Archers c. 1935

Curator: This is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Archers," dating from around 1935, held here at the Städel Museum. It’s a compelling piece done in ink, pencil, and chalk. Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by the dynamism. The figures seem to surge across the page, despite the rather muted color palette. Curator: Indeed. The work's creation coincided with a period of increasing artistic and personal struggle for Kirchner. The Nazi regime had declared his work "degenerate," leading to the removal of his art from German museums and a ban on exhibiting. Editor: That tension bleeds into the frenetic energy of the piece. Look at how the ink outlines practically vibrate around the more solid chalk figures. There’s a real sense of unease and perhaps resistance. Curator: Precisely. His artistic circle and the landscapes of the Swiss Alps became essential to his survival. This work, featuring the theme of hunting and primal skills, could represent a turning inward, a finding of strength in an imagined, perhaps romanticized, past, amidst persecution. Editor: The composition guides the eye from left to right—from the more loosely sketched figures in the background to the foreground where the forms become dense. It almost feels like the piece visually breathes, inhaling and exhaling the drama of these figures engaged in their hunt. Curator: Also note the historical context for such figures in Kirchner’s work, his invocation of earlier modernist Primitivism or what he called his “hieroglyphs”, how his compositions created his unique visual style of conveying complex narratives of people and their cultures through form. Editor: This makes sense of the way we can decode these people and objects, and their interrelations: an analysis based on his construction of a unique artistic language.   Curator: Yes, the political anxieties of the period infuse the scene with greater import and allow one to truly comprehend Kirchner's vision in this work.   Editor: Ultimately, I think “Archers” resonates as an assertion of resilience. It offers a space of dynamic freedom crafted through deliberate formal strategies, that make this a compelling artwork by Kirchner.