Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Stations

April 30 to July 9, 2023
Kunstforum Ingelheim – Old Town Hall

Kunstforum Ingelheim – Altes Rathaus →
Children’s quiz for the exhibition →

Unfortunately, the exhibition “The Fantastic World of John Elsas”, planned for autumn, cannot take place for organisational reasons. A new date will be announced in due course.

For the first time, the artistic work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) is being presented in a monographic exhibition as part of the Internationale Tage in Ingelheim. With more than 90 works—drawings, watercolours, prints and a selection of exemplary paintings—insights are provided into the key stages in the career of one of Germany’s most important and influential artists.

This presentation is conceived for the premises of Kunstforum Ingelheim – Old Town Hall and, in the five exhibition rooms spread over three floors, shows five pivotal stages for Kirchner and his art.

For the young artist, who studies architecture in Dresden, it is initially the studio that offers him, as a place of freedom, space for an unrestrained life and artistic creation. This is where the often also uninhibited compositions are created, reflecting the interaction between the models and the artist. Large-format drawings play an important role between the small, intimate depictions and the paintings, with which Kirchner creates pictorial compositions.

Even before his move to Berlin in 1913, Kirchner’s style changes, away from the flowing line towards a more angular visual language. This suits him in the Berlin street scenes, in which he observes in an unusual way the relationships between prostitutes and their clients.

With his stays on the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn, especially in 1913 and 1914, the artist finds the longed-for unity of human beings and nature, merging into one. The sometimes harsh weather and the bustle of the bathers inspire Kirchner to create a large number of drawings and prints, which rank among the most important parts of his entire oeuvre.

Conscripted as a soldier in the First World War, Kirchner falls into a severe psychological crisis, which marks a turning point in his art. As a patient in sanatoriums in Berlin, Königstein and Kreuzlingen, he documents his desolate inner state in self-portraits. The series of coloured woodcuts for Adalbert von Chamisso’s “Peter Schlemihl’s Remarkable Story” can also be seen as symbolic of this.

With his first stay in Davos, a new world of life begins for Kirchner in 1917. Initially paralysed in his arms and legs, surrounded by the monumental mountain landscape, he observes the simple life of his neighbours. Far removed from the art scene, Kirchner finds renewed creative strength, linking his experience of nature with the people around him.