Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938), founding member of the artist association “Brücke” (Bridge) and one of the most significant artists of Expressionism, had a lasting influence on the art of classic Modernism. Exhibition open 23 April to 25 July 2010.
The oeuvre of the painter, commercial artist and sculptor is being honored by the Städel Museum with the first comprehensive retrospective in Germany for 30 years, featuring over 180 works. “I am amazed at the power of my paintings in the Städel,” Kirchner wrote in his diary on 21 December 1925. Kirchner had close relations to both the Städel and Frankfurt. Not only was the Frankfurt Galerie Schames the venue in 1916 for one of the first Kirchner exhibitions, the Städel was also one of the first museums to buy paintings by Kirchner as early as 1919. Drawing on its very own Kirchner collection which, with numerous major works, numbers amongst the most significant worldwide, and thanks to high-quality international loans the exhibition is able to present works from all the artist’s periods. Alongside masterworks from the Brücke era with its nudes, the works from his years in Berlin with the famous street scenes, the paintings shaped by World War I that reflect Kirchner’s existential fears, and the Davos works depicting subjects from the Swiss mountains, the less well known work from the artist’s early and late period is also presented. For the first time the works that attracted such controversy executed during his late period in the “new style”, which startle the viewer with their uncompromising twodimensionality and a high degree of abstraction will be on view in Frankfurt together with his major works. The retrospective in the Städel Museum enables a new perspective of the startling modernity of Kirchner, whose excessive lifestyle was reflected in his art in an incomparable manner.
The exhibition will be presented as part of the “Phenomenon of Expressionism”, a project in collaboration with the Kulturfonds FrankfurtRheinMain. As main sponsor the latter also enabled the exhibition. As partners and sponsors Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and the Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne will also accompany the exhibition project.
www.staedelmuseum.de
