31/5/2007
Expressive!
Albertina, Wien
The Hermann Gerlinger Collection probably constitutes the most important and integrated body of work of The Bridge. On show 260 works, offering a comprehensive view of the extraordinary and highly expressive pictorial worlds of the artists of the group known as The Bridge/Die Bruke.
The Artists of Die Brucke: The Collection of Hermann
From 1 June to 2 September 2007, the Albertina will be offering a comprehensive view of the extraordinary and highly expressive pictorial worlds of the artists of the group known as The Bridge. Under the title “Expressive! The Artists of "The Bridge". The Hermann Gerlinger Collection”, some 260 works will be shown, drawn from the collection of Hermann Gerlinger, the Moritzburg Foundation, the Kunstmuseum of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, and the Albertina, as well as further works from private collections and Viennese museums.
In terms of its significance and extent, the Hermann Gerlinger Collection probably constitutes the most important and integrated body of work of The Bridge artists after the "Brücke" Museum in Berlin. Started in the 1950s, and still active today, the collection is characterised by its systematic approach and the attention it pays to works that have previously remained less well-known. The group of artists called "The Bridge" was formed at the very beginning of the Expressionist movement: in 1905, four architecture students (Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff) founded what would prove to be a pioneering association. They were then joined in subsequent years by other artists, including Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller and for a short while also Emil Nolde.
The group’s work is characterised by its critical approach to traditional, academic painting and its search for new and free artistic solutions in the quest to represent reality. The most important means of expression is colour, rapturously intensified to achieve a state of pure expression, with forms being expressively simplified, exaggerated and defamiliarised. The importance of the contributions made by the individual artists, even after The Bridge broke up as a group, for the art of the Classical Modern era, may be seen from by the pictures by Otto Mueller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff that are on show here, which have been chosen with care and an awareness of quality, and range from 1913 to the 1920s.
Albertina
Albertinaplatz, 1 - Wien
Museum Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday to Sunday 10:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Wednesday 10:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Tickets: Adults € 9,50, students 7