What is Expressionism?

• EL Kirchner was the leader and most talented member of Die Brücke. He was prolific (worked hard and made a lot). He would paint in oil on canvas and rough textured materials like sacking.

• His self portrait in the middle above is a typically histrionic and expressionist work. Kirchner had joined up in the summer of 1914 as he liked the look of the uniform and was quick to think of himself as a hero. He found the actual experience of being a soldier quite different from his dreams and in fact, intolerable. In this way, he shows himself with his painting hand symbolically cut off. Keen on sex, Kirchner has also shown the figure behind him as androgynous - neither clearly male or female. This is again another sign that he is losing his vitality and life force by being held back in the oppressive world of military rules and regulations.

• Kirchner would rather be ‘wild and free’ but is under orders and has to obey regulations. This is completely unacceptable to him and his response is ridiculous and, even, offensive when you remember that people serving non the frontline were routinely getting blown up, injured, maimed and killed and not merely feeling symbolically hurt and hard done by.

• That all said, the painting makes a dramatic image with colour used expressively and a mundane and even silly image is translated into something that stands out as a dramatic design full of diagonals and compressed space. We feel that we are drawn into the space of the picture. Everything points to Kirchner’s head and consciousness. It is his world and we see it and believe in it too. The schematic nature of the colour and the exaggerated drawing are done at the highest levels and the face doesn’t degenerate into cartoon language but retains a plausible identity of a believable person. The colours harmonise to create one continuous and again, plausible image of a world that is sickly, unpleasant, and dramatic like a scene from a horror movie.

• Otto Meüller was one of the most lyrical (poetic) of German expressionist painters.

• The main topic of Mueller's works is the unity of humans and nature; his paintings emphasise a harmonious simplification of form, colour and contours.

• He is known especially for his characteristic paintings of nudes and Romani women; his nickname was "Gypsy Mueller" and his mother was perhaps Romani.

• The medium he preferred for his paintings was distemper on coarse canvas, which produced a mat surface.

• Altogether his printmaking amounted to 172 prints, nearly all of the lithographs, but including a few woodcuts and etchings.

• Erich Heckel and other members of Die Brücke greatly admired the work of Edvard Munch, and aimed to make a link between traditional Neo-Romantic German painting and modern expressionist painting. The four founding members of Die Brücke made much use of the print as a cheap and quick medium  to produce affordable art.

• So called ‘Primitive’ art was also an inspiration to the members of the Die Brücke. It was Heckel's brother who introduced the group to African sculpture, and it is noted that their acceptance of what was then called ‘primitive art’, was a major step in the stylistic development of the group. 

• It is through this style that they found a source of strength in the barbaric figures they painted to outrage the conservative tastes of the rich and middle classes.

• Karl Schmidt-Rottloff was a strong personality in Die Brücke and often clashed with Kirchner

• Schmidt-Rottloff is often considered the most talented member of Die Brücke after Kirchner

Max Beckmann

• Alexi Jawlensky was a Russian who moved to Germany to meet other artists and find out what was going on in art centres. He worked with Kandinsky and later met Nolde and Matisse. This all had an influence on his palette.

• Later on he would turn mover towards simplification of shape and abstraction under a spiritual turn. He became progressively more unhealthy and died early in 1941.

• Paula Modehson-Becker died early but is recognised as the first female painter to paint full length nude self portraits. 

• She died at only 33 years. 

• Paula Modehson-Becker came from a wealthy and cosmopolitan background which meant that she had lived. in several different countries and had the opportunity of an art education and training.

