Opening Kirchner and Nolde: Expressionism. Colonialism.
Exhibitions — September 3, 2021
On 3 September 2021 we would like to invite all our members for the opening of our new exhibition Kirchner and Nolde: Expressionism. Colonialism.
With the exhibition ‘Kirchner and Nolde: Expressionism. Colonialism’, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam sheds light on a hitherto unexplored aspect of the work of these two prominent artist: the close connection between the work they created between 1908 and 1918 and the colonial reality in which it originated. This major exhibition is an active attempt to illuminate the interplay between Expressionism and colonialism — a new perspective.
- Location
- Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
- Time
- September 3, 2021
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde are famous for their unconventional portrayals of people, landscapes and objects rendered in bold colours and energetic brushstrokes. It is the first-ever exhibition that addresses how their themes and ideas were shaped by the framework of colonialism, through which the artists encountered non-European peoples and art. Both artists drew and painted objects in ethnographic museums, and staged situations with performers of colour. Kirchner in particular painted black models in studio environments, while Nolde travelled to Papua New Guinea to paint and draw the people and landscape. It is the story of the appropriation of another visual culture and, by scrutinising the way in which people are portrayed, also confirms a racist world view.
Not only does the exhibition lay out the artists’ art historical backgrounds, wherever possible it also tells the stories of the people and objects portrayed. Shown alongside paintings, drawings and sculptures by Kirchner and Nolde, are works by artists from other parts of the world and documentary material that dates from the period between 1884 and 1918.
