Bridging the gap: The onset of ExpressionismIn the German city of Dresden on June 7, 1905, the foundation of the Die Brucke artists group (1905 1913) is widely regarded as the birth of Expressionism. Led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, the group sought to reject stultifying academia and, as their name suggested, to bridge the path to an artistic future. Their manifesto, printed with woodblock, insisted on absolute freedom from convention in their work and lives.In envisaging a new, liberated art, Die Brucke drew upon idols and aesthetics of the past, as much as they responded to the industrialized 20th-century reality. They celebrated the print and painting techniques of Albrecht Durer, Matthias Grunewald, and Lucas Cranach the Elder, and derived color inspiration from Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and Henri Matisse. In paintings, and wood and linocut prints, they deployed violently clashing hues, often in frenzied but flattened compositions of jagged contours and lines, crude figures, and raw, frequently sexual scenes.Through edgy urban scenes and carnal tableaux, this book introduces the key works and protagonists of Die Brucke to reveal a fascinating movement, which sliced up images with ragged lines and decimated the conventions and mores of the age.About the series: Each book in TASCHEN s Basic Genre series features: approximately 100 colour illustrations with explanatory captions a detailed illustrated introduction plus a timeline of the most important political, cultural, and social events that took place during that period a selection of the most important works of the epoch, each presented on a 2-page spread with a full-page image and accompanying interpretation, as well as a portrait and brief biography of the artist"