Bridge on Crown Prince Embankment 1909

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner created this print, titled "Bridge on Crown Prince Embankment," using etching. Kirchner’s work often explored themes of alienation and the individual's struggle within the modern urban landscape. As a member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke, Kirchner sought to convey raw emotion and subjective experience through bold, distorted forms and jarring colors. Kirchner, like other expressionists, was influenced by the art of non-European cultures, which they saw as more authentic and primal than Western art. But we cannot ignore that this interest was often entangled with colonialist attitudes. This print invites us to reflect on the complexities of modernity and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world. The figures here seem lost and isolated, which evokes a sense of unease. Despite the passage of time, Kirchner's work continues to resonate with our own anxieties and uncertainties about the future.