Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a member of the group Die Brücke, a precursor leading to the establishment of Expressionism as an artistic movement. This particular painting is a group portrait consisting of founding members Otto Mueller, Kirchner, Heckel, and Schmidt.

Fundamentally, we have a painting that is communicating its subject through figures and their interactions.  Throw out all of the context and look at what is there.  The variety in the orientation of the figures, their relative awkwardness and confidence tells a good amount about their sensibilities or personalities.  Being a rather expressive painting the figures are also possibly indicative of an artistic sensibility they possess in their own work.  It is easy to read into the group dynamics in a painting like this, especially when they are crammed into a constricting space.  The ideology of the group must have had a profound impact on Kirchner in order for him to paint them all as a subject.  It reminds me of Liang Kai in that Kirchner paints his group in the style which the group championed, as Kai did with Zen painting and the sixth patriarch.

Color in this painting is of a cool jazzy nature, possibly reflective of a night life.  It is a composition of cluster and containment, which serves to illustrate a pressure upon the group and the appearance of being pushed into the back corner of a gallery expressing some kind of esotericism amongst themselves.  The bottom of the picture plane is an interesting space as well, because it is radial except for the right figure breaking this compositional device by directing his foot outside the group.  This could also be symbolic of the group dynamic.

Kirchner is a painter of great interest.  It is unfortunate that due to war and the label of “degenerate” he eventually took his own life shortly after the Nazi’s confiscated 600 of his paintings.  He exemplifies the idea that painting should speak for themselves.  It is a common misconception that people need to know much about art to enjoy a painting.  All you have to do is look.