Painting #138 - Expressionism

Expressionism

Degenerate art

“..... (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, was removed from state-owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that such art was an "insult to German feeling", un-German, Jewish, or Communist in nature.

“Those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions that included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art.

“Degenerate Art also was the title of an exhibition, held by the Nazis in Munich in 1937, consisting of 650 modernist artworks chaotically hung and accompanied by text labels deriding the art. Designed to inflame public opinion against modernism, the exhibition subsequently traveled to several other cities in Germany and Austria.”

Die Brücke / The Bridge 

In 1905, Kirchner, along with Bleyl and two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artists group Die Brücke ("The Bridge"). From then on, he committed himself to art. The group aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938, German) 

Berlin Street Scene
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
- oil on canvas (121 x 95 cm) 1913
- Neue Galerie (NYC) 

Street, Berlin
- Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
- oil on canvas (121 x 91 cm) 1913
- Museum of Modern Art (NYC) 

Street, Berlin (1913), one of a series on this theme, depicting prostitutes

Twilight
-  Emil Nolde (1867–1956, German-Danish)
- oil on canvas (74 x 101 cm) 1916
- Kunstmuseum (Basel) 

The Night
- Max Beckmann (1884–1950, German)
- oil on canvas (133 x 154 cm) 1818-19
- Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Düsseldorf) 

Beckman had been a medic in the Great War (i.e. WWI)

Death and the Maiden
- Egon Schiele (1890-1918, Austrian)
- oil (150 x 180 cm) 1915
- Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere (Vienna)

Death and the Maiden is a concept ultimately derived from the Medieval "Dance of Death": no matter one's status in life, the Dance of Death unites all.

The Bride of the Wind 
- Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980, Austrian) 
- oil on canvas (181 × 220 cm) 1913-14
- Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland) 

... a self-portrait expressing his unrequited love for Alma Mahler, widow of composer Gustav Mahler. Kokosvhka was but one of her lovers.

Immigrants to France

Landscape at Céret
- Chaïm Soutine (1893–1943, Russian in Paris)
- oil paint on canvas (56 x 84 cm) c.1920-21
- Tate Britain (London) 

The Green Violinist
- Marc Chagall (1887-1985, Belarusian in France)
- oil on canvas (198 x 109 cm) 1923-24
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (NYC) 

This work is often considered to be the inspiration for the 1964 musical 《Fiddler on the Roof》.

Madam Pompadour
- Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920, Italian in France)
 - oil on canvas (61 x 50 cm) 1915
- The Art Institute of Chicago 

The artist was nicknamed the king in his life circle. Thus he nicknamed his lover, a journalist from Britain, Madam Pompadour.

Source: Wikipedia