17.11.2024 – 23.03.2025

The artistic history of Canton Ticino, more than that of any other Swiss region, was marked by major migratory flows during the first half of the 20th century. Internationally renowned collectors and numerous exponents of the European avant-garde movements sought temporary or lasting refuge in Switzerland, especially during the interwar period, also choosing Ticino as their home. Many Swiss artists flocked to the region too, finding favourable conditions for the development of their art in the south of the Alps.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was at the root of one of the most important artistic experiences in Switzerland, in which the Mendrisio District was one of the key locations. Indeed, it was in Castel San Pietro on New Year’s Eve 1924 that Paul Camenisch, Albert Müller and Hermann Scherer founded the Rot-Blau expressionist group, inspired by the German artist’s work.
The young Basel artists had become acquainted with Kirchner’s art at two major exhibitions held at the Kunsthalle Basel in 1923 and at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur in 1924. From that moment on, they (initially Scherer, then Müller and finally also Camenisch) regularly stayed with the artist at his home near Davos in the Graubünden Alps, where they consolidated their art working side by side. They spent the rest of their time between the Mendrisio District, whose landscape inspired most of their work, and Basel, where they sought opportunities to exhibit their work, critical recognition, and access to the market and the world of collecting.

The exhibition at MASI consists of a select core of Kirchner’s medium and large-format paintings that he had shown in the Basel and Winterthur exhibitions. The selection is based on photographs of the displays taken by Kirchner himself, in which his works can be recognized. This original core of paintings dating from the early years of his stay in Graubünden is complemented by a selection of works made in the two-year period 1924–26, when the members of the Rot-Blau group regularly frequented their mentor. Thus, on the one hand, works that contributed to the expressionist shift of the young Basel artists, and on the other, those that Kirchner made during the period of work shared with his followers.

Kirchner first arrived in Davos in May 1917 in precarious physical and mental health, traumatized by his experience of the war and debilitated by alcohol and drug abuse, from which he would not recover until 1921. Following a brief hesitation, he decided to settle on the fringes of the local social scene, remaining near the Graubünden tourist and health resort until his death (by suicide).
He found new subjects in the local people and the Alpine landscape, while at the same time modifying his pictorial language: his palette changed and his lines and perspective effects initially became harsher and more contorted, before softening again, in search of new harmonies, around the mid-1920s.

The transhumance migrations, the Alpine peasants and their animals, the house on the Stafelalp, the “Among the larches” house and the one in Wildboden, the unmistakable silhouette of the Tinzenhorn, the trees and the larch forests became recurring subjects in his works, themes on which he felt the need to return to bow down to in both his pictorial and his graphic work. He exhibited some of these paintings in Basel and Winterthur, alongside works he had made back in Germany, depicting street scenes and urban life, circus acrobats and cabaret dancers that by then were no longer part of his everyday life.

This in-depth exploration, as part of the MASI collection installation, is followed by a section devoted to the presentation of expressionist works, with a special focus on those by the members of the Rot-Blau group and other Basel artists close to this fundamental Swiss artistic experience.

Tinzenhorn – Zügenschlucht bei Monstein
Tinzenhorn – Zügenschlucht near Monstein
1919–1920

During the period in which he devoted himself to painting the Alpine world that he had discovered in Graubünden, one of Kirchner’s favourite subjects was the majestic Tinzenhorn. Here it is depicted at moonrise, heralded by the emerald-green hue of the night sky, while the mountains are tinged with a reddish purple. The juxtaposition of the strongly contrasting complementary colours and the diagonals that dominate the composition lead the eye from the Monstein church, in the foreground on the left, to the farthest mountain on the right, the Tinzenhorn itself. In this almost mystical atmosphere, accentuated by colours that seem to hint at the presence of the northern lights, Kirchner paints the essence of the Alpine world.

