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拍品專文
In 1925, Kirchner rediscovered a canvas he had used in 1910 for a studio picture, and painted a Davos street scene on its reverse. These two very different paintings, with their vastly different subjet matter and contrasting painterly techniques, pay homage to the exceptional versatility, innovation and strength displayed by Kirchner's body of work.
Painted in 1925, Nächtliches Straßenbild is part of Kirchner's late, mature oeuvre, executed after he had moved to Switzerland. He left his native Germany after a nervous breakdown, resulting from his experiences in the army during the First World War, and found solace in Davos, which became his Swiss refuge. When Nächtliches Straßenbild was painted, he had already been living there for several years, although in 1923 he had moved from Davos to an even more secluded and rural haven found in a farmhouse at Wildboden. The year Nächtliches Straßenbild was painted, Kirchner had assisted Will Grohmann, who had been intensely active on the publication of the master's second monography. In 1925, Kirchner had also published an article about his sculpture in the magazine Cicerone. Both activities suggest an important revision and re-evaluation of his corpus - a pivotal research, leading to the reconsideration and direct 'repainting' of his past canvases. More important, however, was Kirchner's 1925 return to his homeland. It was the first since his departure for Switzerland. In 1925, he made a few trips to Germany, in part to cement his reputation at 'home'. He also visited the Internationale Kunstaussstellung in Zurich, although, like his friend and fellow painters, he had not been invited to exhibit. His visit was evidently for research purposes. The major movements and artistic innovations of the time, especially abstract art, had a great impact on his own output. Although returning to a theme he had first introduced in 1913, the streetscenes of Dresden and Berlin (see fig.1), Kirchner's late style paid tribute to the most radical and newest developments in Western art, whilst conveying all the weight of a symbolic, personal return to his German roots. Moving away from his former agitated, hatched brushstrokes towards a more balanced juxtaposition of planes of colour, his 1920s compositions achieve an architectural monumentality which is almost abstract in its classical rythms.
The subject of the passersbys, of strangers; the focus on the individual in the metropolis, fascinated Kirchner throughout his life and career. In his 1913 oil (fig. 1), his street images were dense in structure and composition, thus intensifying the claustrophobic nature of the scenes. While the subject matter in terms of streetscene is the same in Nächtliches Straßenbild and the other street paintings from the 1920s, the content and atmosphere has radically changed. In his later streetscenes, the tense and fraught interaction of the earlier works has been replaced by a sense of distance and isolation. Kirchner depicts the street full of passersbys juxtaposed one to another - yet there is no rapport, no link between the figures. The canvases are populated, almost crowded - yet there is no interaction between the figures. In Nächtliches Straßenbild, two women walk towards the viewer, away from the group of men behind them, thus suggesting an even more dramatic distance between the solitary individuals.
Kirchner's earlier street scenes are sharp social frescoes, depicting the multifacious aspect of pre-war Germany with a biting tone. In his later pictures, however, the tone appears less violent. Nächtliches Streßenbild shows a less caustic observation of the city and diplays a less radical political and social comment. In Berliner Strassenbild of 1913 (fig. 1), prostitutes and cocottes represent a world that Kirchner severely criticised, whereas in the street scenes painted in Davos, he is nostaligcally recalling his former home, and the past he was compelled to renounce to. The later paintings could be inhabited by somebody he knew, an old friend or neighbour, capturing the yearning he had to be accepted in his native land.
Zwei Akte im Studio, the painting on the verso of the canvas, executed in 1910, stems from the time of the first significant successes of the Brücke. The Galerie Arnold had held an important exhibition for the artists of the Brücke in 1910 and their art first began to assert a clear and unique identity of its own. Zwei Akte im Studio is a classic example of Die Brücke art. The Brücke artists' studios - which each artist studiously decorated and adorned with exotic and primitive motifs and designs, represented an alternative environment to that of everyday modern Dresden and a revolutionary response to the bourgeois norm. The enclosed world of their ateliers allowed the artists to indulge their atavistic desires for a more direct, real and primitive lifestyle, in accordance with the natural world. Both the reaction to the norms and moralities of the bourgeois world and the embracing of the cult of nudity, which became one of their favourite devises, are reflected in the subject matter of 'Zwei Akte im Studio'. The nudes are presented as vital and real alternatives to the academic models of the period and yet, at the same time, they have the pure beauty and primitive dignity of the African deities depicted in the textiles decorating their bohemian ateliers. Gustav Schirfefler left a memorable description of the decoration of Kirchner's studio in the Berlinerstrasse in 1910: "Out of necessity he had rented a remarkable studio in a Dresden suburb, a narrow shop which had a large glass window to the street and a small adjacent space that served as a bedroom. These rooms were fantastically decorated with coloured textiles which he had made using the batik technique; with all sorts of exotic equipment and wood carving by his own hand. A primitive setting, born of necessity but nevertheless strongly marked by his own taste. He lived a disorderly lifestyle here according to bourgeois standards, simple in material terms, but highly ambitious in his artistic sensitivity. He worked feverishly, without noticing the time of day... everyone that comes into contact with him, must respond with strong interest to this total commitment to his work and derive from it a concept of true artist" (G. Schiefler, cited in Postkarten an Gustav Schiefler, ed. G. Schack, Hamburg, 1976, p. 80).
In Zwei Akte im Raum, there are echoes of Matisse's work but the swift dramatic brushwork which Kirchner returned to and strengthened in 1920, and the strong composition of the work placing the viewer in close proximity to the models, establish this painting as being more forceful and direct than anything painted by the French masters.
Painted in 1925, Nächtliches Straßenbild is part of Kirchner's late, mature oeuvre, executed after he had moved to Switzerland. He left his native Germany after a nervous breakdown, resulting from his experiences in the army during the First World War, and found solace in Davos, which became his Swiss refuge. When Nächtliches Straßenbild was painted, he had already been living there for several years, although in 1923 he had moved from Davos to an even more secluded and rural haven found in a farmhouse at Wildboden. The year Nächtliches Straßenbild was painted, Kirchner had assisted Will Grohmann, who had been intensely active on the publication of the master's second monography. In 1925, Kirchner had also published an article about his sculpture in the magazine Cicerone. Both activities suggest an important revision and re-evaluation of his corpus - a pivotal research, leading to the reconsideration and direct 'repainting' of his past canvases. More important, however, was Kirchner's 1925 return to his homeland. It was the first since his departure for Switzerland. In 1925, he made a few trips to Germany, in part to cement his reputation at 'home'. He also visited the Internationale Kunstaussstellung in Zurich, although, like his friend and fellow painters, he had not been invited to exhibit. His visit was evidently for research purposes. The major movements and artistic innovations of the time, especially abstract art, had a great impact on his own output. Although returning to a theme he had first introduced in 1913, the streetscenes of Dresden and Berlin (see fig.1), Kirchner's late style paid tribute to the most radical and newest developments in Western art, whilst conveying all the weight of a symbolic, personal return to his German roots. Moving away from his former agitated, hatched brushstrokes towards a more balanced juxtaposition of planes of colour, his 1920s compositions achieve an architectural monumentality which is almost abstract in its classical rythms.
The subject of the passersbys, of strangers; the focus on the individual in the metropolis, fascinated Kirchner throughout his life and career. In his 1913 oil (fig. 1), his street images were dense in structure and composition, thus intensifying the claustrophobic nature of the scenes. While the subject matter in terms of streetscene is the same in Nächtliches Straßenbild and the other street paintings from the 1920s, the content and atmosphere has radically changed. In his later streetscenes, the tense and fraught interaction of the earlier works has been replaced by a sense of distance and isolation. Kirchner depicts the street full of passersbys juxtaposed one to another - yet there is no rapport, no link between the figures. The canvases are populated, almost crowded - yet there is no interaction between the figures. In Nächtliches Straßenbild, two women walk towards the viewer, away from the group of men behind them, thus suggesting an even more dramatic distance between the solitary individuals.
Kirchner's earlier street scenes are sharp social frescoes, depicting the multifacious aspect of pre-war Germany with a biting tone. In his later pictures, however, the tone appears less violent. Nächtliches Streßenbild shows a less caustic observation of the city and diplays a less radical political and social comment. In Berliner Strassenbild of 1913 (fig. 1), prostitutes and cocottes represent a world that Kirchner severely criticised, whereas in the street scenes painted in Davos, he is nostaligcally recalling his former home, and the past he was compelled to renounce to. The later paintings could be inhabited by somebody he knew, an old friend or neighbour, capturing the yearning he had to be accepted in his native land.
Zwei Akte im Studio, the painting on the verso of the canvas, executed in 1910, stems from the time of the first significant successes of the Brücke. The Galerie Arnold had held an important exhibition for the artists of the Brücke in 1910 and their art first began to assert a clear and unique identity of its own. Zwei Akte im Studio is a classic example of Die Brücke art. The Brücke artists' studios - which each artist studiously decorated and adorned with exotic and primitive motifs and designs, represented an alternative environment to that of everyday modern Dresden and a revolutionary response to the bourgeois norm. The enclosed world of their ateliers allowed the artists to indulge their atavistic desires for a more direct, real and primitive lifestyle, in accordance with the natural world. Both the reaction to the norms and moralities of the bourgeois world and the embracing of the cult of nudity, which became one of their favourite devises, are reflected in the subject matter of 'Zwei Akte im Studio'. The nudes are presented as vital and real alternatives to the academic models of the period and yet, at the same time, they have the pure beauty and primitive dignity of the African deities depicted in the textiles decorating their bohemian ateliers. Gustav Schirfefler left a memorable description of the decoration of Kirchner's studio in the Berlinerstrasse in 1910: "Out of necessity he had rented a remarkable studio in a Dresden suburb, a narrow shop which had a large glass window to the street and a small adjacent space that served as a bedroom. These rooms were fantastically decorated with coloured textiles which he had made using the batik technique; with all sorts of exotic equipment and wood carving by his own hand. A primitive setting, born of necessity but nevertheless strongly marked by his own taste. He lived a disorderly lifestyle here according to bourgeois standards, simple in material terms, but highly ambitious in his artistic sensitivity. He worked feverishly, without noticing the time of day... everyone that comes into contact with him, must respond with strong interest to this total commitment to his work and derive from it a concept of true artist" (G. Schiefler, cited in Postkarten an Gustav Schiefler, ed. G. Schack, Hamburg, 1976, p. 80).
In Zwei Akte im Raum, there are echoes of Matisse's work but the swift dramatic brushwork which Kirchner returned to and strengthened in 1920, and the strong composition of the work placing the viewer in close proximity to the models, establish this painting as being more forceful and direct than anything painted by the French masters.