Group of Artists 1927

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this painting of a Group of Artists in oil on canvas. What strikes me first is the application of the paint. Look at how the paint is applied in flat planes, one colour next to another, forming the image. I imagine Kirchner building the painting, one block of colour at a time, like a jigsaw. The material quality of the painting is clear; you can see each stroke, each decision. The colour palette is quite restricted and the surface quality is quite matt. My eye is drawn to the way the artist uses a few very thin lines to describe the cigarette in the seated figure. It is almost cartoonish and this adds to the feeling of caricature, a playful but knowing depiction of his friends. Like Kirchner, Paula Modersohn-Becker was also interested in representing her peers. You can see in their work an interest in colour, form, and materiality, which elevates it above mere representation.