David Hockney at Salts Mill

(Fax mural detail)

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)

I used to really dislike German Expressionism and found it gaudy and chaotic (possibly anxiety inducing), but in a displeasing way. I've since come to revisit that opinion and find myself getting lost in the colours, the otherworldly mask-like faces that render his figures almost demonic, and the bulges and surges of city and land scapes depicted almost as haunted children's book illustrations (cursed Dr Seuss?) through unusual camera lenses. 

Vanessa Baird (1963-)

The controversial figure of Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

Emil Nolde was a German Expressionist painter, anti-semite and member of the Nazi Party, despite his work and the movement he was a member of being labeled as 'degenerate art' and rejected and condemned by the regime. Yet, I find his paintings interesting and haunting - stimulates the ongoing question of how we consume art by 'bad people'. I learned about Nolde's work in Christian Kracht's novel Eurotrash. 

For now, some paintings by Nolde: