Three standing nudes c. 1913

Curator: This is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s "Three Standing Nudes," a pen and ink sketch on paper dating back to around 1913, and it's currently held in the Städel Museum. Editor: My initial thought is how vulnerable and exposed these figures seem, even in their unfinished state. It feels both intimate and strangely impersonal. Curator: Kirchner was, of course, a key figure in the German Expressionist movement. These rapid sketches of nudes echo a theme frequently found in the artistic circles of Dresden. What is your take on this in relation to earlier symbolism? Editor: There's definitely a thread that connects this work to earlier symbols of the nude in art history, particularly in depictions of classical ideals, but here those are inverted. Instead of representing perfection, we get these elongated, almost frantic figures which embody something entirely different – the raw energy and neurosis characteristic of the expressionist moment. I can not but see echoes of unease from the looming war in their posture and spacing. Curator: The 'Die Brücke' group sought to dismantle academic painting, embrace an unvarnished realism and also integrate bohemian freedom as well. What strikes you about these particular nude figures given the cultural milieu from which Kirchner arose? Editor: I think what I see conveyed here is not only that unease but almost a spiritual anxiety, reflective of broader cultural and social transformations during the industrial revolution in Europe. He’s really captured, or given us, how that uncertainty physically manifested. Curator: Certainly Kirchner here reveals a different sort of naturalism, rejecting earlier established aesthetics. The art here certainly is aligned with Expressionist manifesto of subjective experience and a focus on revealing an interior state through outwardly depicted forms. Editor: And it works on me; the visual language creates a lasting effect, almost unnerving despite its loose, sketch-like quality. It continues to have impact, decades removed from its origins. Curator: Agreed, these deceptively simple lines hold significant historical and enduring emotional power.