[ePub] The Social Logic of Space by Bill Hillier; Julienne Hanson at Arts-Photography

Description

The self-appointed ldquo;leaderrdquo; of the artistsrsquo; group Die Bruuml;cke (Bridge); founded in Dresden in 1905; Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a key figure in the early development of German Expressionism. His first works show the influence of Impressionism; Post-impressionism and Jugendstil; but by about 1909; Kirchner was painting in a distinctive; expressive manner with bold; loose brushwork; vibrant and non-naturalistic colours and heightened gestures. He worked in the studio from sketches made very rapidly from life; often from moving figures; from scenes of life out in the city or from the Die Bruuml;cke grouprsquo;s trips to the countryside. A little later he began making roughly-hewn sculptures from single blocks of wood. Around the time of his move to Berlin; in 1912; Kirchnerrsquo;s style in both painting and his prolific graphic works became more angular; characterized by jagged lines; slender; attenuated forms and often; a greater sense of nervousness. These features can be seen to most powerful effect in his Berlin street scenes. With the outbreak of the First World War; Kirchner became physically weak and prone to anxiety. Conscripted; he was deeply traumatised by his brief experience of military training during the First World War. From 1917 until his death by suicide in 1938; he lived a reclusive; though artistically productive life in the tranquillity of the Swiss Alps; near Davos.