Karl Schmidt-Rottluff 1884 - 1976

By Rosie Miller

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Head of Christ, 1918, stained glass panel, Brücke-Museum, Berlin, Germany

Born on the 1st December 1884, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff asserted himself as one of the major actors in the emerging German Expressionist movement, establishing the Expressionist group Die Brücke – The Bridge –  in 1905. Somewhat unfairly, German Expressionism is often placed at the periphery of early 20th-Century artistic dialogues; the prominence of French Fauvism has relegated the movement to secondary status. Undoubtedly, however, Schmidt-Rottluff’s modernising legacy was enduring. Building on the influence of Neo-Impressionism and Art Nouveau, the bold, graphic quality of Bauhaus architecture and design arguably derived from Die Brücke’s stylistic innovations.

As an individual, Schmidt-Rottluff’s lack of formal fine-art training fostered a unique manner that drew from diverse influences. His architectural education in Dresden arguably informed his bold deployment of linear forms, while the heavy influence of Pacific visual culture, discernible through his work’s mask-like, two-dimensional quality, undoubtedly grew out of the Dresden Ethnographic Museum’s colonial exhibits. Most notable, however, was Schmidt-Rottluff’s commitment to the revival of woodcut techniques; of his almost 700 prints, nearly 450 are woodcuts.

In this way, the work of Schmidt-Rottluff and other members of Die Brücke can be identified as problematic. Not only did they rely on the ‘primitive’ artistic traditions of German colonial outposts to signify a ‘simpler’, ‘pre-modern’ society; they deployed traditional Japanese woodcut techniques to a culturally appropriating extent.

Nevertheless, Die Brücke and its artists should be appreciated for their commitment to artistic modernisation. Grounded in the production techniques of Albrecht Durer, Schmidt-Rottluff circumvented Academic convention by ‘bridging’ the gap between the work of ancient ‘masters’ and the more radical subject matter of German modernity. This is exemplified through his New Testament series, produced in the aftermath of World War I. Defying Academic methodology, Schmidt-Rottluff returned to the harsh, destructive creative processes of woodcut and stained-glass production. In this way, the head of Christ is recalibrated into a crudely disjointed image of artifice; his stubbed nose and swollen features undermine the very heart of European iconography and elicit the brutality of modern warfare. 

Bibliography 

Hugh Beyer & Dietmar Elger, Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art, (Germany, Taschen, 2002)

L. D. Ettlinger, ‘German Expressionism and Primitive Art’ in, The Burlington Magazine, 110:781, (April, 1968) 

Alicia Faxon, ‘German Expressionist Prints, A Persistent Tradition’ in, The Print Collector’s Newsletter, 14:1, (March-April 1983)