German Expressionism: The Artist Group Br?cke and the Dawning of Modernism

Reverberations of the young rebels and influencers in the artist group Brücke.

The artist group Brücke is Germany’s most important contribution to international modernism. The group was formed in Dresden in 1905 by four young architecture students: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Otto Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Together they developed a painting style with vivid colors, simplified forms, and large color fields that express internal feelings rather than reproducing an external reality. The group disbanded in 1913, but their collaboration and marketing strategies have been inspirational for several generations of artists.

These young artists wanted to renew art and life in the German Imperial Empire and break with the prevailing moral norms of the day. They were interested in topics like man and nature; the naked body; portraits; self-portraits; the merging of life and art; and life in the vibrant metropolis of Berlin. In a time like the present, when a young generation feels the need for a new way of living, thinking, and organizing, reflecting on Brücke feels particularly relevant.
 

Iris Müller-Westermann is senior curator at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

Aya Soika is professor of art history at Bard College Berlin.