Wikipedia:

Until the years when Becker began the practice, women painters had not widely used nude females as subjects for their work. The only notable exceptions to this dearth are works by Artemisia Gentileschi, three centuries earlier; for example, art historians assume that Gentileschi used her own body as the model for her work Susannah and the Elders. Becker's work on the female nude is unconventional and expresses an ambivalence to both her subject matter and the method of its representation.[3]

Becker was trained in the methods of realism and naturalism, along with a recognisable simplicity of form. She was able to achieve a distinct texture to her work by scratching into the wet paint.[4] She later abandoned those techniques to move into Fauvism. There is evidence to suggest that a number of Paula Modersohn-Becker's self-portraits were influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Rossetti, including Self-portrait with a bowl and a glass (c.1904; Sander Collection), Self-portrait nude with amber necklace (1906; Private collection), and Self-portrait on my sixth wedding anniversary (1906; Museen Böttcherstrasse, Paula Modersohn- Becker Museum, Bremen).[5] She may also have influenced one or more of Picasso's paintings, as Diane Radycki posits in her 2013 monograph on the artist

• Käthe Kollwitz started her artistic career working in a realist style, but her work moved progressively towards expressionism.

• She suffered from ill health and mental ill health as a child

• Between the births of her sons – Hans in 1892 and Peter in 1896 – Kollwitz saw a performance of Gerhart Hauptmann's The Weavers, which dramatized the oppression of the Silesian weavers in Langenbielau and their failed revolt in 1844.

• Kollwitz was inspired by the performance and ceased work on a series of etchings she had intended to illustrate Émile Zola's Germinal.  (A book about the suffering and struggles of miners in France)

• She produced a cycle of six works on the weaver's theme, three lithographs (Poverty, Death, and Conspiracy) and three etchings with aquatint and sandpaper (March of the Weavers, Riot, and The End). Not a literal illustration of the drama, nor an idealization of workers, the prints expressed the workers' misery, hope, courage, and eventually, doom.[16]

• The cycle was exhibited publicly in 1898 to wide acclaim. But when Adolph Menzel nominated her work for the gold medal of the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung in Berlin, Kaiser Wilhelm II withheld his approval, saying "I beg you gentlemen, a medal for a woman, that would really be going too far . . . orders and medals of honour belong on the breasts of worthy men."

• In the years leading up to the First World War, Kollwitz was inspired by younger modern artists

• Kollwitz lost her younger son, Peter, on the battlefield in World War I in October 1914. The loss of her child began a stage of prolonged depression in her life. 

• By the end of 1914 she had made drawings for a monument to Peter and his fallen comrades. 

• She destroyed the monument in 1919 and began again in 1925.

• The memorial, titled The Grieving Parents, was finally completed and placed in the Belgian cemetery of Roggevelde in 1932

• In 1933, after the establishment of the National-Socialist regime, the Nazi Party authorities forced her to resign her place on the faculty of the Akademie der Künste following her support of the Dringender Appell.

• Her work was removed from museums. Although she was banned from exhibiting, one of her "mother and child" pieces was used by the Nazis for propaganda.

• She outlived her husband (who died from an illness in 1940) and her grandson Peter, who died in action in World War II two years later.

• In July 1936, she and her husband were visited by the Gestapo, who threatened her with arrest and deportation to a Nazi concentration camp; they resolved to commit suicide if such a prospect became inevitable. However, Kollwitz was by now a figure of international note, and no further action was taken.

• She was evacuated from Berlin in 1943. Later that year, her house was bombed and many drawings, prints, and documents were lost. 

• She moved first to Nordhausen, then to Moritzburg, a town near Dresden, where she lived her final months as a guest of Prince Ernst Heinrich of Saxony 

• Kollwitz died just 16 days before the end of the war.

• The German painter Lovis Corinth (1858–1925) is considered one of the most important representatives of German Impressionism, in his late work also Expressionism. In 1919, his wife built a house for him at the Lake Walchen, south of Munich in the Bavarian Alps.

• The following years, he spent a lot of time there and derived his inspiration from the landscape and lighting atmosphere for numerous paintings, which often show Lake Walchen.

The critic and artist Donald Judd on Pollock:

Everything is fairly independent and specific.

