Expressionism in Germany and France: From Van Gogh to Kandinsky

by Timothy O. Benson

Although the Expressionist movement is widely considered to have arisen out of a German aesthetic, it was actually as much a result of German artists' exposure to artists living and working in France, such as van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Braque. In fact, in its early days, Expressionism was assigned no specific nationality at all. This fascinating book focuses on the key exhibitions, galleries, and museum directors that helped disseminate styles and techniques of revolutionary French artists ... Read More

Although the Expressionist movement is widely considered to have arisen out of a German aesthetic, it was actually as much a result of German artists' exposure to artists living and working in France, such as van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin, Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso, and Braque. In fact, in its early days, Expressionism was assigned no specific nationality at all. This fascinating book focuses on the key exhibitions, galleries, and museum directors that helped disseminate styles and techniques of revolutionary French artists throughout Germany. Included here are French masterpieces seen not only by German artists in Paris but at important galleries in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich; at the Berlin Secession; at the 1912 Sunderbund in Cologne, which presented more then 100 works by van Gogh and Gauguin; and in prominent Germans' private collections. Essays by leading scholars on this period consider the individual and creatively diverse responses of German artists to the Neo-Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Fauvist, and Cubist works that were seen in these venues and were enthusiastically collected and exhibited by museum directors such as Ernst Osthaus and Harry Kessler, while exploring the fascinating process of artistic influence in general. More than 100 paintings and works on paper are grouped in ways that encourage an understanding of artistic interchange by historical circumstance and by relationships between artists of both nationalities. This volume also reflects new scholarship on issues of French-German relations and seeks to contribute to the understanding of the ways the visual arts are influenced by ideas of national identity and cultural heritage. Read Less