Street Scene in front of a Barbershop 1926

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner made this ‘Street Scene in front of a Barbershop’ with oil paint on canvas, but when? I imagine Kirchner squeezing out vibrant colors onto his palette – acid yellow, flamingo pink, turquoise blue – and then attacking the canvas with loaded brushes, carving out these angular figures and mannequin heads, all surrounded by the raw energy of city life. I can feel Kirchner trying to capture the unease and anxiety of pre-war Germany, a kind of emotional overload. Look at the way he's rendered the figures, their faces are almost mask-like, their features sharp and exaggerated. I wonder if Kirchner felt alienated in this urban landscape, a voyeur observing the bustling crowds with a mix of fascination and dread. Those mannequins! They recur a lot in his paintings. To me, they're like stand-ins for real people and represent the artificiality and alienation of modern life. Kirchner’s paintings feel like an ongoing search, pushing at the boundaries of form and expression. And, like, that's what being an artist is all about, right?