Brücke, Die [Ger.,=the bridge], German expressionist art movement, lasting from 1905 to 1913. Influenced by the art of Jugendstil (the German equivalent of art nouveau), Van Gogh, and the primitive sculpture of Africa and the South Seas, the Brücke group developed an art of fervent emotionalism. Founded in Dresden by Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, and Heckel, the group invited Nolde and Pechstein to join in 1906 and Otto Mueller in 1910. They lived and worked communally, periodically issuing portfolios of their graphic art, which at first bore a rather communal style. By 1911 most of them had gone to Berlin. In their exhibitions they displayed boldly colored portraits, landscapes, and city themes. Their expressionistic art was essentially a reaction against a perceived superficiality of impressionism and realism. The members fell out in 1913 over a statement of their aims formulated by Kirchner.

Brücke, Die

(German; “The Bridge”)

“Dodo and Her Brother,” oil painting by Die Brücke artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, …

(credit: Courtesy of the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass.)

Organization of German Expressionist artists. It was founded in 1905 by four architectural students at the Dresden Technical School, including Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, who were soon joined by other German and European artists. Its name reflects their hope that their work would be a bridge to the art of the future. Strongly influenced by primitive art, German Gothic woodcuts, and the prints of Edvard Munch, they produced figure paintings and portraits depicting human suffering and anxiety, as well as still lifes and landscapes characterized by harshly distorted shapes and violent colours. They contributed to the 20th-century revival of the woodcut. The group disbanded in 1913.