Brücke

Brücke

<strong>Bridging the gap: The onset of Expressionism</strong><br /><br />In the German city of Dresden on June 7, 1905, the foundation of the <strong>Die Brücke</strong> artists’ group (1905–1913) is widely regarded as the birth of Expressionism. Led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, the group sought to reject the limits of academia and, as their name suggested, <strong>to bridge the path to an artistic future</strong>. Their manifesto, printed with woodblock, insisted on absolute freedom from convention in their work as well as their lives.<br /><br />This new, liberated art incorporated portraits, landscapes, and city scenes, but <strong>substituted an objective rendering of reality with an expression of interior geography</strong>. In paintings, as well as their favored wood and linocut prints, the artists of Die Brücke would fill pictorial space with <strong>jagged lines, crude forms, and clashing colors</strong>, all to express their subjective experience of the world. Like the Fauves, the artists took stylistic lead from non-Western traditions of Oceanic and African arts, while also reviving the print and painting techniques of Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder.<br /><br />This richly illustrated book introduces this <strong>essential expressionist movement</strong>. We examine Die Brücke’s key works and protagonists; its varied, international inspirations; and its crucial influence on later 20th century art. Along the way, we find candid nudes, crowded street views, and blissful bathing idylls, each of them <strong>vivid with energy and intent on a new kind of art</strong>.<br /><br /><strong>About the series:</strong><br />Each book in TASCHEN’s Basic Genre series features:<ul> <li> approximately 100 color illustrations with explanatory captions <li> a detailed illustrated introduction plus a timeline of the most important political, cultural, and social events that took place during that period <li> a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a two-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist</ul>