The Anxious Eye: German Expressionism and Its Legacy

Walter Gramatté, "Die grosse Angst (Selbstportrat, Kopf im Halbprofil nach rechts)" — Walter Gramatté
*Die grosse Angst (Selbstportrat, Kopf im Halbprofil nach rechts)*, 1918
drypoint with extensive additions in watercolor
sheet: 30 x 23.81 cm (11 13/16 x 9 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Christopher and Beverly With in memory of Karl and Gerda With

The National Gallery of Art has important holdings of prints and drawings by German expressionists Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Emil Nolde, among others. The Anxious Eye: German Expressionism and Its Legacy presents insights into the work of these inventive early 20th-century artists and their continuing impact a century later. The exhibition features recent acquisitions as well as works that have rarely, if ever, been on view, including gifts donated by celebrated Washington, DC, collectors Jacob and Ruth Cole Kainen. In addition to Heckel, Kirchner, and Nolde, the expressionists on view in more than 70 prints, drawings, illustrated books, and portfolios include key figures Otto Dix, Käthe Kollwitz, Egon Schiele, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, as well as lesser-known artists such as Walter Grammatté.

Through their bold distortions, angular, simplified forms, and use of non-naturalistic colors, the German expressionists sought to convey the complex emotional and psychological responses to their changing world during the social, cultural, and political upheavals in the early decades of the 20th century. Following the recent World War I centenary, new reflections on the historical period 1900–1920 add depth to our understanding of these artists and their artistic heirs. Post-1950 and contemporary artists shown at the conclusion of the exhibition—Leonard Baskin, Nicole Eisenman, Orit Hofshi, Rashid Johnson, Matthias Mansen, and others—demonstrate the ways in which artists have carried forward the German expressionists’ rich legacy. The exhibition invites us to consider how the intensity of the human experience in transformational moments in history effectively captured in the work of the German expressionists strongly resonate with us and the cultural and political shifts taking place in our own world today.

The exhibition is curated by Shelley Langdale, curator and head of modern prints and drawings, National Gallery of Art.

Divided into four thematic sections, The Anxious Eye: German Expressionism and Its Legacy features works of art that focus on portraits and modern life; nature and spirituality; relationships and body language; and the “legacy” of German expressionism. This exhibition shares insights drawn from the increased understanding we now have of the complexities and impact of World War I, which concluded more than a century ago in 1918. It also introduces new approaches to broadening conventional art historical narratives. Artists working in Germany and Austria in the 1910s and 1920s challenged themselves to create expressive strategies for making art that reflected a heightened understanding and authentic representation of human experience amidst rapid social, cultural, and geopolitical transformations. The final room of the exhibition explores these ideas in the work of later artists whose similar approaches to mark making, materials, and sense of immediacy have been employed to respond to comparable circumstances and concerns—the most strikingly analogous circumstances being those facing contemporary artists working today.

The first room features penetrating portraits and self-portraits that focus on inner thoughts and emotional states of being rather than realistic accuracy of appearance. These works draw on concepts that were then emerging about personality traits and states of mind as developed by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, groundbreaking psychology scholars and philosophers in the early 20th century. The incisive diagonals, quavering lines, and gnarled fingers of the figure in Die Grosse Angst (The Great Anxiety), Walter Gramatté’s 1918 self-portrait, and the close cropping and gouged, carved, and scratched marks that define the facial features in the woodcut portrait Fanny Wocke (1916) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner demonstrate the ways artists used the characteristics of different media to impart emotional intensity. Prints and illustrated books by Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Otto Dix, Paul Gangolf, and George Grosz convey the emotional and political timbre of the time by showing the dynamics of modern life, increasingly congested cities and the accompanying sense of isolation and anonymity within them, dissatisfaction with the existing social order and bourgeois values, and the horrors of World War I.

The second gallery presents the religious subjects and landscapes that artists pursued in seeking refuge from the complexities and stress of daily life on one hand, while questioning faith and humankind’s destructive impact on the world on the other. Some of the highlights in this section include Lovis Corinth’s and Otto Mueller’s representations of the Old Testament story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, Karl Schmidt-Rotluff’s dazzling pink and green woodcut of rocky mountains, and Emil Nolde’s murky view of the harbor in Hamburg, Germany.

