German expressonism

GERMAN EXPRESSONISM

(1905-1935)

Veronica Bennett

Natalie Oliver

Ellexus Montoya

CHARACTORISTICS

• Vivid color• Subjective• Distorted colors and images• agitated strokes/bold lines• Expresses emotion• Sets a mood• Exaggeration• Direct composition • Dramatic

Background

• Germany had become more industrial• World War I and II• Draft• Post Impressionism• Depression and debt in Germany

INFLUENCES• Vincent Van Gogh

– Post impressionism painter– Temperamental (crazy)– Used color to express emotion– Religious background

• Edvard Munch – Painter and printmaker– Inspired by African tribal art– Extremely psychological and emotional– Extremely religious background– Art explained childhood experiences/mental decline

Starry night

Cypresses

Bedroom at Arles

The Scream

Puberty

Die Brüke (1905-1913)• Means: “The Bridge”• Bridge between Germany’s past and future• Adresses social classes, wealth, German

nightlife, and chaos that reigned in their cities• Based in Dresden, Germany• Expressed radical social views • Inspired by the combination of traditional ,

African, Oceanic, Tribal, and Fauvism art. • Same values as romanticism

ARTISTS

• Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

• Ernst Kirchner• Erich Heckel• Fritz Bleyl• Emil Nolde

Schmidt- Rottluff• Printer, Painter, and Sculptor• Most independent of the group• Focused on landscapes (paintings and watercolors)• 1911- he migrated to Berlin • 1915- served on the Eastern Front• Began making religious woodcuts• Returned from the war and continues paintings and

watercolors• 1931-1933 art was removed from museums and

expelled from artist guild

Red Tower in a Park

Blooming Trees

Girl At The Mirror

Two Women

Kirchner• First created wood scluptures• After moving to Berlin, transitioned to

paintings of streets and scenes• Inspired by Primitivism• Drafted for WWI in 1915 but didn’t serve

due to a nervous breakdown• Returned to Berlin and was hit by a car• Recovered in Switzerland and painted

landscapes• Prior to WWII, the Nazi’s declared his work

“degenerate art” and confiscated it from museums.

• Kirchner went into depression and shot himself

Nude (dodo)

Berlin Street Scene

Judgment of Paris

Self Portrait as a Solider

Emile Nolde• Joined Die Brucke in 1906• Only stayed in the group for a few

months• Older and more conservative than the

other members of the group• Landscapes, seascapes, and biblical

themed paintings• His work reflected his strict Protestant

upbringing• Art was confiscated by Nazi’s as

“degenerate art”

Moonlit Night

Sunflowers

Candle Dancers

Crucifixion

Der Blaue Reiter (1911-1914)• Means “the Blue Rider”• Second expressionist group formed.• Formed in Munich, Germany • Formed by Russian Immigrants • lacked a central artistic manifesto • centered around Kandinsky and Marc• Spiritually inclined • Inject art with spiritual values using color• Broke up during WW1

ARTISTS

• Wassily Kandinsky

• Franz Marc

• August Macke

• Alexej von Jawlensky

Wassily Kandinsky

• Born in Russia but raised in Germany• Had the condition Synaesthesia• Blue was a important color to him• His links between music and art influenced his

experimentation with color • Gave up being a lawyer to devote himself to

painting • Art moved from depictions of realistic form

to the spiritual realms of abstraction

The Blue Rider

Murnau- View with railroad and castle

St. George II

Franz Marc

• Influenced by the Swiss animal painter: Jean Bole Niestle

• Had his own color theory• Deeply religious- Pantheistic• Almost always painted animals• When he and Macke died, Blau Reiter

Ended

Small Blue Horses

Deer in the Woods

The Tiger

Kammerspielfilm (chamber feature film)

• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari• Nosferatu (1922) • Film Trailer

• Metropolis(1926)