Die erste Hilfe (First Aid) by Max Pechstein

Die erste Hilfe (First Aid) Possibly 1918 - 1920

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drawing, coloured-pencil, print, ink

drawing

coloured-pencil

narrative-art

print

figuration

ink

coloured pencil

expressionism

Dimensions: 15 1/4 x 12 1/4 in. (38.74 x 31.12 cm) (plate)20 13/16 × 14 7/8 in. (52.86 × 37.78 cm) (sheet)

Max Pechstein made this print, Die erste Hilfe, or First Aid, using lithography, a printmaking process that invites mark-making in a very direct way, almost like drawing. Look at the urgency in the scratching of the marks. Pechstein wasn’t trying to hide the process here. You can see the movement of his hand as he built up the image. The color palette is restrained, mostly black lines with touches of red and green, but the emotional intensity is anything but. I’m drawn to the area around the wounded man's chest, where the red seems to pulse like an open wound. It's a visceral image, and the rawness of the marks amplifies that feeling. Pechstein was part of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke, and like his peers Kirchner and Heckel, he used art to confront difficult subjects head-on. This piece reminds me of Käthe Kollwitz's war prints, both artists wrestling with the human cost of conflict. Art doesn't always have to be pretty; sometimes, it needs to be a scream.

Comments

minneapolisinstituteofart over 1 year ago

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Max Pechstein was a leading German expressionist painter and printmaker and member of the avant-garde artist association Die Brucke. This poignant portrayal of a mortally wounded soldier is based on his own experiences and memories serving as a soldier in the German army during the First World War (1914-18). The print, a rare hand-colored proof outside of the regular edition, was published as part of a series of dramatic scenes of modern warfare that comprised Pechstein's Somme 1916 portfolio. The Somme, a region in northern France, was the site of a series of battles in the summer and fall of 1916 between allied British and French armies and entrenched German forces. The conflict soon devolved into a war of attrition that ultimately claimed more than 850,000 lives. As a consequence, the Somme has become a symbol of the utter senselessness of war.