One of the most important artists of German Expressionism, Kirchner was a founding member of Die Brucke in 1905 (along with Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl; they were soon joined by Emile Nolde and Max Pechstein) and its dominant member for the next five or six years until his criticisms of his fellows alienated him from them and the group dissolved in 1913. In 1910 he settled in Berlin and began a series of paintings based upon the streets of Berlin combining cityscapes and figures. He was drafted in 1915 but suffered a nervous breakdown and was released in 1916. After being hit by a car in Berlin, he underwent a long period of recovery, leaving Berlin and settling in Switzerland. Although there were many retrospectives of his work in Germany during the 1930s, he suffered a crisis after the Nazis included his works in the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition. He shot himself the following year. In The Oxford Dictionary of 20th-Century Art, Ian Chilvers ranks Kirchner as "one of the 20th century's greatest masters" of printmaking, and says that his mature works are distinguished by "a harsh contrast of planes and abrupt angularity influenced by his admiration for medieval German woodcuts" (p. 318). The last 40 years have seen a tremendous critical interest in Kirchner's prints and paintings; his works are to be found in every important museum in Europe and America.

Select Bibliography:
Annemarie Dube-Heynig, Kirchner: His Graphic Art (Greenwich CT: New York Graphic Society, n.d. [1961]); Lucius Grisebach, Annette Meyer zu Eissen, Ulrich Luckhardt, E. L. Kirchner 1880-1938;Ausst.Katalog Nationalgalerie Berlin 1979 (Berlin: Nationalgalerie Berlin, 1979); Donald E. Gordon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: A Retrospective Exhibition (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1968); Lucius Grisebach, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1880-1938 (Cologne: Taschen, 1999); Roman Norbert Ketterer and Claus Zoege von Manteuffel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Drawings and Pastels (NY: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982); Kirchner Museum, Davos & Museum Folkwang, Essen, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Das Innere Bild. "Farben sind die Freude des Lebens." Exhibition: 1999-2000 (Cologne: Dumont, 1999); Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik. Ausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag am 6.Mai-29.J uni 1980 (Bremen: Graphisches Kabinett, Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner KG, 1980); Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in der Graphischen Sammlung der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1980); Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Zeichnungen 1906-1925 (Kassel: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Kassel, 1967); Christian Lenz, E. L. Kirchner. Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und ausgewählte Druckgraphik (Frankfurt: Städelsches Kunstinstitut, 1974); Magdalena Moeller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik (Berlin: Brucke Museum, 1990); W. R.Valentiner, E. L. Kirchner, German Expressionist (Raleigh: The North Carolina Museum of Art, 1958).

Frau mit katze / Woman with cat (Dube 869, D-R 1479.4). Original woodcut, 1922-24. As published in the first volume of Gustave Schiefler's Die grapahische Werk von Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, bis 1924: Band , I bis 1916 (Berlin, 1926). The catalogue raisonné of German Expressionist prints in the Rifkin Collection at the LACMA list the edition as 260. Dube says the edition was 550 bound in linen and 55 bound in a half-leather binding. Since many, if not most, of the volumes of the catalog raisonné of Kirchner's prints are in meums or libraries, it is rare to find an impression of this charming woodcut available. Image size: 148x90mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Man with parrot (Dube 814 ii, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 118x78mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

The lovers / Sigmund and Christine (Dube 820, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 69x75mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Briggel verflucht das geld (Dube 813, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 91x78mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

The meeting / Joshua and Priska (Dube 823, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 62x76mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

The bribe (Dube 816, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 86x49mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

The rivals ((Dube 812, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 116x82mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Brother and sister (Dube 826, Davis-Rifkind 1478). Original woodcut for Neben der Heerstrasse / Near the Military Road (Zurich and Leipzig: Verlag von Grethlein & Co, 1923). Image size: 60x78mm. Price: Please call or email for current pricing information.

Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.

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