Ernst Ludwig Kirchner quotes - page 3

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and one of the founding members of the artist group Die Brücke. His bold use of color and dynamic compositions had a major impact on modern art. He is regarded as a key figure in the development of early 20th-century German Expressionism. Here are 54 of his quotes:

..the feeling that pervades a city presented itself in the qualities of lines of force.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

..how the movement of the passers-by [in his Street scene painting of 191-14] is comprehended in the rhombus of the heads which is twice repeated. In this way life and movement arise from an original geometric form. [Kirchner designed a diagram together with this line in the letter].

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Did you know that in 1900 I had the bold idea of renewing German art?.. .First of all I needed to invent a technique of grasping everything while it was in motion, and it was Rembrandts drawings in the Kupferstichkabinett in Munich that showed me how. I practiced seizing things quickly in bold strokes, wherever I was, walking and standing still.. ..and in this way I learned how to depict movement itself, and I found new forms in the ecstasy and haste of this work.. ..and to these forms was added pure colour, as pure as the sun generates it.. ..in line with Goethe's theory [of colours]. It makes pictures much more colorful. Making wood-cuts, which I'd learnt as a fifteen-year-old from my father, helped me to stabler and simpler forms. And armed in this way I returned to Dresden.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner