Figure Sketch (Figurenskizze)
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Object Label
Erich Heckel was a founding member of Die Brücke (The Bridge), the pioneering German Expressionist movement that resisted the strictures of academic art in favor of a freer, more emotional approach. It was inspired by what was then known as “primitive art,” mainly meaning non-Western painting and sculpture, especially from Africa and the Pacific Islands. Here, Heckel depicts a group of nude men in an idyllic rural landscape. The German Expressionists’ work was denounced by Adolf Hitler as “degenerate” in 1937, in part because of their unorthodox depictions of the nude. By 1944, Heckel’s woodblocks and printing plates had been destroyed by the Nazis, and other of his works were lost in Allied bombing raids.
Heckel’s painting Roquairol (1917), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inspired Iggy Pop’s pose for the cover of his album The Idiot.
Caption
Erich Heckel German, 1883–1970. Figure Sketch (Figurenskizze), 1927. Color lithograph in black, green, and violet on laid paper, Image: 22 5/16 x 16 9/16 in. (56.7 x 42.1 cm) Sheet: 27 1/8 x 20 15/16 in. (68.9 x 53.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Henry L. Batterman Fund, 58.166.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 58.166.2_PS9.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
Figure Sketch (Figurenskizze)
Date
1927
Geography
Place made: Germany
Medium
Color lithograph in black, green, and violet on laid paper
Classification
Dimensions
Image: 22 5/16 x 16 9/16 in. (56.7 x 42.1 cm) Sheet: 27 1/8 x 20 15/16 in. (68.9 x 53.2 cm)
Signatures
Signed, "Erich Heckel 27" lower right margin, in pencil
Inscriptions
Lower right in graphite: "Figurenskizze"; lower right in graphite: "Erich Heckel 27"
Credit Line
Henry L. Batterman Fund
Accession Number
58.166.2
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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