Monday, February 27, 2006

The stars of Berlin: Brücke-Museum





The world's largest collection of works by this expressionist society includes roughly 400 paintings as well as thousands of hand drawings, watercolours, and original graphics, including masterpieces of wood engraving.

Bussardsteig 9

14195 Berlin-Zehlendorf
Phone:+ 49 30 831 20 29
www.bruecke-museum.de
Bruecke-Museum@t-online.de

Die Brücke or The Bridge - A group of German Expressionist artists based in Dresden and Berlin between 1905 and 1913, mostly painters, they depicted landscapes, nudes, and carnival performers in strong colours and broad forms. They also revived the German woodcut tradition, but as a form of personal expression.

Die Brücke is German for "The Bridge," and was not intended to be a style, but as a bridge toward a better future. They lived and worked as a community, in emulation of the guilds of the Middle Ages. Die Brücke was founded by four architecture students: Fritz Bleyl (1880-1966), Ernst Kirchner (1880-1938), Erich Heckel (1883-1970), and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976); other members included Emil Nolde (1867-1956) and Kies van Dongen.

German Expressionism

Erich Heckel
Marshland in Dangast - 1907
48 Χ 77 cm

Oil on canvas

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Street Scene in Berlin - 1913
121 Χ 95 cm

Oil on canvas

Emil Nolde
Mocking of Christ - 1909

88 Χ 106 cm
Oil on canvas