Classical Modernism at the K20

You can discover these groundbreaking pictures at the K20.

The Kunstsammlung NRW is home to works of world renown. While art of the 21st century - hence K21 - has its home in the Ständehaus, the modern classics of the 20th century can be found in the main building on Grabbeplatz, the K20. In addition to changing exhibitions, you can also take a journey into the origins of modern art. Many of the most important representatives of classical modernism, who were groundbreaking for the further development of contemporary art, are exhibited here. We present six pictures worth seeing.

Probably the first abstract composition

Wild brushstrokes, bright colors, abstract forms: When Wassily Kandinsky painted this picture in 1911, it was tantamount to a revolution in painting. In a total of ten compositions, Kandinsky paved the way for abstract painting. The Düsseldorf example is "Composition IV", for other works from this cycle you have to go to the Guggenheim Museum in New York or the Lenbachhaus in Munich. With his compositions, the painter created a completely new visual language based on the equal importance of line and color. You can still marvel at Kandinsky's late work "Composition X" in the permanent exhibition at the K20.

The deconstructed Eiffel Tower

Less abstract, but just as interesting, is the painting "La tour aux rideaux" by Robert Delaunay from 1910. Through curtains, you can see a deconstructed Eiffel Tower, which was considered the symbol of modernity at the time. Between 1909 and 1912, parallel to Wassily Kandinsky, the Frenchman Delaunay developed a pictorial language that led to abstraction and the painting of pure color. His series of Eiffel Tower paintings, begun in 1909, comprises more than 30 works. The painter followed up with a second series of much more colorful towers in the 1920s. The Düsseldorf painting shows the 300-metre-high Eiffel Tower, the tallest building in the world at the time, cut up according to the principles of analytical cubism. Other works from the tower cycle can be seen in the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum Folkwang in Essen. 

Wild dance scene

The painting "N*tanz" by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1911) shows what crazy years 1910 and 1911 were in painting. Couple and dance scenes are a central motif in Kirchner's expressionist style. In the painting, he depicts the dancers anonymously and gives no indication of their identity. Instead, the painting focuses on movement and intoxication. The power and vitality of the closely entwined dancing couple can literally be felt through the canvas. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner found inspiration for the expressionist dance scenes in the many variety shows and circuses of the time. With his Dresden artists' group "Die Brücke", he was one of the founding fathers of Expressionism. Some of his famous street scenes also hang in the K20. 

Church and steel tower 

August Macke created the painting "Fribourg Cathedral in Switzerland" in 1914 after a trip to Fribourg. The city's Gothic cathedral had made a lasting impression on him. The small painting is one of his last works. Macke, one of the most important representatives of Expressionism, was killed on the battlefields of Champagne two months after the outbreak of the First World War. His painting is characterized by the combination of large surfaces with smaller form ensembles and figurative elements. He combines his serene formal language with a restrained color palette. A striking deviation from reality and an artistic reminiscence of Delaunay's Eiffel Tower paintings is the addition of the steel tower to the right of the cathedral, which Macke used in place of several historical buildings purely for reasons of pictorial construction.

Tunisian camel in the forest

You can marvel at one of the key works by the versatile artist Paul Klee in the permanent collection of the Kunstsammlungen NRW: Camel (in rhythmic tree landscape). The work, created in 1920, is an example of Klee's painting skills. On the one hand, you can clearly recognize the camel among the trees. On the other hand, it is an abstract work that captivates with its colorfulness and a landscape indicated only by circles and strokes. The preoccupation with the camel stems from a trip to Tunis in 1914 that is of great interest to art history - Paul Klee was accompanied by August Macke and Louis Moilliet.

Constructivist spatial illusion 

Almost hidden and inconspicuous, El Lissitzky's "Proun G 7" from 1923 hangs in the K20. Only on closer inspection does the small, abstract painting reveal its secret. After a while, the two-dimensional elements appear three-dimensional, arranged at an angle or parallel to the picture surface. In this way, the painting creates an illusion of space that actively draws you into the picture. The avant-garde artist Lissitzky described his Prounen paintings as a "transition from painting to architecture". Lissitzky was not only interested in art, but also promoted the artistic development of architecture, typography and photography. At the K20, you can let one of his Prounen paintings take effect on you. 

This article is funded by REACT-EU.

Cover picture: Düsseldorf Tourismus