Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden, oil on canvas, 1908 (Museum of Modern Art, New York)

Key points:

• Street, Dresden emphasizes the dynamism of urban life in Germany in the early twentieth century, depicting the swirling crowds and electric lights of the modern city.
• It recalls the isolation and psychological angst explored by earlier nineteenth-century artists, but reflects the twentieth-century move toward greater expressionism in color and open brushwork.
• Kirchner and other Die Brücke artists were influenced by Nietzsche’s ideas about breaking apart morality and conventions in modern Germany.

Additional resources:

View this work in MoMA’s collection

Expressionism and city life from MoMAlearning

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