Metamorphosis

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Kirchner was one of the greatest expressionist painters and helped found the German Expressionism in century 20. The war experience, led him to have mental breakdowns, and suicide at 58 years old. Best known for his genre painting of Berlin street scenes and colourful female nudes and Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Ohio). He also produced several examples of poster art, influenced by German Gothic art (woodcut) and African sculpture.

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Portrait of Gerda, 1914
Self-Portrait as a Soldier, 1915
Station in Davos, 1925

http://www.wikiart.org/en/ernst-ludwig-kirchner/portrait-of-gerda

My teacher Robin Alert in one of my tutorials, on my first academic year, he analysed some of my paintings, and he told me that my technique of using strong brushstrokes and bright colours, can be regarded as a characteristic of German Expressionism.
So, I have been searching on the subject and found certain characteristics of German Expressionism, and also I did some research on one of artist of this movement, which was Ernst Ludwig Kirchner which will be described below.

Expressionism is a general style of painting. It encompasses most of the genres, notably landscape painting (including townscapes) and portrait art (including caricature). Typically, an expressionist painter has aim to show how feel about a chosen subject. Thus, for instance, shapes drawn, colours used, thickness and texture of paint applied, as well as the type of brushstrokes used, will be chosen so as to best convey the painter’s attitude to the object or scene represented.

The precise characteristics of an expressionist work vary wildly, according to the attitude of the painter. Where strong feelings are involved, an artist may resort to quite an unrealistic distortion, or even semi-abstract forms while colour may be especially bold or garish. Other less incendiary feelings may be conveyed in a more subtle fashion, using symbolism or ironical juxtapositions. In contrast to this, Impressionism – itself an extreme version of naturalism – is all about optical truth: namely, the capture of a particular visual moment in time, exactly how it appears. The expressionist artist, however, has no interest in recording visual truth: he is simply interested in expressing his feelings and emotions in the paint.

Displeasure with the traditional conception of reality as represented by Impressionism was what characterized this new rebellious generation. These modernists were aware that the depiction of outer appearances comprises only one aspect of reality, and cannot penetrate to the essence of things.

They had realized that both the most painstaking analysis of what they observed, and the depictions of mental processes were inadequate to express complete being.

My acrylic painting on canvas

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On my first academic year, Level 4 in Fine Arts I started to develop my work and focus on the theme domestic violence x human relationship, socio-economic and political and psychological context.
To develop my theme I also created drawings on the sketchbook and I did acrylic paintings on canvas by following up the preparation of the performance and installation.
I inspired my painting work on the German expressionism such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner; I also sought to look at the work of other artists to gain inspiration for the subject matter such as Nan Goldin, Cindy Sherman photographs, and Punch and Judy.
At all my color palette, I make use of colours and strong brush strokes, and I try to create my own techniques painting through the inspiration on the other artists as Picasso-Cubism- abstract art, distorted human figures, and also in the artist Francis Bacon among others.

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My goal with my artwork is to provoke awareness about the various forms and kinds of violence.

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For semester 2 of the first year, I prepared and developed my Performance Domestic Violence.

Performance art is: “art in which the medium is the artist’s own body and the artwork takes the form of creations performed by the artist.”
www.tate.org.uk/performnce-art

Why Did I choose this topic?

On my first academic year, Level 4 in Fine Arts I started to develop my work and focus on the domestic violence theme – human relationship, socio-economic cultural, political and psychological context. Unfortunately, these kinds of things happen around of the world.

To explore more and develop this subject matter, I created my first drawings on the sketchbook and acrylic paintings on canvas and sheet paper by following up the preparation of the performance.
This performance is specifically about domestic violence between relationships. My goal is to make more people aware about the topic presented. However, despite the television and newspaper reports about domestic violence almost every day, my concern was to reinforce and show that domestic violence is a “certain pattern of behaviour that uses of physical abuse, sexual, emotional, economic, or psychological actions or threats in relationships”, where one part uses its power to intimidate the other person to have control. “It can happen in marriage, dating, family, and in any race, age, sexual orientation, religion, affecting people of almost all socio-economic classes and education levels” (The National Domestic Violence Hotline, 2011) http://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/abuse-defined/

What Did I use like clothing and how I did my mask?

I used for this performance, a purple colour dress of social party, makeup, and mask, to represent the several levels of society.
For this performance I made before a party makeup, I took a picture and I made a mask it was was used by me, because I would not have enough time to change my makeup to the face of violence. I used party clothes, to represent the various levels of society, no matter their social class, where drinks and extravagant behaviour could cause any problems. I acted like I was at a party and after a few drinks supposedly would suffer aggression by my partner, or by someone else.

Which purpose the creation of this performance?

What led me to base my practice in the art of performance was the desire to explore the relationship between people and raise awareness about any acts of violence. Through my body art, I can explore and try to convey directly to the public awareness on various issues.
[gallery ids=”52415549,52415550,52415551,

Where was my first performance, and how I felt myself?

Well, my first presentation was on the plinth placed in front of the main building of UCS. So, I was exposed in front of the people walking in the street and in front of students and teachers. At first I felt a little ashamed, but the mask, which I used at the beginning of the performance helped me to hide my nervousness, however I understood that the role of the performer is to convey the message. I acted like was at a party and I supposedly would suffer aggression by my partner. But over time and reflection on the performance, I think that the mask also made part of the context and took another perspective because the mask represents the hidden face of someone’s personality.
A mask can hide any face image, your identity, and when I use the mask, I also took the audience to question what is hiding from behind a mask, will be that we all at some point in our lives we hide something. In many relationships, when there is something wrong, it is because someone uses an invisible mask to cover their true identity. However, when violence has its revealed identity, the mask falls.

How could I show again the same performance?

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My performance art, which I have developed throughout of my Fine Art course, it is ephemeral because I could never repeat the same acts. To be seen again the original performance action, it can only be possible through documentation which is a key part in the art of each performance.