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Article: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Painted 20th Century As Terrible Bridge.(Arts&Entertainment)
- Article from:
- The New York Observer (New York, NY)
- Article date:
- May 9, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The New York Observer. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Byline: Hilton Kramer
The group of young Germans who, in 1905, proudly called themselves Die Brucke ("The Bridge") derived their name from Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, one of the radical philosophical tracts of the period. (The key passage reads: "What is great about a man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.") Die Brucke was thus a name meant to serve as a symbol for a gloriously emancipated future, yet the art that Brucke artists actually produced was anything but optimistic: It was dominated by remorseless turbulence and social alienation. Indeed, as a social phenomenon, Die Brucke was what we would call a counterculture--a cry of protest against a ...