German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection by Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

27/ 10/ 20 - 14/ 03/ 21

ThyssenDigital Publications

Withthecollaborationof ErichHeckel HouseinDangast (TheWhiteHouse)(detail),1908 Oiloncanvas.71x81cm CarmenThyssen-BornemiszaCollectiononloanat theMuseoNacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

INTRODUCTION

H an s H ein r ich Th yssen -Bor n em isza in 1992, u pon th e ar r ival of th e Col l ection to th e M u seu m in M adr id

??GermanExpressionismwasfor methe departingpoint of mycollectionof twentieth-centurymasters?? H.H.Thyssen-Bornemisza

The itinerary of the exhibition 'German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection' is structured around a mosaic of stories that take us from the origin of the paintings, when they left the artists?studios, to the present day. These stories like wise survey the creative process and the artists? interests and intentions, as well as the evolution of their reception ? from the initial reactions of critics and public to their defamation by the Nazi regime and subsequent rehabilitation during the postwar period. The last exhibition rooms show Baron Thyssen?s relationship with the dealers who helped him progressively build his collection and the exhibition projects he organized, guided by his wish to give the collection international exposure.

STUDIOS Die BrĂźcke, Dresden-based Expressionist group / Rebellious, anti- bourgeois attitude, sexual liberation / Advocacy of pure, unspoilt preindustrial age / Links to Germanic past and utopian future / Studio, laboratory of ideas, space for living in freedom / Jumbled, crowded interiors / Bohemia and material culture / DĂŠcor crafted by artists themselves, sculptures, rustic furniture, patterned batiks / Primitive artifacts, appealing anticlassical and antiacademic quirkiness / Art as the artist?s inner vision / Artistic insurrection; violent, impulsive style / Distortion of form / Exploration of expressive possibilities of color / Attracted the baron.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Kneeling Nude in front of Red Screen (detail), ca 1911-1912 Oil on canvas, 75.5 x 56.7 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

STUDIOS

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner FrĂ¤nzi in front of Carved Chair, 1910 Oil on canvas, 71 x 49.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Key image of the BrĂźcke style / Example of creative freedom / Girl poses on roughly carved chair in Kirchner?s studio on Berliner Strasse / Mural decoration, schematized female nudes, painter?s own design / Full frontality, faithful to Munch and Gauguin / Unfinished appearance, formal simplification / Complementary and unnatural colors, influence of the Fauves / Unsettling, vivid green face / Garish red lips, disturbing effect.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Alpine Kitchen, 1918 Oil on canvas, 121.5 x 121.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Nervous breakdown caused by Great War / Voluntary withdrawal to Davos, Swiss Alps / During final period, paintings continue to be set in artist?s working spaces / Mountain lodge, room in rustic style, wooden beams / Garish colors, distorted perspective / Painter sits preparing a lithographic stone / Like Munch and Gauguin, Expressionists revived age-old printmaking techniques.

REFERENCES Expressionism, anti-naturalist and anti-Impressionist trend / Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Norwegian Edvard Munch, new canon of modernity / Firsthand knowledge of modern art, exhibitions and publications / Cultural transfer / Munch?s existential and radical style, essential reference for young Expressionists / Unleashed expression of inner feelings in Nolde and Kirchner / Fervent enthusiasm for Van Gogh?s turbulent brushstrokes and bright colors / Inspired agitated rhythms and luminous colors in Heckel and Rohlfs / Primitive, pastoral style in Gauguin, emotional outlet for his existential dissatisfaction / Spiritual affinities with primitives, aroused new artistic sensibility in Marc. Vicent van Gogh Les Vessenots in Auvers (detail), 1890 Oil on canvas, 55 x 65 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

REFERENCES

Edvard Munch Evening, 1888 Oil on canvas, 75 x 100.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Erich Heckel House in Dangast (The White House), 1908 Oil on canvas, 71 x 81 cm Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Portrait of his sister Laura / Transitional work, heralds shift to symbolist and expressionist formulas / Figure in foreground, off-center, isolated from background landscape / Compositional scheme repeated in later works / Absent appearance, emphasis on emotional tension / Evening light accentuates troubled sensation / Shown in Munch exhibition at Berlin?s Nationalgalerie, 1927, artist?s crowning achievement in Germany.

