Kirchner Woodcuts Benjamin Badock, Gabriela Jolowicz and Thomas Kilpper   09.11.2024 – 09.03.2025

Kirchner Woodcuts /// Benjamin Badock, Gabriela Jolowicz and Thomas Kilpper

In contrast to the current flood of digital images, the old medium of woodcuts shows backbone: Woodcuts are powerful, clear and direct. Each cut is a decision. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Expressionists celebrated it as an experimental means of representation. In particular, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938), the co-founder of the artist group Die Brücke, viewed his prints as being on par with painting. In woodcuts, many of his hand-printed works are tantamount to unique works of art.

The exhibition shows around 180 high-calibre woodcut works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and provides an in-depth look into all his creative periods. On display are impressive prints, some large format, including many complicated colour woodcuts. Kirchner’s nudes, portraits, townscapes and landscapes reflect existential states of human existence ranging from desire, agonizing solitude and the need for community, to fear and violence and the longing for peace and quiet.

In their motifs and expressive energy, Kirchner’s woodcuts are the inspiration for contemporary artists. Consequently, the exhibition also examines the current state of woodcut.
Benjamin Badock (*1974, Chemnitz), Gabriela Jolowicz (*1978, Salzgitter) and Thomas Kilpper (*1956, Stuttgart) apply themselves exclusively to woodcuts. In a critical and enjoyable exploration of Kirchner’s art, they develop expansive installations which are in turn receptive to Kirchner’s works.

 

(Fig. exhibition overview & above: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Self Portrait, 1905/06 (Detail), woodcut, private collection, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen)

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