Expressionism focused on conveying symbolic and emotional meaning through distorted figures, irregular shapes, and bright colors. Key influences included Van Gogh, Munch, and German Romanticism. Major expressionist groups included Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, whose founders like Kirchner, Heckel, Kandinsky, and Marc created emotionally charged works addressing modern life and the human condition. However, expressionism declined after World War I and was condemned by the Nazis, contributing to its demise in Germany in the 1920s-1930s.

1. Expressionism
(German)

2. Properties of Expressionism
• Focused on the symbolic, emotional and spiritual
meaning of art
• Artist’s inner world
• Expressionism is a state of mind, not a style
• Subjects appeared non-natural
– Distorted figures
– Irregular shapes
• Often contained social commentary
• Used bright color, dark lines, and bold shapes, to
help convey message

3. Starry Night
The Starry Night
Vincent Van Gogh (1889)

4. The Scream
Edvard
Munch (1893)

5. Influences
• Vincent Van •Symbolism
Gogh
•German
• Edvard Munch Romanticism
• James Ensor
•Economic and
Social Change in
Germany

6. The Old Peasant Woman
Paula Modersohn-Becker
(1905)

7. Assunta
Georg Kolbe
(1921)

8. The Survivors
Käthe Kollwitz
(1923)

9. Die
Brücke
(The
Bridge)

10. •Founded 1905, Dresden, Germany
•Founders: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl
Schmidt-Rottluff
•Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and
Otto Mueller joined later

11. •Depicted psychological pressure
of city life
•Influenced by the poetry of Walt Whitman,
Scandinavian and Russian literature
•Often had erotic and morbid overtones
•Very public with their ideas
•They thought they were revolutionaries

12. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
• Studied architecture
at the Dresden
Technical College
• Innovative
woodcutting
techiques

13. Street Life in Dancer with Raised Skirt
Dresden (1908) (1909-1910)
Lithograph Woodcut

14. Winter Landscape by Moonlight
Oil on Canvas (1919)

15. Emil Nolde
• Studied art at the
School of Applied Arts
in Karlsruhe
• Expressive colors and
brushstrokes

16. Loading Dock, Hamburg
Etching (1910)

17. The Prophet
Woodcut (1912)

18. Sunflowers
Oil on Canvas
(1932)

19. Max Pechstein
• Painted using
decorative colors
influenced by Van
Gogh and the Fauves
• Later incorporated
more primitive
aspects
• Mainly was a
printmaker

20. Under the Trees
Oil on Canvas (1911)

21. Dancer Reflected
in Mirror Woodcut (1913)

22. Der
Blaue
Reiter
(The Blue Rider)

23. Wassily Kandinsky
• Co-founder of Der
Blaue Reiter.
• Style stretched
between abstraction
and expressionism.
• Gave meanings to
shapes and colors.

24. Study for Painting with White Form
Oil on Canvas (1913)

25. Franz Marc
• Other co-founder.
• Mainly painted
animals – he saw
them as pure.
• Created his own color
theory based on red,
blue, and yellow.
• Later moved toward
abstractionism.

26. Yellow Cow
Oil on Canvas (1911

27. Animals in a Landscape
Oil on Canvas (1914)

28. Fighting Forms
Oil on Canvas (1914)

29. Oskar Kokoshka
• Austrian
expressionist.
• Mainly known for his
portraits – distorted
and allegorical.
• Focused on
portraying the psyche,
mentally sick people.

30. The Bride of the Wind
Oil on Canvas (1913-1914)

31. Demise of Expressionism
• Die Brücke • Der Blaue Reiter
– Kirchner and – Franz Marc and
Pechstein attempted August Macke were
to create a program to killed in combat during
teach modern painting 1914.
in art in 1911, failed in – Group disbanded
1912. shortly after.
– Kirchner wrote Brücke
Chronicle in 1913,
which ended the
group.

32. Demise of Expressionism
• Post-Expressionism rose to prominence in
1925.
• An announcement from the Kunstalle in
Manneheim ended Expressionism in 1925.
• Germany’s poor post-war economy and
condemnation by the Nazis in the 1930s
accelerated the decline, many artists fled
after being labeled “degenerate artists.”