foundation to German expressionism, to which, for reasons I can't explain, I find myself drawn. (For about a year now, I've been entranced with the work of Max Beckmann, who was not a member of Brücke school, but was generally, albeit slightly later, a contemporary of Die Brückes.)
This group was drawn to the idea of introducing new approaches to color and to naturalism that was to help art transition from 19th century classicism.
Die Brücke artists were mostly self-trained, although some had training in architecture. Pechstein was the only member of the group to have had formal art training.
In 1914, the year the tragedy of the First World War began, Pechstein traveled to the South Pacific, spending a significant amount of time in Palau. He seems to have painted a number of paintings of Indians before that time, including the work with which this thread began. I don't know why or how he chose this subject matter.
Like many of the great artists of the Pre-war (World War I) and Weimar German art, Pechstein's work was surpressed by the Nazis, removed from German museums, and displayed at the famous "Degenerate Art" show put on by the Nazis in 1937.
Pechstein withdrew to the German countryside during World War II, and returned to West Berlin in 1945, where he was honored and subject to acclaim. He was a Professor of Art at the Berlin Institute until his death in 1955.
The Brücke group now has a museum dedicated to their work in Berlin. Should I ever get back to Germany, and go to Berlin for the first time, it would definitely be a museum worth visiting.
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