Claire Albiez

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Hassold, Cris

Keywords

Art History (Modern), German Studies, German Expression, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Area of Concentration

Art History

Abstract

Die Kunstlergruppe Brucke, or the Bridge artist movement, had as its goal the creation of a new form of art in Germany. From 1905 to 1913, its members pushed artistic boundaries and shocked the bourgeois class and even stuffier upper class with their bold and aggressive style. They incorporated Post-Impressionistic influences, exotic references, and differing media in order to create their works. They were highly optimistic about the future and subscribed to the German Expressionist concept of man's necessity of returning to nature. Taken as a whole, die Brucke successfully forged a revolutionary approach to art.The first chapter explores the denial of the painting as the most respected form of art, for die Brucke artists placed high importance on media that would be considered craft during their day. The second chapter discusses their novel approaches to the nude as a purer interpretation of the human body, which was now free of the shame associated with it at the German art academies. The third chapter analyzes their preference for simple subjects and the everyday person over traditional subjects of the day, focusing on intimate settings and the capturing of contemporary scenes of ordinary life. The final chapter examines their different responses to natural landscape versus cityscape, or the concept of the connection between man and nature versus the evils of the metropolis. I first became interested in die Brucke in 2005, when I saw the exhibit Brucke und Berlin: 100 Jahre Expressionismus (The Bridge and Berlin: 100 Years of German Expressionism) at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin. During my semester studying in Berlin in spring 2012, I saw the group's works at the Brucke-Museum and conducted research on primary sources related to the group. I translated these from German into English and have included them throughout. My English translation is within the text and the German original is in the endnotes.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida Libraries, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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