Former Post House of Dangast, Heckel?s northern Arcadia / Pursuit of natural, remote environment / Mark of the late Van Gogh?s agitated, luminous technique / Expressive materiality; rapid, spontaneous brushstrokes / Suppression of contours / Forms created solely from color / Parts of canvas left exposed / Dazzling colors, even before contact with the Fauves.

REFERENCES

Franz Marc The Dream, 1912 Oil on canvas, 100.5 x 135.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Painted in Sindelsdorf, idyllic spot near Bavarian Alps / Like Gauguin, Marc shunned European values/Nostalgia for arcadian origins / Mystic vision of natural world / Nocturnal nature in primitive state/Seated female nude asleep,surrounded by Paul Gauguin Comings and Goings, Martinique, 1887 animals/Harmony between man and animal Oil on canvas, 72.5 x 92 cm Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza on loan at the world/Rhythmic structure of Futurist forms / Gift Colecciรณn Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid from the painter to Kandinsky, first owner.

OUTDOORS Nude and landscape / Outdoor studio and experience of nature in freedom / ?The nude, basis of all visual art,?motto of ?die Wilden,?the Dresden wild artists / Disinhibition, primitive lifestyle, return to origins / Landscapes of nearby paradises sharpened their creative instincts / Alsen for Nolde, Dangast for Heckel and Schmidt-Rottluff, Nidden for Pechstein and Fehmarn for Kirchner, settings in harmony with nature / Wild, untainted surroundings / Subjection of nature to art / Distorted and exaggerated forms and colors.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Landscape with Chesnut Tree (detail), 1913 Oil on canvas, 96 x 85.5 cm Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan ath the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

OUTDOORS

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Autumn Landscape in Oldenburg, 1907 Oil on canvas, 76 x 97.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Max Pechstein Summer in Nidden, ca 1919-1920 Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 101 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Coastal village of Dangast, North Sea Arcadia for Schmidt-Rottluffand Heckel / ?The region is quite fantastic, everything simply demanding to be painted,?artist?sword s/ Small country estate, after reaping / Stylistically close toHeckel?sBrickworks / Spontaneous, erratic, paint-laden brushstrokes / Exploration of expressive elements of pictorial language / Basic colors: green,yellow,red and blue / Creative freedom, powerful visual impact.

Nidden in Kurische Nehrung, isthmus off Baltic coast of East Prussia, Pechstein?s northern paradise / Unspoilt, preindustrial landscape / Nudes in outdoor settings, humans in communion with nature / Disinhibition, away from social restrictions / Amid dunes, three angular figures with bronzed skin / Blazing sun, golden light characteristic of the tropics / Allusion to exuberance of Gauguin?s South Seas.

POPULARFLAVOR Folklore and inner world, hints of Bavarian symbolic Expressionism / Kandinsky?s leadership, art possessed a mystic function / Language of spiritual liberation / Publication of 'Almanach Der Blaue Reiter', 1912, vehicle for disseminating aesthetic ideas / Openness to international trends: Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism / Spiritual values as opposed to materialism of the period / Influence of simplicity and naivety of popular traditions, Bavarian painting on glass and Russian art / Musical sense of color / Interest in conveying maximum expressiveness / Shift towards increasingly abstract stances. August Macke Hussars on a Sortie (detail), 1913 Oil on canvas, 37.5 x 56.1 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

POPULARFLAVOR

Wassily Kandinsky Murnau: Top of the Johannisstrasse, 1908 Oil on cardboard, 70 x 48.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Alexej von Jawlensky Child with Doll, 1910 Oil on cardboard, 64.5 x 54 cm Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections

Painted in 1908 on arriving in Murnau, picturesque mountain village / Street with the GriesbrĂ¤u Inn, where he stayed / Quiet streets, peaceful surroundings, incentive to creation / Colorful depiction, influence of the Fauvism he saw in Paris / Picture left in MĂźnter?s care when Kandinsky returned to Russia in 1914.

