»FARBENMENSCH« KIRCHNER
With 19 works by
the Pinakothek der Moderne
houses the most extensive collection of paintings in Germany by the
Expressionist painter who is considered one of the most influential artists of
the 20th century. Although Kirchner made a significant contribution to the
revolutionary use of colour as a pioneering »Brücke« artist, he has hardly been
recognised as a »colour person« to date.
The exhibition explores the
systematic and experimental path to colour that Ernst Ludwig Kirchner followed
and his analysis of the colour theory tradition so controversially discussed
around 1900. Kirchner modified the latest industrially manufactured tube paints
in a particular way to achieve a matte but simultaneously intensive brilliance
in his painting that, in retrospect, he proudly emphasised was his
»identification mark«.
The basis of this exhibition (22.05.2014 - 31.08.2014) is a joint research project carried out in collaboration with the
internationally renowned Doerner Institut at the Bayerische
Staatsgemäldesammlungen, among others, during which a thorough examination of
Kirchner’s paintings and the techniques he used was undertaken from 2009
onwards. This was the first time the work of an Expressionist painter had been
the subject of a systematic, art-technological research. It does justice to
Kirchner’s varied, contradictory and continuously evolving oeuvre that remains
fascinating to this day.
In addition to the aspect of
colour, the exhibition enables the underdrawings and paint layers hidden
beneath the surface of the pictures to be seen using ultraviolet, infrared and
x-ray photography, providing an insight into the way the artist worked and how
his major paintings such as »Circus«, »Dance School« and »Self-Portrait as a
Sick Person« were created. In contrast to the stereotypical notion of the
immediacy of Expressionist painting, Kirchner’s work proves to be precisely
planned and carefully developed – even if its appearance suggests a certain
spontaneity. With great technical refinement the artist succeeded in
transferring the speed and openness of his sketches into his oil paintings that
continue to fascinate us more than a hundred years after they were created through
the vitality and directness of their paint application.
A special focus of the
exhibition will be Kirchner’s continuous self-reflection and self-correction
evident in his work. For the first time, the presentation of both the front and
back of selected paintings at the Pinakothek der Moderne allows the painted
reverse of canvases to be examined as well. Traces of
reworkings and overpainting provide the opportunity of presenting yet another
of Kirchner’s unusual practices – the correction of his earlier work and its
adaptation to his current style. Loaned drawings, sketch books, prints and photographs
testify to the artist’s great talent and his interest in depicting pictorial
motifs in a variety of different media.
The exhibition brings together
some 90 works, including important loans from public collections such as the
Kirchner Museum Davos, the Städel Museum Frankfurt am Main, the Staatsgalerie
Stuttgart, the Kunsthalle Bremen and the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Estate in
Wichtrach/Bern, as well as from major private collections in Germany and
Switzerland.
The research project and
exhibition have been generously sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research. The joint project was carried out with the Doerner Institut at
the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in cooperation with the Staatliche Akademie
der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart and the Kirchner Museum Davos, as well as the
Schweizerisches Institut für Kunstwissenschaft in Zurich. (Text: Pinakothek der Moderne)