Kirchner's "Berlin Street Scene" is Making a Scene at Neue Galerie New York

EVENTS

Written by Dja Horry

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Berlin Street Scene

July 26 - September 17
Admission $15, $10 students and seniors

Neue Galerie New York
1048 Fifth Avenue
Museum Hours: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Thursday 11 am to 6 pm
Friday, 11 am to 9 pm [closed Tuesday and Wednesday]
212-628-6200
neuegalerie.org

German expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

"Berlin Street Scene" is the featured piece at the Neue Galerie

Neue Galerie is also featuring Kirchner's "Standing Girl Karyatide" (1909-10)

Neue Galerie opens “Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Berlin Street Scene,” an exhibition focusing on one of the greatest German paintings of the twentieth century. This recently restituted work joins the collection of the Neue Galerie, which is devoted to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art. In addition to Berlin Street Scene, the exhibition will feature a recently acquired Kirchner sculpture, Standing Girl, Karyatide (1909-10), as well as a selection of paintings and works on paper that survey Berlin during this period; they are by Kirchner, Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Christian Schad.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a founding member of the artists’ group Die Brücke (The Bridge) in Dresden in 1905. In 1912, the group moved to Berlin. Kirchner was enthralled by what he called “the symphony of the great city,” and responded to the intensity of the street life he found in Berlin by recording the urban spectacle around him.

Shortly after arriving in the capital city, Kirchner met sisters Erna and Gerda Schilling, who were dancers at a Berlin nightclub. The two monumental figures in "Berlin Street Scene" (1913-14) are clearly modeled after them. They are shown as thoroughly modern women, dressed in fitted clothing and feathered hats, striding with confidence. Yet there is a dark undercurrent to the work: the central figures are portrayed as prostitutes parading on a busy avenue, and the slashing lines of the composition convey a taut emotional power. With its charged and anxious atmosphere, Berlin Street Scene suggests an uneasy dialogue between primitivism and modernity.

In addition to Kirchner's pieces on view will be highlights from the permanent collection, including works by Austrian artists Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and Alfred Kubin, and by German artists Erich Heckel, August Macke, Oskar Schlemmer, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Decorative arts will also be on display, including pieces by Austrian designers Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos, and by German designers Marianne Brandt, Marcel Breuer, and Mies van der Rohe.

A fully illustrated book on Berlin Street Scene, written by Pamela Kort, will be available in the Neue Galerie Book Store and on the museum website for $30.

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