Erich Heckel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Jump to: navigation, search

Erich Heckel (1883-1970). German painter and print maker.

Founding member of the Die Brucke group ('The Bridge'; existed 1905-1913). The four founding members saw the print as an cheap and quick medium by which to produce affordable art. He and his circle greatly admired the work of Edvard Munch, and aimed to make a 'bridge' between traditional neo-romantic German painting and modern expressionist painting.

Life and work

In 1937 the Nazi Party declared his work 'degenerate'; it forbid him to show his work in public, and over 700 items of his art were confiscated from the nation's museums. By 1944 all of his print blocks and printing plates had been destroyed.

The critic James Auer has said that his Franzi Standing ...

"...in many ways encapsulates the principal virtues of the entire Expressionist movement. At once frank and respectful, daring and compassionate, it depicts a girl-woman on the cusp of adolescence, innocent and free yet, at the same time, curious and knowing."

After the war Heckel lived at Hemmenhofen near Lake Constance, teaching at the Karlsruhe Academy until 1955. He continued painting until his death in 1970.

A major retrospective exhibition, Erich Heckel – His Work in the 1920s, was held October 2004 – February 2005 at the Brücke Museum in Berlin.

Critical and biographical books are currently only available in the German language.

External links

Personal tools
In other languages