Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Revolutionary Colors and a Doomed Path
The exhibit at the Neue Galerie in New York is an outstanding exploration of the genius of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner with an emphasis on color in his work across different media. It is Kirchner’s resounding and rule breaking choices of color throughout his career that is breathtaking. His experiments over the years from the more subdued to the glaring and complementary use of colors speak to us in a vibrating and dream like voice on woodcuts, canvas and textiles.
He began painting and in 1905 and became part of the German Expressionist movement and considered himself a color person and that color was the building block of his work. He was noted for his inventive use of color in Expressionism and the art world. In the first World War in 1914, Kirchner volunteered to serve in the mounted artillery but in 1915 he suffered a mental and physical breakdown, a meltdown from reality. By this time Kirchner was drinking large amounts of Absinthe which is a powerfully strong 120 proof alcohol and in large quantities can be hallucinatory. He spent time on and off in sanatoriums. As he suffered from his fear of losing his identity as an artist at this time it seemed to propel him to create some of his most powerful images. “Self Portrait as a Soldier“(1915) is a brazen depiction of Kirchner in a soldier’s uniform with a severed arm with a loudness in color choice. Indeed when the artist did sleep he dreamt of intense colors: “I dream of blue against blue, yellow green, red, purple…….moonlit mountains…..olive green, pink, blue and black, purple brown shadow tones and ochre.”
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner had a wondrous revolutionary style as an artist and a doomed path in a rejecting Nazi Germany. His work was branded by the Nazi party as degenerate art in 1933. In 1937 Kirchner participated in a group exhibit entitled “Degenerate Art” which featured over 30 of his works. Later the art works of Kirchner were destroyed by the Nazi party, removed from museums across Germany and sold out of the country. He was expelled from the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin which ultimately many believe led to his suicide in the Swiss Alps in 1938.
His rebellious choices and his life is celebrated beautifully in this curation. His impact on art as a whole is tremendously powerful through his brazen choices and exploratory use of color.
