Tormented Talent Revolutionary German Artist Kirchner Presaged Future Art by Gary Tischler Eleven years ago, the National Gallery of Art held a show of drawings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, adjoining a larger exhibition of works by the relentlessly and powerfully outraged German artist K?the Kollwitz. Both artists were German, both were adept in the medium of woodcuts and both were categorized in some uncertain way as expressionist artists. But there were also some vital differences. Kollwitz, who had lost a son in World War I, lived just barely to see Hitlerís death in 1945. Her works tended to turn into posters against injustice, poverty and war. Kirchner, on the other hand, could almost be seen as a poster child for artistic and sexual license. The works in the 1992 exhibitionónudes, couples and boldly stroked drawings of dancersóhad a joyful vitality that, as it turned out, belied the life of the artist. The 1992 exhibition, a little like an afterthought, was a hint and a rumor about Kirchner. Now, the National Gallery of Art, in a tiered, huge exhibition of 140 works titled ìErnst Ludwig K irchner, 1880-1938,î has given us the rest of the storyóand itís a full-bodied one at that. The exhibition blows you away with its intensity, energy, diversity and sheer volume. Thereís a focus, with much of the work concentrating on the years before World War I, the reaction to the war, and the period afterward. The rest is almost like a slow frittering away that lacks the ferocious activity of the earlier years. In the end, a silent blackness descended upon Kirchner, who killed himself in 1938. The accepted notion is that Kirchner, who was living in Switzerland at the time, was distraught about what had happened in Germany under Hitler and about his relegation to degenerate-artist status by a regime that hated everything modern except guns. No doubt thereís a big chunk of truth in that, but Kirchner also battled mental illness since around the time of World War I and perhaps all of his life, and it may be that the onset of Hitlerism was too much to bear. More likely it was the final straw. During his life, however, Kirchner was many things: a furious and swift man when it came to drawing, a sculptor, an amazing painter, an innovator, a morose, moody German expressionist, an experimenter and an artist who left behind not only an enormous body of work, but the kind of echo that presages future art. For sure, his work in the early 1900s was nothing short of revolutionary, but it also had buoyancy, an airy, energetic, free-spirited electricity. His swift, assured brushwork echoes Gauguin and Van Gogh, two artists whom he admired, but its particulars are purely Kirchner. Itís probably not surprising to find that Kirchnerís first U.S. appearance was in the trailblazing artistic earthquake called the Armory Show of 1913. But in some ways, for a long period of time, Kirchnerís work was more talked and written about than seen in this country. This exhibition provides a pretty bracing correction to that situation. The 140 works are of all the media he masteredópaintings, watercolors, drawings, prints, woodcuts and sculptureóculled from a career that produced 1,200 paintings, 2,000 prints and 20,000 drawings. One curator noted that Kirchner believed you had to ìdraw like crazy.î Walking through the exhibitionówhich overflows onto two floors at the East Buildingóis to walk in Kirchnerís footsteps and to get at the edge of a mind that was always busy, challenging, and sometimes terrified and dark. It follows his life in Dresden and then moves to the more frantic and frenetic street scenes of Berlin before and during World War I. Full of dancers, studio life and a manifesto-like styleóand very fitting of the founder of the avant-garde art group Die Br¸cke (ìThe Bridgeî)óthis early section brims with life. The darkest piece is at the top of the stairs, a military self-portrait with the soldiers looking eerily like inmates at a killing camp. Kirchner tried military service but, after suffering a mental breakdown, was hardly fit to serve. Kirchnerís works change as time goes on, but they never lack boldness or suggestive color. Thereís no question that Kirchner lived an artistís life, that women and their bodies fascinated him endlessly, as did age, death and mysticism. He was drawn to streets, performers, circuses, carnivals, brothels, studios, cabarets, dancers and very young women. There was a certain love Kirchner had for art in general, always thinking in bigger terms, writing about his own art, and proud of his admission to the Prussian Academy of Art, a stamp of German respectability. To be thrown out into the trash bin of degenerate art crushed an already wounded, torn soul. The life and death of Kirchner add to his enduring fascination and his is a case where biography and art are inseparable. In ìErnst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938,î the two finally come together. ìErnst Ludwig Kirchner, 1880-1938î runs through June 1 at the National Gallery of Art, 3rd and 9th streets at Constitution Avenue, NW. For more information, please call (202) 737-4215 or visit www.nga.gov. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer for The Washington Diplomat.