Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

German, 1884–1976

BiographyBorn Karl Schmidt in 1884 in Rottluff near Chemnitz, the artist first studied architecture in Dresden from 1905 to 1906. Together with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Max Pechstein, Erich Heckel, and Fritz Bleyl (1880-1966), he founded Die Brücke in 1905. Although he was less active in the group than Kirchner or Heckel, Schmidt-Rottluff painted in the group style until around 1911, when he left Dresden for Hamburg. After a summer in Dangast (see Main Text), he returned briefly to Dresden and then moved to Berlin, where he lived until 1933. In 1918 he married the photographer Emy Frisch (1883-1975).

Up until 1910 Schmidt-Rottluff's paintings are characterized by the expressive energy of "flaming" forms and thickly applied paint. In 1911, however, his landscapes begin to display a monumental calm. Details are subordinated within a larger structure, and strong contrasts between warm and cool colors support simplified geometric shapes.

In 1920 Wilhelm R. Valentiner published the first monograph on Schmidt-Rottluff; the two men remained lifelong friends. The art historian Rosa Schapiro (1874-1954) was another important supporter: when she emigrated from Hamburg to London in 1939, she took with her a collection of works by Schmidt-Rottluff. During the purge of "degenerate art" in 1937-38, 608 of his works were confiscated from public collections in Germany, and he was forbidden to paint. During World War II, Schmidt-Rottluff served in the office of a command post on the Russian front and created wooden sculptures and religious woodcuts. His Berlin apartment was destroyed by a bomb in 1943, and he moved back to Rottluff near Chemnitz. In1947, he was awarded a professorship at the Berlin Hochschule für Bildende Künste (Academy for Visual Art), where he taught until 1954. The artist remained productive until his death in 1976.