Expressive Woodcuts
«Brücke Style»
Manifesto of the Brücke Artists' Group, 1906
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Expressive Woodcuts
«Brücke Style»
2022/23
Galerie Henze & Ketterer
Wichtrach/Bern, Switzerland
It is programatic that the manifesto of the Brücke Artists' Group created by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1906, was carved in wood and printed as a woodcut.
"...Whoever renders directly and authentically that which impels him to create is one of us."
"Direct" and "authentic" creation as procalimed by the Brücke artists in the manifesto, are not only important characteristics of the artistic program but fundamental qualities inherent in the medium that was so important and popular among important members of artist group Brücke: Ernst Ludwig Kichner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff und Max Pechstein.
The woodcut motif is usually cut from the soft side grain of the wood and is less suitable for fine detail. Moreover, it is not the finely incised lines but rather the raised, uncut surfaces that are printed. Thus it was that the woodcut proved ideal for the typical boldness and flatness of style of the Brücke artists, and then in colour too. This “joint venture” into the woodcut by Kirchner, Heckel, Pechstein and Schmidt-Rottluff was to lead, by 1910, to the so-called “Brücke Style”, which came closest to their artistic ideal.
Vignette of the Brücke Artist's Group, 1906
woodcut, 28.8 x 22.2 cm (sheet)
source: moma.org
Manifesto of the Brücke Artists' Group, 1906
woodcut, 28.8 x 22.2 cm (sheet)
source: moma.org
Ludwig Schames
Kirchner's Art Dealer no.1
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Kopf Ludwig Schames (Head of Ludwig Schames)
1917
Woodcut
56,5 x 26,5 cm (image)
57 x 44,5 cm (sheet)
The print was created in the fall of 1918 for the "Vereinigung für Neue Kunst" (Association for New Art), Frankfurt a.M. from memory, perhaps also from a photograph, because Kirchner had not met Schames since his exhibition in Frankfurt a.M. in 1916. It was a commission from the Frankfurter Kunstverein, which wanted at least 120 prints as an annual gift. Kirchner printed the entire edition by hand, because in December 1918 in his house "In den Lärchen" in Frauenkirch his printing press was not yet available to him. This resulted in fine deviations in the printed image, giving the individual sheets the character of unique specimens. The sheet is one of the most sought-after woodcuts in the master's entire graphic oeuvre.
The before/after slider below shows an example of how different the hand-pulled prints are:
Schames & Kirchner - A Success Story
Ludwig Schames was Kirchner's art dealer in Frankfurt a. M. and showed major Kirchner exhibitions in 1916, 1919, 1920 and 1922. For Schames, the collaboration with Kirchner was the high point of his activity as an art dealer. The five major exhibitions were all accompanied by a catalog, designed by Kirchner. Schames sold Kirchner's works well - both to museums and to private individuals. Even before the first exhibition, one painting - "Taunuspark" (1916) - went to the Kunstmuseum in Essen; Kirchner himself had donated it to the Essen museum together with Carl Hagemann, soon to become his most important collector and patron, thus achieving his first ever placement in a museum.
Far more extensive, however, were Schame's sales of Kirchner works to private collectors. Carl Hagemann and the couple Ludwig and Rosy Fischer were among the dealer's best customers, who had the greatest interest in Kirchner.
Andreas Hausert, Freund und Vermittler der Expressionisten Ludwig Schames und sein Frankfurter Kunstsalon, in: Expressionismus im Rhein-Main-Gebiet, edited by Museum Giersch, exhibition catalog, Frankfurt a. M. 2011, 232-241.
The death of Ludwig Schames
Ludwig Schames died in 1922 in his 70th year. Kirchner was on very friendly terms with Schames; after the art dealer's death, Kirchner had his portrait woodcut reproduced in the Berlin magazine "Der Querschnitt" and wrote underneath:
« That was the art dealer Ludwig Schames, the fine disinterested friend of art and artists. In the noblest way, he made it possible for me and many others to create and live. We lose in him the person who was unique as a good father, a friend, a subtle understanding promoter of the art of our time»
(source: arthistoricum.net)
«Roquairol»
A Portrait of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Erich Heckel
Roquairol (Portrait of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner)
1917
Woodcut
31,6 x 24,2 cm (image)
70,5 x 55,8 cm (sheet)
The woodcut "Roquairol" was made by Erich Heckel in 1917 as a portrait of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Roquairol as a character comes from the novel "Titan" (1800-1803) by Jean Paul. The motif of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner as Roquairol can also be found in Heckel's painting of the same name which, like the woodcut, was also created in 1917 and can be seen today in the Brücke Museum Berlin.
