With the angular figures, intense colours and simplified, yet very atmospheric background, Kirchner succeeded in ‘ creating new appearances of things‘ in these paintings, especially ‘ Street, Berlin‘ and ‘ Potsdamer Platz‘ we see Berlin not how it technically looked like in early 1910s, but rather through these twisted perspectives and vibrancy we see, or feel, a whole mood of the city a decadent spirit captured for eternity. Daring brush strokes and harmonies, along with angular figures and night street scenes characterised Kirchner’s Berlin years. His artistic sensibilities, caught up in the city’s dynamism led to an increased sensitivity of the form, colour and expression. Landscape of his paintings was the one of vibrant colours, intensity, with the emphasis on movement, and the capturing of the intensity and urgency of the city. Later however, his paintings showed an uneasy balance between the excitement with the city and the alienation he felt living in it. Walls of his new studio-apartment in Berlin were soon decorated with primitivist hangings, Ajanta- inspired wall paintings and African sculptors he carved himself.īerlin in those years was just what Kirchner was looking for with the crowded cafes, different venues, interesting people, lively circuses and cabarets, the city proved to be very alluring for him, and the initial excitement with the life in Berlin was evident in his early works. We’ve become a large family and you can get everything you need – women and shelter.” Kirchner himself arrived there with his then new girlfriend Erna Schilling who helped him in re-creating the atmosphere of his studio in Dresden. Luxury and anxious energy of Berlin, the Hauptstadt of Decadence, were perfectly captured by Kirchner who said of Berlin ” You’ll be totally surprised when you set foot in Berlin. Kirchner moved to Berlin and started a new phase in his artistic endeavors vivid street scenes with prostitutes and elegantly dressed men, chic streetwalkers with angular faces all presented in brilliant pinks, purples, blues and blacks, with heavy brush strokes accentuating the dynamic, hectic and urban mood of the decadent city. “ A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things.” Moonrise over the Sea – Caspar David Friedrich, 1822 Gothic Church on a Rock by the Sea – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, 1815 Tilla Durieux als Circe – Franz Stuck, 1900 Rheinbrücke in K öln, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Bohemian (or Lise the Bohemian), 1868Įrnst Ludwig Kirchner – Nollendorfplatz, 1912Ĭharing Cross Bridge – Claude Monet, 1899 Or maybe I won’t.Įrnst Ludwig Kirchner – Potsdamer Platz, 1914īoulevard Montmartre, effet de nuit by Pissarro, 1898Ĭhez le père Lathuille – Edouard Manet, 1879 Who knows, maybe I’ll write about one of them soon. Here are some other artworks that I’ve seen. His dynamic brush strokes and vibrant colours continue to amaze me. A few painting caught my attention the most, among them the works of Kirchner, especially the one called ‘Potsdamer Platz’. I’ve visited the Alte Nationalgalerie and I’ve seen the ‘Im-Ex’ exhibition, along with the museum’s permanant collection of German Romanticism and lots of other things. I think I left a little piece of my soul somewhere out there, on those beautiful cobble streets and wide avenues. I’ve seen such diversities and vibrancy, a bunch of individualists, drunken people, an eclectic mix of cultures, architectural splendor from frightening and modern building on Potsdamer Platz to lovely residential buildings on Wedding to the beautiful Schloss Charlottenburg. Even though I’ve been to Berlin a few times, this time seems to have been magical. and Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo, Marlene Dietrich, Christopher Isherwood and his Weimar Berlin, industrial rock sound of the Einstürzende Neubauten, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and other expressionists. I haven’t felt so good, so full of energy and inspiration, so rapturous and alive for a long time! I came to Berlin with thoughts of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, Christiane F. Last three weeks I was in Berlin, visiting my family.
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