There are two excellent exhibits, both of them devoted to Expressionism, currently on view at the Neue Galerie on East 86th Street. The first is Munch and Expressionism, a unique retrospective of the artist's oeuvre, while the second, The Expressionist Nude, displays works by a wide range of German artists who had been influenced by the great Norwegian painter. Each of them is well worth a visit.
Edvard Munch is generally known today for his iconic painting The Scream created in 1893. (Although the original is not included in this display, an 1895 version in pastels together with two monochromatic lithograph variants have been given places of honor at the exhibit.) Perhaps no other image captures so well the anxiety and alienation faced by modern man. And yet in his long career - Munch lived until 1944 - he created any number of equally powerful works. Not only that, but he was constantly experimenting with new styles and always attempting to grow as an artist. As he gained a following among the early Expressionists, particularly members of Die Brücke, Munch was able to see his reflection in their work and to successfully incorporate it into his own, something of which only a great artist is capable. One only has to look at the two versions of Puberty on view to see the cross-fertilization of ideas. The first is a monochromatic lithograph created in 1895 at roughly the same time as the original oil painting (not on view). It is fairly naturalistic in its depiction of a young girl sitting on the edge of her bed with legs held tightly together and arms crossed before her. The second is an oil on canvas from 1914-1916 that is much more highly stylized in what we would today recognize as an Expressionist manner.
Other seminal paintings on view include Munch's famous Madonna in both its original 1894 oil on canvas version as well as a slightly later color lithograph with a bright border and a strange figure in the lower left hand corner. Also shown is Angst, again in several versions. And there are many lesser known works which have been placed side by side with pieces by prominent German Expressionists that show quite clearly how deep and lasting was Munch's influence on the generation of artists that followed him. Most prominent among these are Schiele, Kirchner, Heckel and Nolde, And there are works by other artists - such as Gerstl, Kokoschka and even Beckmann - on whom Munch's influence is not so readily apparent until one takes a closer look.
In the end, what strikes the viewer most forcefully in Munch's work is the pervading sense of alienation. So many of the figures he depicts, as in the 1891 oil on canvas Melancholy, are alone and downcast. Even when two people are shown together - as in Two Human Beings. The Lonely Ones, an oil on canvas from 1905 - the artist carefully separates them from one another as, with backs to the viewer, they stare out to sea. In search of what? Although they share the same canvas, they inhabit different worlds.
The second exhibit, The Expressionist Nude, complements the first very well. Contained in a single gallery on the second floor, these are all works on paper and include a number of important nudes by Klimt, Gerstl, Schiele, Kirchner and Kokoschka. The most interesting for me, though, were a selection of enigmatic pieces by Kubin. The most powerful of these was entitled Suicide, a pen and ink drawing that showed a drowned woman, her face contracted in a grimace, floating on the water on the back of a giant fish. One immediately thinks of Shakespeare's Ophelia.
Both exhibits continue through June 13, 2016.
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