60 years later Berlin provides the scene of pop-historical events, which is closely linked to the artist group Brücke and an enfant terrible of our time: David Bowie. Bowie visited Berlin in 1977 where he recorded his famous "Heroes" album. During this time, Bowie visited the Brücke Museum and studied works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel.
The contorted physicality in the latter's painting Roquairol (1917) even inspired Heroes' iconic and enigmatic album cover.
«The Lord's Prayer»
Processing the war
Max Pechstein
The Lord's Prayer
1921
12 woodcuts in a folder
B Edition, 121/250
41 x 60 cm
The The Lord's Prayer was divided by Max Pechstein into eleven sentences or parts of sentences, to each of which a woodcut with full text is dedicated.
Religious themes were rather foreign to the Brücke artists. The experience of World War I changed that, at least for Heckel, Pechstein, and Schmidt-Rottluff. Otto Mueller sublimated religiosity in his depictions of the travelers he rode with and in his landscapes, built like cathedrals. Emil Nolde's Christian-religious imagery must be seen in the context of his overall mythology. Based on his war experiences as a nurse in Flanders, Erich Heckel created his famous "Madonna of Ostend" (Hüneke 1915-6 destroyed) on two tarpaulins there. Schmidt-Rottluff on the basis of his experiences in the vastness of Russia in 1917/18 the equally famous "Christus Mappe", a woodcut sequence with scenes from the New Testament related to the special twilight of the gods in 1918.
Max Pechstein returned to Zwickau via Rotterdam in August 1916 from his trip to the South Seas. He then also performed war service in Flanders on the so terrible "Western Front", which he depicted directly and immediately, but also in the years after. After some individual religious themes interspersed in the work, his Creed then follows in 1921:
The Lord's Prayer could hardly have ever been depicted more forcefully and more obviously for every nuance of the short text.
Pagan Tribal Art
& Christian Iconography
Karl Schmidt-Rottluf
Jünger (disciple)
1918
Woodcut
50,1 x 40,5 cm (image)
66,4 x 52 (sheet)
Schmidt-Rottluff concluded his cycle of scenes from the New Testament "1918, ist euch nicht Kristus erschienen" (1918, did not Kristus appear to you) with a head, which he titled "Jünger" (Disciple) and to which he gave his own features - already easily recognizable by the characteristic beard cut.
This last sheet, after eight scenes from the life of Christ, he dedicated to a disciple, the following of Christ, program for him and the world as the quintessence of what he had experienced in the past four years in war. Jünger is sheet 9 of the portfolio "Schmidt-Rottluff, 9 woodcuts" (Kurt Wolff Publisher Munich 1918, printed in Leipzig by Drugulin.
«The desire to tell the unspeakable urges the creation of religious motifs.»
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff began to work intensively on religious pictorial themes during the First World War. The motifs included figures and scenes from the Old and New Testaments and non-biblical representations such as images of saints or the great prophetess. The print blocks were created from 1917 to 1919 and are associated with the war and the postwar period. During the years of the war, he created exclusively printing blocks and wooden sculptures. Schmidt-Rottluff found the material for his artistic work in the forests between Vilnius and Kovno, where he was stationed in 1916.
Image: Karl Schmidt Rottluff. Die Holzstöcke, edited by Magdalena M. Moeller, Brücke-Museum Berlin, Hirner 2011, 96.
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was stationed in the press office in Kowno, Lithuania, during World War I. He was lucky enough to be able to continue working as an artist during this time. In addition to some landscape depictions and religious motifs, he also created the portrait of a girl from Kowno.
Like his portraits in the previous years, this one shows hardly any individualized facial features. The face is more reminiscent of the exotic masks of the South Seas, which inspired the artists of the "Brücke" to create their works. In Kowno, Schmidt-Rottluff also created more than 40 sculptures, including numerous heads that are based on African models, among others. The present woodcut is therefore to be seen in the context of the sculptures created at the same time.
«The inspiration by African models, which already characterized the figurative representations before the war, is now all the more remarkable: Schmidt-Rottluff brings together the design of pagan tribal art with Christian pictorial themes.»
Image: Karl Schmidt Rottluff. Die Holzstöcke, edited by Magdalena M. Moeller, Brücke-Museum Berlin, Hirner 2011, 110.
Image: Karl Schmidt Rottluff. Die Holzstöcke, edited by Magdalena M. Moeller, Brücke-Museum Berlin, Hirner 2011, 122.
