German1880–1938
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
A founder of Die Brücke in Dresden, who painted city streets and figures in harsh colour and jagged forms. He later lived in the Swiss mountains near Davos.
A life in paintings
- 1880Born
- 1905Die Brücke is founded
Four architecture students in Dresden start an artists’ group that becomes the core of German Expressionism.
- 1906Was influenced by Edvard MunchDresden
Munch's prints deeply influenced Die Brücke, the Dresden group Kirchner co-founded in 1905; Munch's 1906 Dresden exhibition is credited with pushing their woodcuts toward rougher, harsher, wood-grained forms. Kirchner named Munch and Van Gogh as touchstones.
Source: Britannica - 1914The First World War begins
War breaks out. Kirchner volunteers but suffers a breakdown and is discharged; he later moves to Switzerland.
- 1919
- 1927
- 1933The Nazis close the Bauhaus
Modern art is attacked in Germany as ‘degenerate’. Klee returns to Switzerland and Kandinsky moves to Paris.
- 1938Died
Kirchner cited Van Gogh (shown in Dresden in 1905) together with Munch as the painters who showed him how to turn inner conflict into colour and form.
Circles
Group · Dresden, later Berlin · 1905
Die Brücke
German Expressionist group founded in Dresden in 1905 by Kirchner, Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff and Bleyl; deeply influenced by Munch's prints.