The German expressionists were fascinated by the ways gestures and movement could signify love, fear, sorrow, joy, and other aspects of people’s emotional state or personality. The different approaches these artists explored to depict the body, sexuality, and interpersonal relationships are featured in the third gallery. The tensions that can arise between husband and wife are represented by the green band that cuts horizontally across the composition in Walter Gramatté’s The Couple (Self-Portrait with Wife) of 1922. Love and security are felt in Käthe Kollwitz’s bronze relief In God’s Hands (1935/1936), which shows a small child protectively enveloped in the arms of an adult (represented only by a pair of hands). Counter to the traditional academic depictions of idealized nudes, these artists embraced a range of body types and discomforting positions, from the exaggeratedly puckered colorful surface of Egon Schiele’s Standing Nude with Patterned Robe (1917) to the awkwardly posed model kneeling on a rug in Erich Heckel’s Nude (c. 1913). Sources of inspiration include the art of Africa and the South Pacific Islands, which were inaccurately viewed through the bias of colonialism as “primitive” societies untainted by “civilization.” Elongated and exaggerated shapes, and the manner of articulation of certain features, as seen in the front-facing figure in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s lithograph Two Women (1914) and his rough-hewn wooden sculpture Head of a Woman (1913), and the dynamic movement in Emil Nolde’s color lithograph Dancer (Tänzerin) (1913) demonstrate the artists’ investigation of what they misinterpreted as “primal” aesthetic sensibilities that express vital forces of human experience.

The final room presents the legacy of German expressionism and how artists continue to draw upon its stylistic approaches to convey the heightened emotional and psychological experiences that accompany transformational moments in society. Among the highlights is Leonard Baskin’s The Hydrogen Man (1954), whose one-armed transparent figure, rendered in an intricate network of woodcut lines, warns of the ravages of modern nuclear warfare. Rashid Johnson’s grid of highly abstract boxes of “scribbled” faces fills the composition Untitled Anxious Red (2021), which was created during the COVID pandemic. It captures not only the elevated fear of contracting a deadly disease but also the challenge of negotiating the anxiety of being a Black man in America with tensions heightened by the death of George Floyd and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. Among the National Gallery’s recent acquisitions are Nicole Eisenman’s Beer Garden (2012–2017), which combines self-portraiture with various “types” of caricatured figures that recall Max Beckmann’s prints in the first gallery, and Orit Hofshi’s Time… thou ceaseless lackey to eternity (2017), in which the artist, standing in a landscape ravaged by war and climate change, is surrounded by displaced people seeking refuge and a path to a better future.

Images

Max Beckmann
The Street, 1916
drypoint
sheet: 34.7 x 44.4 cm (13 11/16 x 17 1/2 in.) [irregular]
plate: 19.5 x 29.5 cm (7 11/16 x 11 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Self-Portrait in the Studio (Selbstbildnis im Atelier), 1923
crayon on white board
sheet: 49.8 x 33.9 cm (19 5/8 x 13 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Otto Dix
Dance of Death Anno 17 (Totenanz anno 17), 1924
etching, aquatint, drypoint, and burnishing in black on laid paper
plate: 23.9 x 29.5 cm (9 7/16 x 11 5/8 in.)
sheet: 35 x 47.4 cm (13 3/4 x 18 11/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Jacob Kainen

Otto Dix
Dead Men before the Position near Tahure (Tote vor der Stellung bei Tahure), 1924
etching and aquatint
plate: 19 x 25.6 cm (7 1/2 x 10 1/16 in.)
sheet: 34.8 x 47.3 cm (13 11/16 x 18 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Print Purchase Fund (Rosenwald Collection)

Otto Dix
Young Family (Loving Couple) [Junge Familie (Liebespaar)], 1918
pen and brush and black ink on brown wove paper
overall: 39.9 x 39.5 cm (15 11/16 x 15 9/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Richard A. Simms and Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Emil Nolde
Hamburg, Freihafen, 1910
etching
plate: 30.4 x 40.5 cm (11 15/16 x 15 15/16 in.)
sheet: 48.7 x 60.9 cm (19 3/16 x 24 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Kainen in memory of Lessing J. Rosenwald

