"He has clarity in his humanness, in his present-ness: ‘I'm here, right now, and not for long.’"
Expressionism
Modersohn-Becker almost single-handedly invented a new genre in European modern art: the nude, female self-portrait.
Paula Modersohn-Becker, Self-Portrait Nude with Amber Necklace, ...
The German Expressionist Emil Nolde was particularly explicit in linking himself to a Nordic tradition.
Expressionism as Nordic?
Marc looked all the way back to a state of nature before humankind even existed.
Franz Marc and the animalization of art
Kandinsky believed that humankind was on the verge of a cataclysmic change from the current, materialistic epoch to an “Epoch of the Great Spiritual.”
Kandinsky, Apocalypse, Abstraction
The figure of the Blue Rider thus embodied the spiritual focus of the group as well as their belief that art plays an important social role in the struggle between good and evil.
Der Blaue Reiter
This portrait is one of thousands stolen by the Nazis, and its story shows that the madness didn’t end with WWII.
Nazi looting: Egon Schiele’s Portrait of Wally
Not a term chosen by the artists, it describes art that emphasized the emotional impact over descriptive accuracy.
Expressionism, an introduction
Kandinsky’s work of “total art” combines both abstract and representational images with rhythmic, mystical poetry.
Vasily Kandinsky, Klänge (Sounds)
In a series of multicolored prints, Nolde captured the awkward experience of watching a couple fight in public.
Emil Nolde, Young Couple
Kirchner’s claustrophobic city scene reflects on a culture where everything is for sale.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Berlin
The body’s expressive contortions reflect sculptural tradition, but Schiele used it to express the interior self.
Egon Schiele, Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait)
Is Schiele’s haunted figure meant to be a famed Austrian artist or Jesus Christ—or both?
Egon Schiele, The Hermits
Jawlensky rejected the principles of his arts education in order to embrace Expressionism at its most extreme.
Alexej von Jawlensky, Young Girl in a ...
Kirchner defines his city with only the figures: there is not a building in view.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden
What would this painting sound like? Yes, you read that right – this canvas blurs the lines between senses.
Vasily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (second version)
Kirchner is rendered unable to create or destroy in this nightmarish wartime painting.
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