself spawned a number of other significant groups, such as the Blaue Reiter, formed in Munich in 1911, whose members included Franz Marc, August Macke, Gabriele Münter, Heinrich Campendonk and Wassily Kandinsky. The French Fauvist movement also gained momentum through the German Expressionists and even the work of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso benefited from Expressionism’s creative impetus.
Although Die Brücke was founded in Dresden, the group eventually moved to Berlin, where it finally disbanded at the onset of World War I, in 1913, owing to artistic differences. But throughout its short existence, the group sought to create an authentic art that defied the conventions of traditional painting as well as the then-dominant schools of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. The Brücke artists made use of a number of artistic genres—the nude, landscape, portraiture, still life—executing their works in a simplified style that stressed bold outlines and strong colors. Like many avant-garde artists at the time, Kirchner and Heckel admired the apparent lack of artifice in the art of such “exotic” cultures as those in Africa and Oceania, and strove to achieve this “primitive” quality in their own work. Similar simple qualities were being explored at the same time by the French Fauve artists (Matisse, Gauguin, Derain). However, manifestations of angst, anxiety and violence also appear in the works of the Brücke painters, and it is essentially this quality that distinguishes their art from that of the Fauvists, who treated form and color in a more “romantic” manner. Brücke art was also very much influenced by the expressive simplicity of late German Gothic woodcuts, and by the prints of the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. Indeed, the group contributed to the revival of the woodcut, making it a powerful means of expression in the 20th century.
Most of the works in “A Century of Die Brücke: Expressionism from Berlin”—which features more than 30 oil paintings, 100 watercolors and numerous works on paper—were drawn from the Department of Prints and Drawings at the National Gallery in Berlin. Demonstrating what a prominent position Die Brücke held within the German Expressionist movement, the show provides an impressive, representative selection of works that are as bold in execution as they are emotionally charged.