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Men Splashing in the Reeds (Sich Spritzende Männer im Schilf), 1910
lithograph printed in black on yellow wove paper
plate: 27.9 x 37.7 cm (11 x 14 13/16 in.)
sheet: 31 x 43 cm (12 3/16 x 16 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Two Bathers at Fehmarnküste (Zwei Badende am hoher Fehmarnküste), 1912
black ink on wove paper
sheet: 58.1 x 45.9 cm (22 7/8 x 18 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Two Nudes on a Bed (Isabella and a Younger Girl) (Zwei Frauen im Raum), c. 1906
brush and india ink on buff paper
sheet: 30.8 x 31.12 cm (12 1/8 x 12 1/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Memorial Acquisition Fund

Max Beckmann
Self-Portrait with Naila as Circus Performers Holding Masks and Reclining on a Sea Monster, c. 1923
woodcut block with additions in crayon and ink
overall: 50 x 39.3 cm (19 11/16 x 15 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann

Käthe Kollwitz
In God's Hands, 1935/1936
bronze
overall: 35.5 x 31.8 x 8.6 cm (14 x 12 1/2 x 3 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Hans W. Weigert in memory of Lili B. Weigert

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Women Bathing Between White Stones (Badende Frauen Zwischen Weissen Steinen), 1912
color woodcut printed in black, green, orange and red
image: 28.4 x 27.6 cm (11 3/16 x 10 7/8 in.)
sheet: 40.4 x 31.7 cm (15 7/8 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Miriam Beerman
Untitled (bloody head), c. 1969–1975
oil on thin posterboard mounted to cream Fabriano paper
sheet: 66 x 51.1 cm (26 x 20 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of William B. Jaffe

Miriam Beerman
Untitled (face), c. 1970–1975
ink on thin posterboard
sheet: 72.4 x 57.1 cm (28 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.)
Collection of William B. Jaffe (promised gift to the National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Erich Heckel
Man in Prayer (Mannerbildnis), 1919
hand-colored woodcut
image: 46.1 x 32.5 cm (18 1/8 x 12 13/16 in.)
sheet: 61.9 x 46 cm (24 3/8 x 18 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Käthe Kollwitz
Self-Portrait (Selbstbildnis von vorn), 1923
woodcut
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Käthe Kollwitz
Self-Portrait (Selbstbildnis), 1924
woodcut
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Order this image

George Grosz
The Convict (Der Zuchthäusler), 1919
lithograph in black
image: 46.2 x 34.29 cm (18 3/16 x 13 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Max Beckmann
Self-Portrait, 1918
drypoint in black
plate: 30.3 x 25.5 cm (11 15/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
sheet: 51.8 x 38 cm (20 3/8 x 14 15/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Mrs. Max Beckmann

Lovis Corinth
Tod bei Strucks (Death Visits the Strucks), 1921 (published 1922)
softground etching in black on wove paper
plate: 24 x 17.8 cm (9 7/16 x 7 in.)
sheet: 30 x 23.7 cm (11 13/16 x 9 5/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift in memory of Sigbert H. Marcy and in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Fanny Wocke, 1916
woodcut in black on blotting paper
image: 30.5 x 40 cm (12 x 15 3/4 in.)
sheet: 42.2 x 56.8 cm (16 5/8 x 22 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection, Gift in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art

Egon Schiele
Sorrow (Kümmernis), 1914
drypoint printed in dark green on laid paper
plate: 47.5 x 31.6 cm (18 11/16 x 12 7/16 in.)
sheet: 70.6 x 51 cm (27 13/16 x 20 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainene

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Dr. Ludwig Binswanger (Kopf Dr. Ludwig Binswanger), 1917/1918
woodcut on wove paper
sheet: 59 x 41 cm (23 1/4 x 16 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Purchased as the Gift of Nelson Blitz, Jr., and Catherine Woodard in honor of Perri and Allison Blitz

