Artist 42: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Kirchner was born in 1880 in Germany and he was apart of the German expressionism movement. One of my favorite movements, Kirchner does a lot of scenes depicting the streets of Berlin, and most especially taking note of the prostitutes on those streets. Such as this one, "Street, Berlin" in 1903, it shows a dark, cluttered, busy street with mostly male figures except the two women walking together closest to the viewer. Honestly, they don't really look like prostitutes to me, however I never lived in Germany in the early 1900's. I'm sure that prostitutes dressed a bit more...better...in those times? Regardless, the style of the painting, whether you know they are prostitutes or not, gives you an eerie feeling. The jagged edges, the dark color schemes of mostly black of the men's clothes and dark purple of the woman's, along with the bright pinks of the street create a very unsettling feeling, so you know something is up. This street seems very high class, but shady and dangerous. It seems like a place where the rich would hang out, but also a place that you could get stabbed in the back, where greed runs rampant, and good people do not want to be. I usually like my black and white pieces, however Kirchner really makes me think about how much color effects the feelings you want to get across to the viewer, and how they can emphasize your subjects.