Description:
woman; man; portrait; costume/uniform
Label Text:
Kirchner painted this double portrait of his friend and most important model Dodo, accompanied by her brother, in dissonant colors. The brother has a lime-green face edged in pink, while Dodo, except for her green sleeves and purple hat and fan, is entirely yellow, from her gown to her complexion. Kirchner treats color almost as subject matter and pushes its expressive potential to a high emotional pitch.
This canvas was painted three years after the formation of Die Brücke (The Bridge), a group of artists led by Kirchner and three other artists and architecture students in Dresden, Germany. The name represented a crossing, or bridge, from the arts of the past to the art of the future. The members were influenced by historical German art, especially woodcuts, and by contemporary avant-garde movements such as the Fauves in France, who also used a vivid, nonrepresentational color palette. Their imagery often dealt with urban subjects and the anxiety of modern life.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1955.59 |