Portrait of painter?s son Andreas / Continued interest in faces / Vivid colors and simplified forms / Reminiscent of Russian folklore, icons and Byzantine art ? the true ?spiritual language,?the painter?s words / His Russian soul combines popular tradition, Fauvist modernity and spiritual expression.

POPULARFLAVOR

Wassily Kandinsky Bagatelle n. 2, 1915 Pencil, ink and watercolour on paper, 45 x 61 cm Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections

Paul Klee Still Life with Dice, 1923, 22, 1923 Watercolour, chalk and ink on paper mounted on cardboard, 27 x 38 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Kandinsky returned to Moscow when war broke out / Set of watercolors with the same title / Bagatelle: allusion to something trifling, insignificant, also a piece of light music / Return to Neoromantic symbolism of his early period / Inspired by traditional Russian fairy tales / Characters in folk costume similar to a few earlier drawings / Slight medieval mythological air / Imaginary world, utopias that produce sweet dreams.

Fragment cut from Puppet Theatre, large vertical watercolor / Piece manipulated and transformed into new composition / Closely related to intellectual climate and color theories of Der Blaue Reiter?s Expressionism / Deliberately naĂŻve images reminiscent of children?s art / Complex visual ambiguities / Metaphysical approach to perception / Connection with Bauhaus, teachings on form and color / Theories of color and equivalences between color ranges and musical notes.

DIFUSSION The emotion of the artist?s soul ?is able to bring out a basically corresponding emotion in the soul of the viewer,? Kandinsky?s words / Expressionism aspires to arouse emotions, not just sensations, in the viewer / Manifestos and programmatical shows, to publicize their ideas / In 1913 Herwarth Walden organized the 'Erster deutscher Herbstsalon', German autumn salon, ambitious exhibition of international modern art / His weekly periodical and gallery Der Sturm, chiefly responsible for disseminating Expressionism / International forum for exchanging ideas / Dispersal of Expressionism after the Great War / Radical context of social unrest. Johannes Itten Group of Houses in Spring (detail), 1916 Oil on canvas, 90 x 75 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

DIFUSSION

Wassily Kandinsky Picture with Three Spots, n. 196, 1914 Oil on canvas, 121 x 111 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Ludwig Meidner The Corner House (Villa Kochmann, Dresden), 1913 Oil on canvas mounted on panel, 97.2 x 78 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Painted in Munich before war forced him to return to Russia / Pictorial experiments close to abstraction / Combination of rhythms of fluctuating forms and bright colors / Form is ?outward expression of an inner content,?painter?s words / Painting, like music, conveys emotion / Owned by Solomon R. Guggenheim / Featured in his museum?s inaugural exhibition.

?Let?s paint what is close to us, our city world!? painter?s words / Shows Villa Kochmann, located between the Residenzstrasse and Alemannenallee in Dresden / Chaotic depiction of modern city / Close to the painter?s ?apocalyptic landscapes? displayed at Der Sturm, 1912 / Italian Futurist aesthetic combined with Expressionism / Political and social turmoil in leadup to Great War / Intuitive premonition of approaching destruction.

DIFUSSION

Lyonel Feininger The Lady in Mauve, 1922 Oil on canvas, 100.5 x 80.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

American living in Germany, in contact with Expressionism / 1913, took part in Walden?s Erster deutscher Herbstsalon / Expressionism interwoven with Cubism and Futurism / Elegant female figure in streets of Paris / Fragmented image, unstable architecture / Combines artistic creation with interest in music / Laws of the fugue reflected in repetitions of forms and harmony of planes and colors.

?For me,art isoneof the most sublimeformsof communication,that which bringsout thebest inthe humansoul? H.H.Thyssen-Bornemisza

STIGMATIZATION 1920s, turbulent and flourishing Weimar Republic, several paintings now in Thyssen collections entered German museums / 1933, Hitler chancellor of Germany / Immediate launch of policy of artistic purges / Stigmatization of avant-garde art, dramatic consequences / Expressionist artists branded ?degenerate,?forced to emigrate or stop painting / Confiscation of public and private collections / Works burned, placed in storage or mocked, defamatory exhibitions / 1937, Entartete Kunst, exhibition of degenerate art in Munich / Effective Nazi propaganda machinery for ridiculing modern art / Works hung chaotically, topped with denigrating labels / Madness becomes method. George Grosz Twilight (detail), 1922 Watercolour and ink on paper, 52.3 x 40.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

STIGMATIZATION

Max Pechstein Horse Fair, 1910 Oil on canvas, 70 x 81 cm Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Horse fair scene in the vordere Platz (village square) of Eisenberg-Moritzburg, near Dresden / Animals shown lined up surrounded by crowd / Economy of pictorial means, flat perspective and vibrant colors / Acquired by Berlin?s Nationalgalerie, 1928 / Confiscated by Nazis, 1937 / Pechstein declared degenerate artist and his works included in Entartete Kunst.

George Grosz Metropolis, 1916-1917 Oil on canvas, 100 x 102 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Apocalyptic vision of vulnerable, modern city simmering with tension / Sarcastic portrayal of German society doomed to self-destruction / Acquired by Kunsthalle Mannheim, 1924 / Confiscated by Nazi government, 1937 / On back, number ?16194,?sign identifying it as degenerate art / Shown in Entartete Kunst, 1937 / Sold by Reich government in controversial auction at Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 1939 / Returned to market through Curt Valentin.

STIGMATIZATION

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Street with Red Streetwalker, 1914-1925 Oil on canvas, 125 x 90.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Berlin street scene / Expressionist spontaneity extends to modern metropolis / Fascination with lowlife of prostitutes and cabaret dancers / Streetwalker at corner , attracting male gazes / Geometric structure, angular style / Clashing colors heighten anxiety / Kirchner declared degenerate artist by Nazis / Street scenes included in Entartete Kunst, 1937 / Beside them the slogan ?An insult to German femininity.?

?Thefact that theseartistshadbeen oppressedbyNational Socialistic rĂŠgimeandthat their art hadbeen officiallybrandedasbeingdegenerate, wasfor meanaddedincentivefor collectingthem?

H.H.Thyssen-Bornemisza

REHABILITATION Post-war, reaction to Nazi annihilation of avant-garde / Rehabilitation of Expressionism, string of exhibitions / 20th-Century German Art, London, 1938 / General Exhibition of German Art, Dresden, 1946 / Documenta I, Kassel, 1955 / German avant-garde alongside international art / Market recovery / 1961, Baron Thyssen started collecting Expressionist art / Aided by Roman Norbert Ketterer, promotor of modern art / Contribution to redeeming German artists. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Sun over Pine Forest (detail), 1913 Oil on canvas, 77 x 90.5 cm Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

REHABILITATION

Th e M ol tzau an d Th yssen cou pl es at th e Au ction 36 of th e Stu ttgar ter Ku n stk abin ett, ear l y M ay 1961

?It wastheearly1960sthat I purchasedmyfirst workbya GermanExpressionist artist.It wasa watercolour byEmil Noldeof circa 1931-35showingayoungcouple.I hadinstantlybeenstruckbyits boldcolourrangeandbythevery particular atmospherethat emanatedfromit. H.H.Thyssen-Bornemisza

REHABILITATION

Max Beckmann Still Life with Yellow Roses, 1937 Oil on canvas, 110.5 x 65.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Beckmann fled Berlin after opening of Entartete Kunst, which annihilated modern art, 1937 / Still life painted during exile in Amsterdam / Period of heightened emotional tension / Conveys shock, anxiety, hint of bitter expressiveness / Flat space crammed with objects and fruit / Black contours and forms with greenish and earthy colors / Covert denunciation of ravages of Nazism.