The dripped paint in most of Pollock’s paintings is dripped paint. It’s that sensation, completely immediate and specific, and nothing modified it. It also does things that drips never do, but that doesn’t change the specific sensation. It’s not something else that alludes to dripped paint. The use of the paint and the whole of any painting are further apart in quality than is usual. A fragment of a Pollock would have a good deal less of the quality of the whole than a part of a De Kooning, 

He argues that Jackson Pollock does something new and more radical than anyone (Even Barnett Newman which it pains him to admit). He later adds:

De Kooning’s paintings are substantially the same as those of the various Expressionist painters from Soutine back to Van Gogh and back through the recurrent use of expressive brushwork. That portrays immediate emotions. It doesn’t involve immediate sensations. That kind of expression of emotion occurs through a sequence of observing, feeling and recording. It’s one of the main aspects of European or Western art.

Judd claims that Pollock goes beyond this because his drips and splashes only represent themselves rather than describing or alluding to something else. They give the viewer immediate sensations not emotions aroused by a recollection of Allison to something. 

In this way, Pollock paints something new and is a great artist, not just the heroic figure that he is often cast in, like Bruce Willis in 'Die Hard'. Possibly in this reading, Pollock is not an expressionist. 

De Kooning's ability to combine abstraction and representation made him a significant artist during his lifetime. His innovative techniques challenged traditional artistic conventions and pushed the boundaries of what art could be. He played a pivotal role in the Abstract Expressionist movement, which emphasized individual expression and emotional intensity.

Moreover, de Kooning's influence can be seen in his fearless exploration of colour and texture. His use of vibrant hues and bold, gestural brushwork became trademarks of his style. For instance, in "Excavation" (1950), he layered thick, textured paint to create a sense of depth and movement.

De Kooning's work was celebrated for its energetic and spontaneous quality. He often embraced the process of painting, allowing his emotions and instincts to guide his brush. This approach resonated with many artists of his time, inspiring them to embrace their own individuality and expressiveness.

De Kooning's impact on the art world continues to be felt today. His artistic innovations and willingness to challenge conventions have left an indelible mark on contemporary art. He is recognized as a master of abstract expressionism and remains an important figure in the history of modern art.

For A level students, exploring the work of William de Kooning can open doors to understanding different artistic styles and techniques. His expressive use of colour and bold brushwork can inspire young artists to experiment with their own creativity. 

Furthermore, studying de Kooning's journey from figurative to abstract art can foster an appreciation for the evolution of artistic expression and the importance of pushing artistic boundaries. 

Barnett Newman (1905-1970) was a significant American artist who made a profound impact on the art world with his abstract and minimalist paintings. His work challenged traditional notions of art and opened up new possibilities for artistic expression.

One of Newman's chief artistic achievements was his exploration of the concept of "the sublime" in his artwork. He sought to evoke intense emotional experiences through his large-scale paintings, often consisting of bold, solid-colored fields and vertical lines. For example, his painting "Vir Heroicus Sublimis" (1950-1951) features a vast expanse of red with vertical stripes, aiming to invoke a sense of awe and grandeur.

During his lifetime, Newman was seen as an important artist for his ability to evoke deep emotions through his artworks. His large, immersive canvases invited viewers to experience a sense of transcendence and contemplation. Newman's work aimed to create a connection between the viewer and the artwork, encouraging introspection and reflection.

For A level students, exploring Barnett Newman's work can be an introduction to the power of minimalism and the use of colour and form to elicit emotional responses. His abstract paintings provide an opportunity to contemplate the meaning and purpose of art beyond representation. Additionally, studying Newman's artistic journey can foster an appreciation for the boldness of artistic experimentation and the potential for art to evoke profound experiences and feelings. 

Rothko's paintings went beyond mere representation; they aimed to evoke a deep emotional response from the viewer. His signature style involved layering thin veils of paint to create a sense of depth and luminosity. The colours, carefully chosen and arranged, were intended to envelop the viewer and elicit contemplation and introspection.

Rothko's work has been seen as important and influential for several reasons. Firstly, his abstract paintings challenged traditional notions of art by prioritizing the emotional and spiritual experience over-representation. Through his use of colour and form, Rothko sought to create a sense of transcendence and connection to something greater than oneself.

Secondly, Rothko's exploration of colour and its psychological impact paved the way for subsequent generations of artists to delve deeper into the expressive potential of colour in their own work. His emphasis on the power of colour as a means of communication and emotional expression continues to resonate with artists today.

During his lifetime, Rothko was seen as an important artist for his unique ability to create immersive and contemplative environments through his paintings. His work provoked a range of emotions and encouraged viewers to engage with the canvas on a deeply personal level.

For A level students, studying Mark Rothko's work provides an opportunity to explore the transformative power of colour and the capacity of art to evoke emotions and introspection. Rothko's abstract paintings invite viewers to reflect on their own experiences and engage with the nuances of colour and form. Additionally, his pioneering approach to abstract art encourages young artists to explore their own creative expression beyond representational art. 

Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was a highly influential American artist who played a significant role in the Abstract Expressionist movement. His unique artistic style and powerful paintings continue to captivate audiences with their immense scale and emotional depth.

One of Still's chief artistic achievements was his ability to convey intense emotions through his abstract compositions. His paintings often featured large areas of bold colour and jagged forms, creating a sense of drama and tension. For example, in his painting "1957-J No. 3," vibrant red and black shapes dominate the canvas, evoking a feeling of raw energy and intensity.

Throughout his career, Still explored different artistic phases. In his early works, such as "PH-4," he incorporated organic and biomorphic shapes inspired by nature. These paintings showcased a dynamic interplay of forms and colours, reflecting his interest in the expressive potential of shape and texture.

During the 1950s, Still developed his signature "lifelong style." His paintings during this phase were characterized by large, bold brushstrokes and areas of raw canvas left untouched. This technique created a powerful contrast between the textured areas and the stark canvas background. An example of this style is "1957-K No. 1," where sweeping strokes of deep blue and earthy browns dominate the canvas.

Still's work was highly influential for several reasons. Firstly, his large-scale paintings demanded attention and immersion from viewers, creating an intimate and intense visual experience. The monumental size of his canvases allowed viewers to be enveloped in his compositions, inviting them to contemplate and explore their own emotional responses.

Secondly, Still's ability to convey profound emotions through abstract art challenged traditional notions of representation. His work encouraged viewers to engage with their own interpretations and emotions, pushing the boundaries of what art could convey.

During his lifetime, Still was seen as an important artist for his uncompromising dedication to his artistic vision. He remained steadfast in his commitment to his work and resisted commercial pressures. His refusal to conform to market demands and his unwavering pursuit of his own artistic expression garnered respect and admiration from fellow artists and critics.

For A level students, exploring Clyfford Still's work offers an opportunity to delve into the power of abstract art and its ability to evoke emotions. Still's bold use of colour, texture, and scale can inspire young artists to experiment with their own creative expression and embrace the freedom of abstract art. Additionally, studying Still's commitment to artistic integrity can serve as a valuable lesson in staying true to oneself and pursuing individual artistic vision. 

• Karl Horst Hödicke is a contemporary German artist known for his Neo-Expressionist paintings of Berlin, the countryside, and imagined narratives. The artist’s broad brushstrokes and specific color palette provide his works with a sense of seeing a place through memory.

• “I consider myself a conservative artist, conservative in my approach, because as a figurative artist I’m convinced that art is about shaping a world as seen through your own eyes,” he has explained. Born on February 21, 1938 in Nuremberg, Germany, he and his family fled to Vienna in 1945. In 1957, Hödicke moved to Berlin, enrolling in the Technical University for architecture before transferring to the Hoschule der Künste, where he studied painting under Fred Thieler.

• By the mid-1960s, the artist was immersed in the milieu of the Neuen Wilden, alongside George Baselitz, Markus Lüpertz, and A.R. Penck. Hödicke has gone on to participate in numerous shows, including documenta 6 in 1977. He continues to live and work in Berlin, Germany. Today, the artist’s works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, and the Hamburger Banhof in Berlin, among others.

• Helmut Middendorf is a contemporary German painter. His large-scale, gestural paintings are brilliantly-colored and representational, populated by images of nightlife, sexuality, and emotion.

