Full Description
New Perspectives on Brücke Expressionism: Bridging History brings together highly-renowned international art historians in a scholarly work that offers the first full-length reassessment in English of the importance of the Brücke group to German modernism specifically and to international modernism more generally. It challenges, interrogates and updates existing orthodoxies in the field of Brücke studies by deploying new research combined with innovative interpretative approaches. This is an exciting volume of essays with an interlinking tripartite structure that charts the significance of this pioneering German avant-garde group in relation to various critical themes, namely, 'cultural and material identity', 'collectivity and selfhood', as well as 'defamation and rehabilitation'. The book is unique in the field in that it seeks to excavate specific historical research relating to the activities of the Brücke as a bohemian yet nonetheless enterprising artists' community, and considers the contributions of the key members in relation to the dynamics of that group rather than simply on an individual basis. It thoroughly explores the historiography of the Brücke artists' reception throughout the turbulent history of the twentieth century up until the present day.
Contents
Contents: Preface; Part I Cultural and Material Identity: Introduction, Christian Weikop; Brücke, German expressionism and the issue of modernism, Rose-Carol Washton Long; Brücke, French art and German national identity, Timothy O. Benson; Some re-considerations of Brücke's 'new German style': shape, components and ramifications, Reinhold Heller; Wood - 'primitive' material for the creation of 'German sculpture', Monika Wagner. Part II Collectivity and Selfhood: Introduction, Christian Weikop; Künstlergruppe Brücke and the public sphere: bridging the gender divide, Shulamith Behr; Difficult Kirchner - alternative traditions, visual tensions, autodidactism, Colin Rhodes; Otto Mueller and the Brücke: a creative dialogue, Tanja Pirsig-Marshall; Max Pechstein: outsider or trailblazer?, Aya Soika; Intersubjectivity and selfhood of the Brücke: a Kohutian perspective, Donald Kuspit. Part III Defamation and Rehabilitation: Introduction, Christian Weikop; Old masters of modern art: Brücke after 1945, John-Paul Stonard; The art of Brücke as a political issue, Christian Saehrendt; The British reception of Brücke and German expressionism, Christian Weikop; Bibliography; Index.
