German Expressionism 1913 - 1923 – Rex Irwin Gallery – June 2008

The prints assembled in this exhibition were created during an extraordinary moment in German art, when artists responded to the forces of modernity with works that engaged passionately with contemporary society, culture and politics.  The years between 1913 and 1923 were marked by social and political turmoil resulting from war, revolution and hyper-inflation.  Yet this environment created fertile ground for great freedom and experimentation in the visual arts.  It was during this period that German Expressionism flourished and became one of the leading avant-garde movements. 

Expressionism originated in Dresden in 1905 with the formation of the artists’ group Die Brücke and soon emerged in other cities in Germany rapidly becoming one of the most diverse and far-ranging modernist movements.  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff declared their commitment to a new epoch in art and to a more authentic form of expression which sprang from a direct emotional response to their subjects - in contrast to what they considered to be outmoded academic traditions.  The print medium, and the woodcut in particular, with its emphasis on dynamic line and strong contrasts became a major vehicle of expression for these artists.  Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff and Pechstein fully utilised the expressive qualities of the woodcut to achieve direct, spontaneous communication that appealed to a wide audience.  The rough, primitive, hand-made quality of these works reflected a wider interest in the tribal arts of Africa and Polynesia.  Primitivism was used by artists as both a stylistic alternative to traditional, Western modes of representation and as a tool to question dominant European values.  The Expressionists sought to create a harmonious image of the relationship between humanity and nature.  They frequently depicted nude figures bathing in natural settings as a celebration of nature as a refuge, a place to which one could escape from the negative effects of modernity.

Expressionism was the style favoured by artists during and immediately after the First World War.  Yet the second generation of Expressionists created works that are more intensely personal with an even greater sense of emotional urgency.  Max Beckmann, for example, served as a medical orderly on the Western front and witnessed death and suffering first-hand while living above a morgue.  The large operation marks an entirely new direction in Beckmann’s art through the use of compressed space, tilted perspectives and nervous, agitated line which all find expression in his post-war work. There is an even greater concentration on a more direct and uncompromising form of expression to reveal the psychological essence of a subject.

Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix are among the many artists represented in the exhibition by self-portraits.  Kollwitz’s haunting self-portrait is a poignant study of the enormous sense of loss and grief she experienced after the death of her 18-year old son during the war.  After enthusiastically enlisting for war and fighting as a gunner on the Western and Eastern fronts, Dix repeatedly returned to the subject of war during the 1920s.  He remained both horrified and fascinated by war and represents this ambiguity in his 1922 Self Portrait where he portrays himself facing the future with steely determination despite his traumatic war experiences. In other penetrating portraits from the Weimar era artists such as Conrad Felixmüller and Max Kaus sought to capture the harsh realities of life in post-war Germany.  Ernst Barlach and Max Pechstein turned to pseudo-religious themes as a deeply personal expression of their belief that art could bring about social and spiritual change.  These astonishingly powerful works continue to demand our attention and remind us of the complex and fascinating ways in which the German Expressionists responded to modernity. 

Dr Jacqueline Strecker
Curator of Special Exhibitions
Art Gallery of New South Wales