• “The use of color in painting doesn’t mean anything else than to entertain,” the artist has said. “When you paint, you want mainly to entertain and surprise yourself.” As a Neo-Expressionist, he studied under K.H. Hödicke, a painter and major player in Berlin’s Neo-Expressionist art scene. Middendorf’s earlier works retain a sense of tension, moving toward emotional detachment. He notably spent time in New York after receiving a grant from the German Academic Exchange Service in 1980.

• Born in Dinklage, Germany on January 28, 1952, he went on to exhibit his work all over the world, including the Studio D’Arte Canaviello in Milan, Galerie Elena Koroneou in Athens, and Art Frankfurt.

• Salomé is a contemporary German artist best known for his Neo-Expressionist figurative and abstract paintings. An early member of the Junge Wilde art group, along with Elvira Bach, his work involves themes of sexuality, power, and kitsch. Executed with choppy brushstrokes and bright colors, his work is inspired by German Expressionists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel. “We were rebelling against Minimalism,” the artist said. “We wanted to bring the human being back into art. To bring painting back to life.”

• Born Wolfgang Ludwig Cihlarz on August 24, 1954 in Karlsruhe, Germany, he studied architecture before enrolling at the University of Arts in Berlin where he was trained in painting under Ulrich Knipsel. Along with the artist Luciano Castelli he formed the punk band, Geile Teire, in 1980.

• Over the years his prominence and recognition as an artist have risen. His work has been exhibited at documenta 7 in Kassel and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Salomé currently lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

• Rainer Fetting is a contemporary German artist best known for his Neo-Expressionist paintings. His work is characterized by its gestural brushstrokes and bold use of color. Born on December 31, 1949 in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, the artist studied at the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.

• Alongside Bernd Zimmer, Salomé, Helmut Middendorf, and others, Fetting founded the influential Galerie am Moritzplatz in the city during the 1970s. He was also a member of the Junge Wilde, or Wild Youth, group during the 1980s, which included Albert Oehlen and Martin Kippenberger.

• Fetting cites the influence of Vincent van Gogh and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in his use of acidic colors and expressive lines. He currently lives and works between Berlin, Germany and New York, NY. Fetting’s works are held in the collections of the Portland Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt am Main, and the Belinische Galerie, among others.

• East Berlin and East Germany are shown as freezing cold and West Berlin and West Germany very hot. These paintings were based on an initial idea for a painting called 'Café Europa' by an Italian artist, Renato Guttuso. 

• Despite having a shaven head, shaped beard and a penchant for leather trousers and matching leather jacket, Immendorff became firm friends with the first president of Germany and rose to enjoy prominent patronage. 

• He died suddenly of a heart attack and in that moment, it transpired that he was a long time user of cocaine and prostitutes

• There was more than a strong whiff of scandal, and of corruption in high places, at the heart of the German establishment, but, since he had died, it was all easily covered up. 

• In the 1970s and 1980s, Anselm Kiefer created deep space landscapes that had a real sense of perspective snd deeper, recessional space. 

• At the time, that was a new development which had not been seen for some time. Modern art had been the process whereby things like deep perspective and representations of the world had slowly but surely been excluded from art: by the 1970s, modern are often represented one colour in a painting or had paint merely staining the surface.

• Kiefer painted the landscape of Germany as a deeply wounded surface full of the blood of previous conflicts and the broken plane upon which the Russian tanks rumble across to Harold the new third world war. 

• He also painted big paintings of pictures of buildings which are themselves recreations of unbuilt Nazi buildings. 

• Throughout the paintings, Kiefer wrote a broken mishmash of texts which refer to nursery rhymes, Wagner's operas, German poetry, Nazi battle plans, The poems of Paul Celan and a range of other references.

• BBC TV show from 1990s

• BBC TV show in relation to Royal Academy retrospective 2014

• Review of retrospective 2014

• More recently, Kiefer has used landscape to evoke the fields of Van Gogh paintings and the winter wastes of the Eastern front and a nuclear winter. London show at White Cube 2019