A Foreigner at Brücke-Museum

I wanted to visit Brücke-Museum for a long time, but unfortunately I couldn't attend one of the guided tours offered by Kunstwege. This very hot Sunday, with around 36+ Celsius in the air, I decided that instead of going to a lake or beach or any other 'light' destination, I will go to this museum. Finally.

Around 30 minutes after leaving the house, following carefully the arrows from the bus station Puecklerstrasse, I had reach my destination. But before starting my 90 minutes stay, I took 2 minutes to enjoy the coldness of the air condition. Not something usual in Berlin, so please forget my apparent childish attitude.

The museum is hosted in a small villa, in the middle of a rich vegetation. The ticket counter is right at the entrance, near the souvenir shop - offering postcards with paintings from the exhibition or from the collection of Brücke artists. The exhibition hall has the shape of a simple maze. I did not discern any specific organisation criteria for the paintings, but the authorship. Most big names of the Brücke movement, an artistic group created in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, are represented, such as Max Pechstein, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel or Fritz Bleyl. 

Wandering between grotesque and emotional outburst, influenced by Fauvism and expressionism, but also by pointillism and other French movements, Brücke reflects somehow the spirit of the time: the young rebels wanted to create bridges - Brücke - between emotions and reality, to translate in colours and violent lines their inner worlds. This can be better read in the coloured paintings, when the strong boiling feelings can be read in the erratic movements of the lines. 

The artists represented not only the grotesque world of varieté (with a more critical eye than Toulouse-Lautrec) but also landscapes, especially from Germany and Italy. It seems that regardless of the style or artistic preferences, Italy will hardly miss from being represented in the artistic movements as both object of representation and source of inspiration.

The museum is small, with many comfy chairs where the visitors can rest while reading books about the paintings and the history of the movement. Regularly there are organised seminars and discussions as well workshops for children. I did not expect to see so many people visiting, but most probably the hot weather creates a lot of opportunities for art lovers.

I enjoyed the exhibition, and learned a little bit more about this movement and the history of German painting. Strongly recommended to any intellectual soul visiting Berlin.