Emil Nolde Young Couple, c. 1931-1935 Watercolour on paper, 53.5 x 36.9 cm Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections

Watercolor from the ?fantasies?series, 1931?35 / Theatrical, magical atmosphere / Tension between couple / Formal simplification / Eye-catching, unnatural colors / Predominance of ultramarine blue and vermilion / First Expressionist work purchased by the baron, 1961 / Acquired from R. N. Ketterer?s auction house Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, pioneer in selling modern German art / Hard-fought bidding, record price, media stir.

INTERNATIONALIZATION 1960s, Baron Thyssen started promoting the collection internationally / Disassociation from his father?s German nationalism and association with values of Germany?s new modern, international identity / Policy of international exposure and activity / Exhibitions in Germany, rest of Europe, North America, Australia, Japan ? / Villa Favorita, home to Thyssen collection, hosts first show devoted to German Expressionism, 1989 / Selection of works by BrĂźcke and Blaue Reiter artists and independent Expressionists / Comprehensive overview of Expressionist art / Next goal: open the new museum to house his collection in Madrid. Emil Nolde Landscape with Farmhouses (detail), 1946 or 1947 Watercolour on paper, 22.8 x 27.5 cm Thyssen-Bornemisza Collections

INTERNATIONALIZATION

Wassily Kandinsky The Ludwigskirche in Munich, 1908 Oil on cardboard, 67.3 x 96 cm Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection on loan at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza

Early painting by the Russo-German painter, chosen as international image of collection of Expressionist art, 1989 / Ceremony set in monumental Neo-Romanesque church, allusion to Germany?s artistic and cultural past / Expressive arrangement of tonal values, derived from French references / Conveys abstract quality of contrasting light and color / Introspective art characteristic of modern German trends / Acquired from Richard Feigen in 1977.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Doris with Ruff Collar, c.1906 Ă&#x201C;leo sobre cartĂłn, 71.9 x 52.5 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Portrait of Doris Grosse, Dodo, Kirchner?s second mistress in Dresden / Background and figure shaped from juxtaposed dashes of color / Short, thick, paint-laden brushstrokes / Culmination of Van Gogh?s influence / Acquired from Ketterer in 1961, the year the baron began collecting Expressionist works.?

INTERNATIONALIZATION

?Ihavealwayswantedtoown thebest paintingsbythebest painters.Ineedtofeelthat a personal relationshipis establishedwitheachof them? H.H.Thyssen-Bornemisza Th e Bar on an d Bar on ess Th yssen at th e Stu ttgar ter Ku n stk abin ett au ction 36 with its catal ogu e L

INTERNATIONALIZATION

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner The Junkerboden under Snow, ca 1936-1938 Oil on canvas, 100 x 120 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Painting from the final period in Davos / ?His work from that period tends in my mind to be underrated,?baron?s words / Liselotte Bendix Stern, widow of Doctor Max Stern, previous owners, wrote: ?My husband and I always believed that the painting should be available for public enjoyment and he would have felt very pleased at it being in La Favorita.?

Emil Nolde Glowing Sunflowers, 1936 Oil on canvas, 88.5 x 67.3 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Nolde, keen painter of flowers / ?I adore flowers and their destiny, they grow rapidly, bud, bloom, glow, show their joy, sag, wither and die,? painter?s words / 1927, had new house built in SeebĂźll, near Denmark / Leafy garden used as motif / Series on sunflowers, influence of Van Gogh / Painted in 1936, when declared degenerate artist / Acquired from Ketterer in 1973.

INTERNATIONALIZATION

Max Beckmann Quappi in Pink Jumper, 1932-1934 Ă&#x201C;lil on canvas, 105 x 73 cm Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Portrait of Matilde von Kaulbach, Quappi, painter?s second wife / Attractive, modern, elegantly dressed young woman / Shown smoking, slight air of superiority / Begun in Frankfurt, 1932, and completed in Berlin, 1934, by then under Nazi rule / Quappi wears gloomy expression / Similar to models by Matisse / Incisive style with thick black contours / Unsettling, ambiguous strip of deep black on left / Acquired from Ketterer in 1969.

M oder ne Kunst aus der Sam m lung Thyssen-Bor nem isza exh ibition at th e Br em en Ku n sth al l e, 1975

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German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection

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German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection