The over great fear of people and his purpose in life not only threatened but also taken away from him, then he often sees only one way out: the self-chosen death. This happened to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who took his own life on 15 June 1938 on the alp above Davos with a gunshot to an end. Previously, however, he destroyed his printing blocks and a large part of his sculptures out of fear of German invasion.

In Switzerland, the native Aschaffenburger lived - he saw on May 6, 1880, Light of the World - severity since 13 October 1918. Severe depression and drug abuse caused his friends convey him after repeated sanatorium stays in Germany to the physician Ludwig Spengler in Davos.

The First World War, for the Kirchner "voluntarily involuntarily" announced, first sparked his anxiety. Particular evidence of this inner state became his "Self-Portrait as a Soldier" by 1915. Kirchner was a painter who always reproduced its immediate surroundings in oil, in woodcut, etching and also in the sculpture. So his work is organized through several stages: As a founding member of the artists' association "Brucke" in 1905, he represented a highly colourful and expressive painting whose themes mainly make up the so-called "Quarter Hour Act" and city scenes of Dresden and Berlin. With the "discovery" of plain air painting the Act from the studio came into the open: 1904 to the Moritzburg Lakes, from 1908 to Fehmarn.

Kirchner then chose after the dissolution of the "bridge" in 1913 as a new motif, the Berlin street scenes, the play with hard strokes and black contour the milieu of cocottes. The paradisiacal landscape painting more so for a long time the critical look at the margins of society. Only in Switzerland he found inner peace and balance. The Swiss pictures 20s outfitted with colour harmonies and flowing forms.

In addition to the painting and graphics in a hut he devoted himself to the living artists and the sculpture. However, the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the defamation of 639 his works as "degenerate art" once again stirred up the fears of the sensitive artist and led him to the disaster.

Artistic movement that replaced the Impressionism in the early 20th century.

Expressionism is the German form of the art revolution in painting, graphics and sculpture, which found its precursor in the works of Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin in the late 19th century. The Expressionists tried to advance to the basic elements of painting. With vibrant, unbroken colors in large areas and with the emphasis on line and the resulting targeted suggestive expressiveness they fought against the artistic taste established by bourgeoisie.

The most important representatives of Expressionism were the founders of "Die Brücke" (The Bridge): Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller and Franz Marc, August Macke, among others.

Masters of Viennese Expressionism are Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.

The Fauvism is the French form of Expressionism.

Related Links:
Brücke
Fauvism

Graphic or sculpture edition that was initiated by ars mundi and is available only at ars mundi or at distribution partner licensed by ars mundi.

Giclée = derived from the French verb gicler meaning "to squirt, spray".

Giclée method is a digital printing process. It is a high-resolution, large-format printout on an inkjet printer with special different coloured or pigment-based inks (usually six to twelve). The colours are light-fast, that is, resistant to harmful UV light. They have a high richness of nuance, contrast and saturation.

The Giclée process is suitable for real art canvas, handmade and watercolor paper and for silk.