German Expressionism

German Expressionism was a modern art movement that emphasized subjective feeling through distortion, intense color, and simplified forms. It flourished in Germany in the early twentieth century across painting, printmaking, and other arts.

Die Brücke: An artists’ group founded in Dresden in 1905 that helped launch German Expressionism. Its raw forms and bold prints established one of the movement’s defining approaches.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: A German painter and printmaker who co-founded Die Brücke in 1905. His angular figures and urban scenes became emblematic of the group’s style.
Expressionism: An artistic approach that prioritizes subjective experience and emotional force over faithful depiction. German Expressionism is a national movement within this broader approach.
German Expressionist cinema: A German film movement of the 1910s and 1920s known for stylized sets, shadows, and psychologically charged imagery. Its distorted spaces translated Expressionist principles into cinematic design.
Degenerate art: A Nazi label for modern art condemned as culturally or racially unacceptable, used to justify its removal and suppression. The regime targeted Expressionist works and artists under this category.
Der Blaue Reiter: A Munich-based group of artists active from 1911, associated with spiritual and experimental approaches to modern art. Its members explored abstraction and color as vehicles for inner experience.
Emil Nolde: A German-Danish painter and printmaker associated with Expressionism and vivid, high-contrast color. His intense religious and landscape images show the movement’s forceful color at work.
Woodcut: A printmaking technique in which an image is cut into a wooden block and printed from its raised surface. Its hard contrasts and visible cuts suited the movement’s forceful graphic language.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: A 1920 German silent film directed by Robert Wiene, noted for painted, distorted sets and an unreliable narrative. Its angular scenery is a landmark example of Expressionist style in cinema.
Degenerate Art exhibition: A 1937 Nazi exhibition in Munich that displayed modern artworks for public ridicule. It presented Expressionist art as a political enemy and helped institutionalize its condemnation.

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