Die Brücke The Birth of Modern Art in Germany

This movement marks the beginning of modern art in Germany It is the German equivalent of French Fauvism from which it draws its main inspiration but it carries an Expressionist and social emphasis that is characteristic of Nordic angst The artists of Die Brucke were restless creatures oversensitive haunted by religious sexual political or moral obsessions Dramatic landscapes and nudes mystical and visionary compositions scenes of the countryside the streets the circus the cafedansants and the demimonde were their principal subjects Their pure colours blaze in acid stridency encompassed by rough dry contours which show the influence of African art and primitive woodcuts The work of the following is shown Kirchner Fritz Bleyl Erich Heckel SchmidtRottluff Otto Muller Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein