German Expressionism (art movement)

German expressionism is an artistic movement that emerged among the artists of early twentieth-century Germany. It gave birth to the larger expressionist movement, an artistic style that used distorted, swirling colors and shades meant to evoke anxious and unsettled emotions. The movement was named for the artists’ interpretation of their innermost feelings and the expression of those feelings in their work. In the movement’s early days, German expressionists used their art to mirror the fears and uncertainties they saw in a changing modern world. In the years after World War I (1914–1918), expressionism became a protest against the government and the cultural establishment. The expressionist period is usually considered to have lasted from about 1905 to 1935. While it is most often used to describe artwork, the expressionist style also influenced the architecture, theater, and film of the period.

Background

Since the time of the Renaissance in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many of the shifting art movements were born as a rebellion against previous artistic traditions. In the mid-nineteenth century, most artists used a precise, realistic approach that sought to capture the natural world in exact detail. During the 1860s and 1870s, a group of French artists rejected this style and began to abandon precision for less detailed imagery. They used quick, subtle brushstrokes meant to evoke the spontaneous “impression” the subject left upon the artist. As a result, this art movement became known as Impressionism. Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Édouard Manet preferred to paint outdoors, trying to capture the sensory effects of light and color on the open-air environment.

In the 1880s, an artistic movement known as post-impressionism developed as a response to the impressionists. Post-impressionism was a more abstract style that portrayed reality through the emotions of the artist. Rather than present art as a depiction of the natural world, post-impressionism presented a glimpse into how the artist saw the world. One of the most influential post-impressionist artists was Vincent van Gogh, whose 1889 work The Starry Night featured a natural landscape painted in abstract form awash in swirling colors.

Overview

By the first decade of the twentieth century, many artists in Germany felt trapped by the constraints placed upon them by the artistic community. At the same time, they were part of a changing modern world that saw the growth of new technology and a population shift to the cities. To express this growing feeling of unease, artists turned away from the realism favored by the impressionists and drew inspiration from the emotional styles of the post-impressionists. The term expressionism was believed to have been first used by art historian Antonin Matejcek in 1910 to denote a style in direct contrast to impressionism.

German expressionism first developed in 1905 when four students from Dresden formed a group known as Die Brücke (The Bridge). The students—Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Erich Heckel—were studying architecture but had designs on becoming painters. The artists were heavily influenced by van Gogh and other post-impressionists. Their work featured unnatural-looking colors, bold outlines, and distorted forms in an attempt to evoke an emotional response. They often used the city streets as a backdrop, capturing what they saw as the alienation and disconnected nature of urban life. Among the group’s works were Street, Berlin, painted in 1913 by Kirchner, and 1909’s Reclining Woman by Heckel.

In 1911, another expressionist group—Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider)—was formed in Munich. The group drew its name from the work of one of its most famous members, Russian-born artist Wassily Kandinsky. Der Blaue Reiter infused its art with themes of spirituality, using abstract shapes, symbolism, and bright colors. Other artists in the group included Franz Marc, Paul Klee, and August Macke. While with the group, Kandinsky painted Cossacks in 1911, and Marc was known for several works, including Little Blue Horse in 1912. Der Blaue Reiter was only together for three years, as Marc and Macke were drafted into the German army at the start of World War I. Both were later killed.

World War I lasted four years, killing millions and devastating Europe. The conflict and Germany’s ultimate defeat caused major upheaval in the nation. As a result of the war, new art movements such as Dada and surrealism sprang up. Dada was meant to shock and upend the art world, while surrealism embraced the absurd quality of dreamlike images. In this atmosphere, expressionism also shifted its focus. German artists Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Max Beckmann formed the expressionist group Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) in 1920. The art produced by Neue Sachlichkeit was less sentimental and more objective than previous expressionist works. Their depictions of city dwellers and urban scenes were tinged with bitterness toward the German government and were seen as satirical comments on post-war life. Among the group’s notable works were 1920s Skat Players (Card-Playing War Cripples) by Dix and Pillars of Society, a 1926 work by Grosz.

The emotional context of expressionism was not limited to early twentieth-century painting. The style could also be found in the innovative and unusual building forms used in expressionist architecture. A style known as brick expressionism used bricks or cinder blocks as a primary building material. German expressionist film mixed sharp, tilted camera angles with dark, brooding shadows to create unsettling visual elements. Films such as 1920s gothic horror classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and 1922’s vampire tale Nosferatu became landmarks in cinema history.

German expressionism became fractured and diluted with other art forms in the post-war years and eventually died out by the 1930s. It experienced somewhat of a rebirth in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. This style, known as neo-expressionism, also used intense brushstrokes and bright, contrasting, and unnatural colors to elicit an emotional response from its audience. Among the most well-known German neo-expressionists is Georg Baselitz, who is known for his 1982 work Adieu, among many others. In the twenty-first century, scholarly interest in German expressionism continued, and exhibitions continued to be held at museums, such as the Tate Modern in England and the National Gallery in Washington, DC. The legacy of German expressionism can also be found in contemporary art movements. 

Bibliography

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“Expressionism.” The Art Story, www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Figura, Starr, et al. German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse. The Museum of Modern Art, 2011.

“German Expressionism.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/g/german-expressionism. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“German Expressionism (c. 1905–35).” Encyclopedia of Art History, www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/german-expressionism.htm. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

“German Expressionist Architecture.” Fostinum, www.fostinum.org/german-expressionist-architecture.html. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Gotthardt, Alexxa. “The German Expressionists’ Shockingly Raw Work Exploded Bourgeois Values and Reinvented Art.” Artsy, 31 Aug. 2018, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-german-expressionists-shockingly-raw-work-exploded-bourgeois-values-reinvented-art. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.

Snow, Emily. “Expressionists Exhibition to Open This Week at Tate Modern.” The Collector, 23 Apr. 2024, www.thecollector.com/expressionists-exhibition-opens-at-tate-modern. Accessed 3 Dec. 2024.