Steidlville

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was one of the most important artists of the Expressionist movement, but he was also a skilled photographer who documented the main protagonists and the milieu of this important era. This book, compiled and edited by the Kirchner Museum Davos, is the first compilation of Kirchener’s photographs, taken between 1908 and 1938. They offer an insight into the beginning of the modern age and all its contradictions; the wild bohemian life of the artists, alongside scenes of the intensely archaic Alpine world. Kirchner also attempted to portray the "model society" of contemporary artists through his portraits, including artists such as Oskar Schlemmer, Hermann Scherer and Albert Müller; authors such as Theodor W. Bluth and Alfred Döblin; and collectors and patrons of the arts such as Carl Hagemann, Frédéric Bauer and Botho Graef. The chronological sequence of images covers all the genres in which Kirchner worked as a photographer: self-portraits, individual and group portraits, nudes, scenes from his atelier, exhibition documentation, landscapes, installations and documentary photographs.

The texts include an essay about the historical and artistic context of Kirchner's use of photography (Roland Scotti) and an essay about camera technique (Eberhard W. Kornfeld/Kurt Wyss). The catalogue index contains formal descriptions of the photographs and their contents and an extensive register provides researchers easy access to information. A detailed biography, which is illustrated in part by previously unpublished photos, makes it possible to link the individual photographs to specific moments in Kirchner's life.