Expo MSK 2024 - ERICH HECKEL - Plaine flamande 1916 (92)
ERICH HECKEL or German Expressionism
A magnificent exhibition in Ghent (Belgium)
At the end of 2024, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK) dedicated an exhibition to the German artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970). Heckel was one of the leading figures of German Expressionism and a co-founder of the artists' association Brücke.
From the end of the 19th century, young artists in Germany resisted the fleeting nature of Impressionism. In Dresden, the Brücke artists' association was founded in 1905. The 22-year-old Erich Heckel was one of the co-founders. This association of self-taught artists aimed to express strong joie de vivre in a common style of bright colors and angular forms. This style is called Expressionism: the artist tries to convey inner emotions through form and color rather than objective reality.
At the outbreak of World War I, Heckel was in his early thirties. Nevertheless, he already enjoyed a solid reputation in Germany. During the war, he became acquainted with Flanders. As a nurse for the Red Cross, he traveled to Ghent, Roeselare, and Ostend. On the hospital train, assembled by Walter Kaesbach, a curator of the Berlin National Gallery, were other painters and writers. As a result, the emergency hospital at Ostend station grew into a true artists' colony. Heckel met James Ensor there and developed a special friendship with his fellow nurse, the young poet Ernst Morwitz, whose literary world had a significant influence on his visual work.
During the war, Heckel's artistic activities continued. Between their shifting duties, the members of the artists' colony had enough time to devote to their art. In addition to several paintings, many gouaches, watercolors, drawings, and graphic works have been preserved: views of Roeselare, Ostend, and Ghent, sometimes featuring picturesque figures and bathers, but also still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes.
Despite the historical context, Heckel's stay in Flanders extended beyond World War I. Heckel was not a 'war artist' but a nurse working mainly behind the front lines. As a draftsman, he made numerous sketches of the places he visited and the people he observed. As a painter, he was particularly impressed by the Flemish landscape and the North Sea, with their unique cloud formations where light always tries to break through; motifs that seemed both foreign and familiar to him. The Flemish landscapes reminded him of the early days of the Brücke, when Heckel and his friends Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff would go out to paint en plein air.
(Source : MSK GHENT – BELGIUM)
Expo MSK 2024 - ERICH HECKEL - Plaine flamande 1916 (92)
ERICH HECKEL or German Expressionism
A magnificent exhibition in Ghent (Belgium)
At the end of 2024, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK) dedicated an exhibition to the German artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970). Heckel was one of the leading figures of German Expressionism and a co-founder of the artists' association Brücke.
From the end of the 19th century, young artists in Germany resisted the fleeting nature of Impressionism. In Dresden, the Brücke artists' association was founded in 1905. The 22-year-old Erich Heckel was one of the co-founders. This association of self-taught artists aimed to express strong joie de vivre in a common style of bright colors and angular forms. This style is called Expressionism: the artist tries to convey inner emotions through form and color rather than objective reality.
At the outbreak of World War I, Heckel was in his early thirties. Nevertheless, he already enjoyed a solid reputation in Germany. During the war, he became acquainted with Flanders. As a nurse for the Red Cross, he traveled to Ghent, Roeselare, and Ostend. On the hospital train, assembled by Walter Kaesbach, a curator of the Berlin National Gallery, were other painters and writers. As a result, the emergency hospital at Ostend station grew into a true artists' colony. Heckel met James Ensor there and developed a special friendship with his fellow nurse, the young poet Ernst Morwitz, whose literary world had a significant influence on his visual work.
During the war, Heckel's artistic activities continued. Between their shifting duties, the members of the artists' colony had enough time to devote to their art. In addition to several paintings, many gouaches, watercolors, drawings, and graphic works have been preserved: views of Roeselare, Ostend, and Ghent, sometimes featuring picturesque figures and bathers, but also still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes.
Despite the historical context, Heckel's stay in Flanders extended beyond World War I. Heckel was not a 'war artist' but a nurse working mainly behind the front lines. As a draftsman, he made numerous sketches of the places he visited and the people he observed. As a painter, he was particularly impressed by the Flemish landscape and the North Sea, with their unique cloud formations where light always tries to break through; motifs that seemed both foreign and familiar to him. The Flemish landscapes reminded him of the early days of the Brücke, when Heckel and his friends Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff would go out to paint en plein air.
(Source : MSK GHENT – BELGIUM)