Published on 28 January 2025

colourful overview of German expressionist Max Pechstein at Kunsthal

Exhibition

Max Pechstein's dynamic and colourful compositions were a major influence on the development of the visual language of expressionism. Much of his work reflects a search for a harmonious relationship between man and nature. Using over 50 paintings - supplemented by prints, woodcuts, drawings, photographs and personal objects belonging to the artist - the Kunsthal will show his broad oeuvre from 28 March.

Max Pechstein began his career as a decorative painter in Zwickau in the late nineteenth century, after which he moved to Dresden to study at the Royal Academy of Art. In 1906, he joined Die Brücke, an influential art movement that included artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde. The name symbolises artists' ambition to bridge a new approach to art, away from the established norms of academic art. Early work by Pechstein, including the oil painting Girl in the Forest (1910), shows how realistic renderings of reality within painting gave way to bright colours, rough, expressive brushstrokes and experiments in form.

Longing for nature

As an artist, Pechstein is in search of harmony, a pursuit that is evident both in his choice of subjects and his use of colour. His concept of harmony is closely linked to the relationship between man and nature. For instance, he draws inspiration from his travels to the East Prussian fishing village of Nida (Nidden), where Pechstein spends long periods. This picturesque village is known as one of the oldest artists' colonies in Europe. Pechstein, like many other artists, considers this place a paradise and finds inspiration in its natural surroundings. Leba, a fishing village in then Prussia, also often serves as a subject for his work. During Pechstein's time here, he paints the harbour, fishing boats and fishermen in vivid colours, as well as Evening in the harbour of Leba (1951) later in his career. A painting that almost radiates light because of the bright shades of yellow and blue. Pechstein is closely involved with the people of these villages. He regularly joins them on land or sea and captures this with his camera. The numerous photos he takes during these moments show how Pechstein's dynamic compositions of rural life came about in his paintings and prints.

Palau Islands

Inspired by Paul Gauguin's paintings of Tahiti and the Marquesas, Pechstein sets off for the Palau Islands, which were part of the German colonial empire at the time. Diary excerpts from his stay on the islands give insight into the artist's perception of the world. His trip had to be cut short early because of the outbreak of World War I, but the artist often returns to this place of longing in his mind. Once back in Berlin, he draws on his memories of Palau and bases his colourful oil paintings on the sketches he made of the paradisiacal surroundings there. He paints the rustling palm trees, tropical flowers and clear blue waterfalls found on the islands, and he also brings the locals - while fishing and sailing - to life on his canvas.

Contrasts

Through his work, Pechstein explores the contrast between simple rural life and the sophisticated urban world. In both his paintings and prints, which make up a large part of his oeuvre, Pechstein exploits the expressive power of sharp light-dark contrasts. With these, he vividly captures rural people, in contrast to the portraits he creates of, among others, his son - stately dressed in a dinner jacket - various acquaintances and himself, often depicted with a smoking tobacco pipe. Despite the vast differences between rural and urban life, Pechstein tries to capture the inner world of his subjects in all his portraits.

Entartete Kunst

Like many other modernist artists, Pechstein was censored by the Nazi regime and his work was labelled Entartete Kunst. In 1937, 16 of his works hang in the infamous Entartete Kunst exhibition, organised by the Nazis. Pechstein was fired as an art teacher and his work removed from German museums. Despite this repression, Pechstein continues to paint. During World War II, his studio is destroyed and much of Pechstein's work is lost. After World War II, he goes to work as a teacher for the Berlin Academy of Art. In his later works, Pechstein revisits many essential themes from his career, but reinterprets them with a new intensity of colour. Pechstein died in 1955.