Die Brücke - The Bridge: Comments on Sam Hunter's & Gill Perry's reviews

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Die Brücke - The Bridge: Comments on Sam Hunter's & Gill Perry's reviews. 5 pages en anglais



Focusing on both art historians' analysis of ?German expressionism' and more precisely on ?the bridge' movement gives us an interesting highlight of the diversity of perspectives when dealing with Art explanation. As a matter of fact, Sam Hunter in Modern Art understands the ?Bridge' movement in a rather different way than Gill Perry does in Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction. Through this paper, I would like to pay attention to the authors' critics in all their subtlety to better conceive German expressionism in the name of ?die Brücke'.

Extraits

[...] In spite of pushing his analysis further on sexuality, human body, power relations, Hunter keeps describing the movement with a selection of members' paintings (Heckel/ Schmidt-Rottluf/ Nolde). He devotes more than half of a page to a late-painting of Nolde, the Tropical Sun, which does not refer to any political or social problem but symbolizes raw emotions, ‘pantheistic aura to landscape' and mysticism (cf. The Last Supper). In opposition, Gill Perry writes a thoughtful article on “Expression and the about how the nude female body is a central motif in the Bridge's paintings. [...]

[...] With her convincing didactic method (point by point), she attempts to catch the ‘Geist' of expressionism, to provide the key-elements for labelling a work of Art (especially from the Bridge) expressionist, and keeps showing the readers the complexity and the instability of this movement. Bridge' itself: Both authors mention the group's opening pages of their first exhibition's catalogue to portray the group's ideology. They concur that the Bridge was a resisting youth movement against the industrialized bourgeois lifestyle but they slightly differ in its placing. [...]

[...] Thus, the triumphant pose of Sam, disclosing his sexual attributes in the photo, along with other paintings of Nudes intentionally selected for their exotic connotation (Kirchner's Negro Dance) serve Perry's argument on “Western myths about black sexuality”. Not only do the subject matters in the ‘expressionist' process but also the technique. This part casts doubt on the real intentions of the artists and blurs the viewers' and scholars' understanding of the painting. According to Hunter's view, the ‘jarring contrasts of color, jagged, slashing lines, and forced distortion of natural forms enable the true nature of things to be bared and enhanced. On the other hand, it could also unveil a lack of competence. [...]

[...] Sam Hunter suggests these negative power relations through Self- Portrait with Model by Kirchner. The painter stands in the foreground where he is at ease, naked with a colorful caftan, his brush erected as a phallus, his glaze reinforced by a black mask. The model in the background enacts an easy prey: chauvinism and egocentricity are given off the composition. Therefore, when Hunter writes “Kirchner assumed the role of savage moralist reacting to a corrupt society” we no longer understand the message conveyed by the painting. [...]

[...] Die Brücke - The Bridge: Comments on Sam Hunter's & Gill Perry's reviews Focusing on both art historians' analysis of ‘German expressionism' and more precisely on bridge' movement gives us an interesting highlight of the diversity of perspectives when dealing with Art explanation. As a matter of fact, Sam Hunter in Modern Art understands the ‘Bridge' movement in a rather different way than Gill Perry does in Primitivism, Cubism, Abstraction. Through this paper, I would like to pay attention to the authors' critics in all their subtlety to better conceive German expressionism in the name of Brücke'. [...]