Fünf Tänzerinnen in Parade. – Fünf Spagattänzerinnen 1911

Here we have Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s vision of ‘Fünf Tänzerinnen in Parade. – Fünf Spagattänzerinnen’, those five dancers. It feels like a fleeting impression caught with energetic marks in a subdued palette, but the feeling is vivid, a mix of pinks, blues, and blacks. You can almost see Kirchner working quickly, trying to capture the movement and atmosphere of the performance. The composition is so dynamic, it feels like the dancers could leap right off the paper. I can imagine Kirchner sketching furiously during the performance, trying to get down the essence of each dancer’s movement. What was he thinking as he made it? Was he trying to convey the frenetic energy of the performance, or perhaps something deeper about the relationship between the performers and the audience? It’s like he's in conversation with other artists who were also capturing the energy of modern life. I’m thinking of Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec, who were similarly drawn to the world of dance and entertainment. There’s a real sense of exchange and influence across time. Ultimately it’s about embracing the open-endedness of art, where meaning is always in motion.