Alpküche
Alpine Kitchen
1918

Kirchner arrived in the Swiss Alps in 1917 to recover from a physical and mental breakdown. The kitchen of the chalet that he rented on the Stafelalp, above Davos Frauenkirch, is the subject of this painting, whose bright colours and distorted perspective are both key elements. The scene is reduced to the essentials and illuminated by warm shades of pink and yellow. The eye is led around the walls of the room in a sort of spiral that encircles the figure seated at the table in the foreground before leaving through the door at the end of the kitchen, open wide on a sunny landscape. Here, the peak of the Tinzenhorn can be glimpsed, serving as the vanishing point of the entire composition.

Alpaufzug
Ascent to the Alpine Pastures
1918/1919

Before moving to Davos, Kirchner painted the hectic life of the city, the circus, the cabaret. Around 1917, influenced by his new Alpine environment, he began to show a deep interest in the rural world and its landscape, with its mighty mountains and unspoilt nature. Alpaufzug is one of his earliest large-format paintings of an Alpine subject, in which cattle walking up a path towards the peaks in the distance are painted with energetic brushstrokes, bright colours and an expressive use of perspective and proportion. The result is a completely subjective rendering of the scene.

Bauernmittag
Lunch of the Farmers
1920

In this work, the appearance of the figures and the rendering of colours and forms attest to one of the most intense moments in Kirchner’s art. These same elements underpinned the objections to his work in the 1930s, when the concept of “degenerate art” – coined to define modern art not approved by the regime – took hold in Nazi Germany. Ruled offensive towards the peasant class, whose depiction was seen as grotesque and mocking, the painting was among 32 of the painter’s works displayed in the exhibition of degenerate art staged in Munich in 1937. Kirchner was one of the artists most affected by Nazi hostility, with more than 600 works confiscated.

Pferdegespann mit drei Bauern
Chariot and Horses with three Farmers
1920/1921

The pure colours chosen for this painting, applied in large areas, form a striking contrast. The yellow, green and blue of the cart and the three farmers are juxtaposed with the red of the horses and the background. Kirchner also added some very dark areas around the various figures, lending the image a sense of drama. The painting depicts a common scene in the mountain streets of Davos at the time it was made. Indeed, there was a ban on motor vehicles in the canton of Graubünden until 1925, resulting in the use of slow means of transport like horse-drawn carts.

Das Tobel
The Ravine
1920 ca.

From the moment of his arrival in the Graubünden mountains, Kirchner was fascinated by the local inhabitants’ lifestyle and their resilience to the hardships of the Alpine world. In Das Tobel, he painted an impassable ravine, underscoring the danger of the place with the repetition of vertical stripes of colour. Here he has abandoned the distorted forms typical of his painting, preferring a more realistic depiction of the scene. His use of shades of green and blue is consistent with his previous works, while a new interest in pink and purple can be seen, which was destined to grow.

Bäuerin mit Kind (Märchenerzählerin)
Woman Farmer with Child (Fairytale Teller)
1922

The key features of this work are the numerous contrasts of which it is composed. The sharp distinction between the greyish blue of the two central figures and the bright red of the walls is immediately apparent. Similarly, the pronounced features of the woman on the left contrast with the fresh young face of the girl sitting next to her, absorbed in the older woman’s stories. The furnishings of the room reveal Kirchner’s interest in textile arts. The brightly decorated fabrics create an almost exotic note in contrast to the snowy Alpine scene visible outside, while the white light of the snow is echoed by the two cups on the table, drawing the viewer’s eye to them.

Italienische Bahnarbeiter
Italian Railway Workers
1923

Kirchner portrays four railway workers during a moment of rest. The wagon behind the figures in the foreground attests to their occupation, also indicated in the title of the work. They were workers from Italy: the Rhaetian Railway was largely built by Italian labourers, still employed in the early twenties on the electrification of the network, which was completed in 1922. It is quite a rare subject, considering Kirchner’s usual preference for the rural world. The palette he has chosen is consistent with the scene portrayed: the rather dark, dull colours are in keeping with the setting, shrouded in the smoke of pipes and machinery.

