Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (6 May 1880 – 15 June 1938) was one of the most important German Expressionist painters and a co-founder of Die Brücke ("The Bridge"), a group of artists formed in Dresden in 1905 which laid foundations to expressionist movement.

Die Brücke and Kirchner took inspiration from Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch, as well as African and Oceanic art. They used woodblock printing as a medium to showcase their signature style: flat, unrealistic images with vivid colors. The recurring themes in his artworks included exotic cultures, faraway landscapes, self-portraits, dancers and Berlin street life. His paintings and prints effectively portrayed non-European cultures despite the fact that he never traveled outside of Europe.

His work was branded as "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1933, and in 1937 more than 600 of his art pieces were either sold or destroyed.