Liegendes Mädchen 1914

Otto Mueller made this painting, "Liegendes Mädchen", with distemper on canvas sometime in the first third of the 20th century. It shows us a reclining girl, evoking both classical nudes and the bohemian lifestyle, especially prevalent in the artist group Die Brücke to which Mueller belonged. It's worth thinking about how Mueller presents the female form and what this might tell us about the social conditions of art production at that time. The image creates meaning through its visual codes. The girl, in her casual repose, references a rejection of bourgeois conventions. The work was made in Germany, a country undergoing immense social change and the rise of Expressionism and other avant-garde movements. These movements often challenged the conservative norms of the time, and the institutional structures that upheld them. To understand this work more fully, it's important to examine the artist's biography, the critical reception of his work, and the broader social and political context in which he was working. Art history reminds us that meaning is contingent on social and institutional context.