Publisher's Synopsis
Explore the self-designed frames of the Die Brücke artists--a crucial aspect of the radical German Expressionist group's art.
The German Expressionist movement and members of Die Brücke or "The Bridge" School were in constant rebellion against the bourgeois natures of Impressionist and Art Nouveau movements and disdained the ornate frames that galleries used to exhibit paintings. For this group of radical artists, paintings and picture frames interacted as a compositional unit. This groundbreaking book looks at the role and meaning of the frame for the Brücke artists, especially Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Otto Mueller, who designed and built frames especially for their paintings. Internationally renowned frame expert Werner Murrer explores how the group employed special frame profiles, added carved ornaments, and finished or painted them with a view to connecting the painting to the surrounding space. Strangely enough, art dealers and collectors later replaced most of these frames, which they found too simple, with more opulent ones. This book brings together nearly all of the 500 known frames created by the Brücke artists, along with the artworks themselves. While mainly focusing on the period during which the movement was active, 1905-1913, the book also explores individual artists' careers following that time. From Kirchner's 1906 manifesto advocating the smashing of all picture frames to Schmidt-Rottluff's experiments in silver, bronze, and aluminum finishes, the book reveals a crucial aspect of the Brücke artists' thrillingly iconoclastic achievements.
