German expressionists and colonialism

Bright, contrasting colors, simplified forms, and a return to a supposedly simple life untouched by industrialization are among the features of primitivism. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's "Still Life with Flowers and Sculptures" (1912) is a primary example. In Germany, this style was at the height of popularity when imperial Germany was a colonial power.

Due to the large-scale export of objects from the colonies, the artists of the German expressionist movement, known as the Brücke artists, had easy access to non-European aesthetics. This sketch by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was made after studying bronze reliefs from the Kingdom of Benin, which were taken and kept in storage in Dresden's Ethnological Museum.

The expressionist group was especially interested by one object in the Dresden Ethnological Museum: an ornate roof beam from a Palauan meeting house. The Brücke artists even said "discovering" it in the museum was the spark that prompted them to start their artistic movement. The people in the background of this oil painting by Max Pechstein were copied from the figures depicted on the beam.

French painter Paul Gauguin was certainly the most important role model for the art of the Brücke group. His Tahiti paintings brought him great fame posthumously, although he was embroiled in scandal in his lifetime. Nonetheless, his success, as well as the prospect of financial gain, was a reason for both Emil Nolde and Max Pechstein to set out for the South Sea themselves.

German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (pictured here with his partner Erna Schilling) preferred to be surrounded by "exotic" sculptures, tapestries, fabrics and furniture. Some of them came from the colonies, while Kirchner designed others himself — yet he had never actually traveled to any of these countries.

This wooden seat with a leopard motif was long thought to be the work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Yet the carving originated in what is now Cameroon, where it belonged to courtly elites. The current exhibitions in Berlin aim to research the origins of pieces such as this one, which were most likely looted, in order to understand them in their original context.

In addition to the exhibition at the Brücke-Museum, a second exhibition at the neighboring Kunsthaus Dahlem aims to give voice to people who were colonized. In the pictured work, artist Lisa Hilli adds the name of the woman in the picture, laWarwakai, to an archival photograph of a white man and a woman captioned simply as "his Tolai wife" to show she was not simply a nameless subordinate.

Kunsthaus Dahlem invited contemporary artists to comment on the colonial histories of works. The Brazilian artist's installation is meant to recall vases that people placed in their windows as a sign of solidarity for the abolition of slavery in Brazil. The triangular shapes and trident-like structures pay homage to Black feminism, while making a statement against racism and sexism.