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***October 2006*** |
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner May 6, 1880 - June 15, 1938 |
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born in Aschaffenburg, Germany in May of 1880. For the first ten years of his life, his family moved continuously before settling in Chemnitz in 1890. Ernst had showed signs of artistic leanings at an early age and after formal school he attended the Dresden Technishe Hochschule where he studied architecture from 1901 until 1905. While in Dresden, he befriended three other young architecture students who would have a profound effect on his career, Erich Heckel, Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff and Fritz Bleyl. This young group were drawn together by their desire to become painters and for their dislike of modern painting. They began calling themselves Die Brücke, which translated means "The Bridge" as they felt the desire to bridge the gap between the present and the future of art. The members isolated themselves in a working-class neighborhood of Dresden and developed a common style based on vivid color, emotional tension, violent imagery with a major influence from artists such as Van Gogh, Gauguin and Munch. After first concentrating exclusively on urban subject matter, the group ventured into southern Germany on expeditions and produced more nudes and arcadian images. Kirchner moved to Berlin in 1911 with fellow "Die Brücke" members and started to exhibit more and gain further recognition. The popularity of the group expanded when in 1912, Franz Marc included works for a major Die Brücke exhibition. The group however, disbanded in 1913, at the onset of World War I, due to artistic differences, but forged an incredible legacy for upcomng expressionist painters. In that same year, Kirchner also exhibited in New York at the Armory show and was also given his first solo shows in Germany at the Folkwang Hagen Museum and at the Galerie Gurlitt in Berlin. |
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With the onset of World War I, Kirchner entered
military service, and in 1915 was discharged after he suffered a
nervous breakdown and complete physical collapse. In a self portrait
of this time he depicts himself with an amputated hand (though it
did not actually happen). He moved to a sanitarium near Frankfurt,
where he completed five wall frescoes in 1916 while recuperating.
The artist's return to health was slowed considerably when, a year
later in 1917, he was severely injured when he was struck by a car.
In 1918 he moved near Davos, Switzerland to convalesce, but continued
to suffer from depression despite his continuing to paint and have
exhibits in Munich, Hamburg and New York. |
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Kirchner continued to paint despite his battle with depression and kept exhibiting well into the 1930's. With the rise of the Nazi Party however, Kirchener found both his name and his work on the Nazi's 'degenerate art' list. Not only was he forbidden to exhibit his work, the Nazi's made an example out of him in 1937 by entering his studio and confiscating and destroying over 600 of his works. This, along with a stern warning not to paint, spiralled Kirchner further into distress, anxiety and despair. |
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Kirchner, painting in constant fear of being discovered, unable to exhibit his work and dealing with the loss of so many of his works of art, committed suicide in 1938 in Davos, Switzerland, not far from the German border. |
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