Title: Street
Artist: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Completion date: 1907
Style: Expressionism
Style: Expressionism
Material: Oil on canvas
Dimenions: 150.5 x 200.4cm
Background of artwork:
Street is a genre painting of Dresden, which is a large city in south east Germany. At the time Kirchner made this painting, he was living in Dresden. The street in Dresden was crowded with people and it inspired Kirchner to express his thoughts by depicted these people. He thought people in Dresden were soulless under the influences of modernization.
Analysis of artwork:
Kirchner was one of the members of 'the Bridge', a group of expressionist that formed in Dresden. Expressionist love to used colour and brushstrokes to express their idea and emotion. Kirchner also used colour and brushstrokes to express his idea and emotion on Dresden.
Kirchner put the women figure in the middle of the painting, and that was the main idea that he wanted to express via this painting. He used aggressive distortion and depicted people's faces with extremely powerful colour. He depicted the women figures with mask like faces and vacant eyes. In addition, he used color contrast on women's clothes. We can see orange and blue color on women's hat, red and blue scraf. These using of color were the way how Kirchner express his strong emotion on these hopeless people.
Besides, Kirchner depicted some city views in the painting. For instance, in the top left coner of this painting, there was a crowd. And in the top right coner of this painting, there were two men looking at a woman unfriendly. Kirchner emphasised the color of the city scene in order to show his view that Dresden is so overpopulated. He used disorder brushstrokes and a horrible pink color to express his dissatisfaction with Dresden street. The colored outline of the figures also gave the view that an effect which separating people from one to another. He thought that people in Dresden was lifeless because they addicted to excitement and they had psychological alienation by modernization.
Opinion:
From my first impression of this painting, I was attracted by the women in the middle. I thought she was wearing a mask. I wondered whether it was represented that, Kirchner thought people in Dresden were sham and cunning. Some may think that, they do not intreseted in this painting because it is horrible and too distorted. I do like this painting because I think people in Hong Kong are materialistic and they are simlair to people in Dresden. As Kirchner said, 'A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things.' He may not painted the reality of Dresden, but he did paint his own emotion, opinion, and social response to Dresden.
References:
The Art story.org: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kirchner-ernst-ludwig.htm
Wiki Art: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Street
http://www.wikiart.org/en/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/street#close
Smarthistory, Art History at Khan Academy: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden, 1908
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfZu--psur8
MoMa Learning: Street, Dresden
http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/ernst-ludwig-kirchner-street-dresden-1908-reworked-1919-dated-on-painting-1907
MoMa Learning: Expressionism and City Life
http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/expressionism/expressionism-and-city-life
Background of artwork:
Street is a genre painting of Dresden, which is a large city in south east Germany. At the time Kirchner made this painting, he was living in Dresden. The street in Dresden was crowded with people and it inspired Kirchner to express his thoughts by depicted these people. He thought people in Dresden were soulless under the influences of modernization.
Analysis of artwork:
Kirchner was one of the members of 'the Bridge', a group of expressionist that formed in Dresden. Expressionist love to used colour and brushstrokes to express their idea and emotion. Kirchner also used colour and brushstrokes to express his idea and emotion on Dresden.
Kirchner put the women figure in the middle of the painting, and that was the main idea that he wanted to express via this painting. He used aggressive distortion and depicted people's faces with extremely powerful colour. He depicted the women figures with mask like faces and vacant eyes. In addition, he used color contrast on women's clothes. We can see orange and blue color on women's hat, red and blue scraf. These using of color were the way how Kirchner express his strong emotion on these hopeless people.
Besides, Kirchner depicted some city views in the painting. For instance, in the top left coner of this painting, there was a crowd. And in the top right coner of this painting, there were two men looking at a woman unfriendly. Kirchner emphasised the color of the city scene in order to show his view that Dresden is so overpopulated. He used disorder brushstrokes and a horrible pink color to express his dissatisfaction with Dresden street. The colored outline of the figures also gave the view that an effect which separating people from one to another. He thought that people in Dresden was lifeless because they addicted to excitement and they had psychological alienation by modernization.
Opinion:
From my first impression of this painting, I was attracted by the women in the middle. I thought she was wearing a mask. I wondered whether it was represented that, Kirchner thought people in Dresden were sham and cunning. Some may think that, they do not intreseted in this painting because it is horrible and too distorted. I do like this painting because I think people in Hong Kong are materialistic and they are simlair to people in Dresden. As Kirchner said, 'A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things.' He may not painted the reality of Dresden, but he did paint his own emotion, opinion, and social response to Dresden.
References:
The Art story.org: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-kirchner-ernst-ludwig.htm
Wiki Art: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner - Street
http://www.wikiart.org/en/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/street#close
Smarthistory, Art History at Khan Academy: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Street, Dresden, 1908
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfZu--psur8
MoMa Learning: Street, Dresden
http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/ernst-ludwig-kirchner-street-dresden-1908-reworked-1919-dated-on-painting-1907
MoMa Learning: Expressionism and City Life
http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/themes/expressionism/expressionism-and-city-life
Cadmus: its good to mention your observations in your essay to help to explain some points you have. I suggest you can use some academic jourals as well to support you and have your points and ideas in a more origanised way so that you can easily expand your points by explaining more details. It is good to see your work and effort.
ReplyDeleteCarol Lau:
ReplyDelete1) Good analysis. Good self opinions. However,more specific details should be added. Better to analyze the work point by point.
2) No conclusion. No quotation. It will be good to include scholar's opinions to support your point of view.