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Street Scene After the Rain (Strassenszene, Nach dem Regen), 1914
woodcut printed in black
image: 26.5 x 24.7 cm (10 7/16 x 9 3/4 in.)
sheet: 44.7 x 35 cm (17 5/8 x 13 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Head Study (Kopfstudie), 1926
lithograph printed in black
image: 32.9 x 27.3 cm (12 15/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
sheet: 40.8 x 33.5 cm (16 1/16 x 13 3/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

George Grosz
Attack (Attentat), 1915
lithograph in black on laid paper
image: 19.05 x 24.45 cm (7 1/2 x 9 5/8 in.)
sheet: 24.13 x 31.75 cm (9 1/2 x 12 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Purchased as the gift of Richard A. Simms and Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Käthe Kollwitz
Self-Portrait, Drawing, 1933
black chalk on brown laid Ingres paper
overall: 47.7 x 63.5 cm (18 3/4 x 25 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Käthe Kollwitz
Self-Portrait with Hand on Forehead (Selbstbildnis mit der Hand an der Stirn), 1910
etching and engraving in black-brown on wove paper
plate: 15.5 x 13.6 cm (6 1/8 x 5 3/8 in.)
sheet: 43.3 x 30.2 cm (17 1/16 x 11 7/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Emil Nolde
Woman in Profile (Frau im Profil), 1910
woodcut
image: 15 13/16 x 11 5/16 in. (40.2 x 28.7 cm)
sheet: 19 7/16 x 14 in (49.3 x 35.5 cm)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Max Beckmann
Group Portrait, Eden Bar (Gruppenbildnis Edenbar), 1923
woodcut on heavy Japan paper
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Old Market in Dresden with Annual Fair (Der Altmarkt in Dresden mit Jahrmarkt), 1910
lithograph printed in black
image: 32.6 x 38.5 cm (12 13/16 x 15 3/16 in.)
sheet: 42.7 x 51.3 cm (16 13/16 x 20 3/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Christian Rohlfs
Flood (Sintflut), c. 1918
color woodcut in black and brown on heavy wove grey-green paper
sheet: 68.7 x 51.4 cm (27 1/16 x 20 1/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Otto Mueller
Finding of Moses (Auffindung des Moses), c. 1920
lithograph in black and gold
image: 27.94 x 38.74 cm (11 x 15 1/4 in.)
sheet: 43.97 x 53.34 cm (17 5/16 x 21 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Otto Mueller
Standing Boy and Two Girls 2 (Three Acts) (Stehender Knabe und zwei Mädchen 2) (Drei Akte), 1917
lithograph
sheet: 49.85 x 39.37 cm (19 5/8 x 15 1/2 in.)
image: 32.39 x 24.77 cm (12 3/4 x 9 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Max Oppenheimer
Pietà, 1912
drypoint
image: 16.99 x 15.24 cm (6 11/16 x 6 in.)
sheet: 35.72 x 25.56 cm (14 1/16 x 10 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Emil Nolde
Fish Steamboat (Fischdampfer), 1910
woodcut
image: 30.32 x 38.58 cm (11 15/16 x 15 3/16 in.)
sheet: 39.69 x 48.58 cm (15 5/8 x 19 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Epstein Family Fund

Order this image

Lovis Corinth
Christ Bearing the Cross (Kreuztragung), 1916
drypoint in black on wove paper
plate: 23.6 x 34 cm (9 5/16 x 13 3/8 in.)
sheet: 35.7 x 50.4 cm (14 1/16 x 19 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of the Marcy Family in memory of Sigbert H. Marcy

Georg Erhlich
Pietà, 1923
etching in black on wove paper
plate: 13 9/16 x 9 13/16 in. (34.5 x 25 cm)
sheet: 50.7 x 34.8 cm (19 15/16 x 13 11/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Lovis Corinth
The Fall of Man (Der südenfall), 1919
color woodcut monotype
sheet: 30.5 x 23.5 cm (12 x 9 1/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Erich Heckel
Brother and Sister (Geschwister), 1913
woodcut
image: 42.2 x 30.7 cm (16 5/8 x 12 1/16 in.)
sheet: 61 x 50.8 cm (24 x 20 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Otto Mueller
Two Bathers, c. 1920
color crayons and watercolor
overall: 68.7 x 52.8 cm (27 1/16 x 20 13/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Max Pechstein
Princess (Prinzessin), 1918
woodcut on gray-brown wove paper
image: 35.7 x 23.5 cm (14 1/16 x 9 1/4 in.)
sheet: 61 x 48.5 cm (24 x 19 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Max Pechstein
Head of a Woman, 1920
graphite with black wash
overall: 41.9 x 32.1 cm (16 1/2 x 12 5/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Max Pechstein
Nude, 1909
watercolor on brown paper
overall: 33.8 x 43.9 cm (13 5/16 x 17 5/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection

Erich Heckel
Crouching Woman (Hockende), 1913 (published 1921)
woodcut
image: 41.8 x 30.9 cm (16 7/16 x 12 3/16 in.)
sheet: 69.6 x 54.3 cm (27 3/8 x 21 3/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Dancing Couple (Tanzpaar), 1909
lithograph on yellow wove paper
sheet: 44.6 x 36.8 cm (17 9/16 x 14 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ruth and Jacob Kainen Collection

File name: 5647-141.jpg
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Two Women (Zwei Frauen), 1914
color lithograph printed in black and orange
image: 42 x 32 cm (16 9/16 x 12 5/8 in.)
sheet: 53.8 x 41.9 cm (21 3/16 x 16 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Order this image

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Married Couple Müller (Ehepaar Müller), 1919
woodcut printed in black on rose paper
image: 35 x 42.5 cm (13 3/4 x 16 3/4 in.)
sheet: 43.3 x 55.3 cm (17 1/16 x 21 3/4 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Nude Woman on a Carpet (Nacktes Mädchen auf Teppich), 1924
woodcut on yellow wove paper
sheet: 60 x 35.9 cm (23 5/8 x 14 1/8 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Order this image

Egon Schiele
Standing Nude with a Patterned Robe, 1917
gouache and black crayon on buff paper
sheet: 29.3 x 45.9 cm (11 9/16 x 18 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of The Robert and Mary M. Looker Family Collection

Emil Nolde
Dancer (Tänzerin), 1913
5-color lithograph on japan paper
sheet: 60.2 x 77.5 cm (23 11/16 x 30 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Boy with Cat (Knabe mit Katze), 1919
lithograph on yellow wove paper
sheet: 64.1 x 53.5 cm (25 1/4 x 21 1/16 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen

Erich Heckel
Portrait of a Woman (Frauenkopf), 1922
lithograph in black on japan paper
plate: 26.8 x 21.5 cm (10 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.)
sheet: 39 x 29.2 cm (15 3/8 x 11 1/2 in.)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, Gift of Jacob Kainen

The Anxious Eye: German Expressionism and Its Legacy

Trending Articles

Practice Sheet of Right form of verbs for HSC Students

Download: FK ft Shenky – Nakuyewa ”Prod by: Shenky”

How to win at Markstrat (Markstrat Tips and Tricks) – Vodites

Ominde Commission Report and Recommendations – Ominde Report of 1964

Bureau of Internal Revenue: Regional Offices (Directory)

GO 53 on Enhancement of Ex-gratia upto 5 Lakhs Toddy Tappers in Telangana

Cakewalk CA-2A Leveling Amplifier v2.0.1.97 WiN, v2.0.1.96 OSX Incl Keygen

Mp3 Download: Mdu - Kunjenjenjena

How the kill the job , when DTP request running for long hours.

Microsoft Intune から展開しているアプリのアップデートについて

18-year-old girl was beaten for half an hour by two Northampton men in 'an...

Car crash in Dunton Bassett leaves driver in critical condition

Macky 2, Two Others In Road Accident

Application log 00000000000000089514: Could not convert queue DLVST90CLNT

Detroit mafia: D’Anna Brothers agree to plea deal

Delivery block field greyed out using VA02

Muloraki Au

【個人撮影】スマホのプライベート映像♪「中に出さないで///」カラオケ屋での生ハメ撮りが流出ｗ【リベンジポルノ】＠PornHub

BREAKING NEWS: Diamond Platnumz Is Reported Dead After Ghastly Car Accident

FIAT 500 B0111 B0112