Release Date: December 20, 2002
RARE KIRCHNER SCULPTURE ACQUIRED BY THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART; ON VIEW IN MAJOR KIRCHNER RETROSPECTIVE OPENING MARCH 2003
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Head of a Woman (Erna),
1913
carved and painted oak
Patrons' Permanent Fund
© Ingeborg and Dr. Wolfgang Henze-Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern
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Washington, D.C.-A rare wood bust by German artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner of Erna Schilling, his lifelong companion and muse, has been acquired by the National Gallery of Art with funds from the Patrons' Permanent Fund. The bust Erna (1913), hand-carved and partially painted, will be on view as part of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938, a major retrospective premiering at the National Gallery of Art on March 2, 2003. Erna is one of four Kirchner figurative sculptures in American collections and the first on the East Coast.
"Kirchner's sculpture demonstrates his approach to life as a total work of art," says Earl A. Powell III, director of the National Gallery of Art. "We are grateful to the Patrons' Permanent Fund for our first acquisition of a Kirchner sculpture, an important addition to our collection of Kirchner paintings, prints, and drawings."
A prolific creator of paintings, drawings, and prints, Kirchner produced some 140 sculptural works, primarily figurative sculptures carved in wood, but also some carved furniture, utensils, and silver jewelry. However, only about 80 works remain today; many of his sculptures were destroyed by the Nazis in their campaign against "degenerate art" and others were destroyed by Kirchner himself to save them from falling into Nazi hands. The 14-inch-high Erna is the earliest of only three known portrait sculptures of Kirchner's muse and model.
Erna Schilling met Kirchner in 1912 and became the subject of many of his paintings, drawings, and graphic works, as well as his committed partner until his death in 1938. The portrait bust Erna was executed in 1913, at the height of Kirchner's productive Berlin years, and reflects Kirchner's admiration for African and Polynesian (Easter Island) art. While vacationing with Erna on the Baltic island of Fehmarn, Kirchner was intrigued by a piece of oak driftwood he found on the beach and proceeded to carve the portrait. Kirchner was proud of the bust; he sent a postcard picture of it to a friend in the summer of 1913 and wrote about in a subsequent letter. In 1923 Kirchner noted in his diary, "The love which the artist felt for the girl who was his companion and helper, flowed over the carved figure...."
Kirchner wanted to have his art clearly understood. To that end, he wrote about himself under the pseudonym "Louis de Marsalle," a fictional French art critic. In an article entitled, "Concerning the Sculpture of E. L. Kirchner" in 1925, "Marsalle" mentions Erna as exemplary of his belief that carving by hand was superior to casting: "How different that sculpture appears when the artist himself has formed it with his hands out of the genuine material, each curvature and cavity formed by the sensitivity of the creator's hand." Kirchner's article also comments on his use of paint: "He (Kirchner) also places color in the service of his sculpture.... The richness of color of Medieval sculptures seems about to rise again...."
About the Kirchner Exhibition
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938, the first major international exhibition of paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures by the innovative German artist to be seen in the United States in more than 30 years, will premiere at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, March 2 through June 1, 2003. It will contain both well-known masterpieces and outstanding works that have never been lent or shown publicly before. The Washington exhibition surveys his career but will focus primarily on works created from 1908 to 1920, at the height of his achievement, with particular emphasis on his prewar years in Dresden and Berlin and his early years in Davos, Switzerland. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938, is being organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Royal Academy of Arts, London.
The exhibition is made possible by the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation.
Following the Washington showing, a different version of the exhibition will be on view in London from June 28 through September 21, 2003.
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