Vor Sonnenaufgang
Before Sunrise
1925/1926

Kirchner and his partner Erna Schilling are portrayed contemplating the landscape at sunrise. The two sculptures on the left, depicting Adam and Eve, introduce a second portrait to the composition, underscoring the man-woman motif. In this work, the artist allowed himself several liberties in terms of faithfulness to reality, as demonstrated by the youthful appearance of the subjects and the inaccurate position of the two sculptures. The same applies to the reference to dawn in the painting’s title: the orientation of the couple’s home on the Wildboden only allows for a view of the sunset.

Waldlandschaft mit Bach
Landscape in a Forest with Stream
1925/1926

Alpine life had a profound impact on the work of Kirchner, who came from the bustling world of the city. While there is a clear change in his subjects with respect to the works preceding his stay in Switzerland, some stylistic aspects remain the same. The shades of green and blue used in this painting, combined with violet tending to pink, are the most recurrent tones in his landscapes. The gently undulating ground contrasts with the vertical lines of the trees that make up the forest. This type of depiction is reworked in the forest landscapes of Hermann Scherer, Albert Müller and Paul Camenisch, founders of the Rot-Blau Swiss expressionist group, who were frequent visitors to Kirchner’s home at the time.

1880–1904
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born on 6 May 1880 in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. He was the eldest of three siblings, the son of Maria Elise and Ernst, a chemist specializing in paper processing. After living in Frankfurt and near Lucerne, in 1890 the family moved to Chemnitz, where Kirchner attended secondary school. Although he wanted to be an artist, after finishing school he followed his father’s wishes, embarking on a degree in architecture at the university in Dresden in 1901. His first paintings and woodcuts date from 1902–04.

1905–1916
Together with Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Kirchner founded the Die Brücke artists’ group on 7 June 1905. Until its dissolution in 1913, there will be 70 exhibitions of the group and 30 collective exhibitions in which it participated. In 1911 Kirchner moved to Berlin. He held his first solo exhibitions at the city’s Galerie Gurlitt and at the Folkwang Museum in Hagen. In the German capital he also met Erna Schilling, with whom he commenced a relationship that would last his entire lifetime. In 1916, he enrolled in the army but was discharged due to a physical and mental breakdown. Suffering from increasingly severe anxiety attacks, he was admitted to the sanatorium in Königstein, where he would stay on several occasions. However, his health did not improve, partly due to his drug abuse.

1917–1918
A short stay in Davos was followed by a longer one on the Stafelalp above Frauenkirch, where Kirchner commenced a detoxification programme. Here he made his first works with Alpine subjects. He was subsequently admitted to a sanatorium on Lake Constance. Together with the collector Gustav Schiefler, he began planning a book of his graphic work. In July 1918, he left the sanatorium and returned to the Stafelalp. In September he moved into the house called “In den Lärchen” (Among the larches). He wrote Glaubensbekenntnis eines Malers (A painter’s credo), published in 1919.

1919–1922
Kirchner wrote the first critical text on his work, published in 1920 in “Genius” magazine under the pseudonym Louis de Marsalle (an invented character he would use several times). He exhibited his work at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Hotel Belvedere in Davos. In early 1921 he managed to overcome his morphine addiction. A solo exhibition of his work was staged at the Kron­prinzenpalais in Berlin. Ludwig Schames’s Frankfurt gallery displayed his “Swiss works”, on which Kirchner wrote a text under his pseudonym that was published in the catalogue.

1923–1924
In June 1923 Kirchner exhibited his work at the Kunsthalle Basel and established his first contacts with the emerging local art scene, becoming acquainted with the artists Hermann Scherer and Albert Müller. The former visited him in Davos in August and December. In the autumn he moved into a house in Wildboden. In January 1924 he started corresponding frequently with Müller, who visited him in April. From 22 June to 13 July he held a large and controversial solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum in Winterthur, staged with Scherer’s help. On that occasion Gustav Pauli, director of the Hamburg Kunsthalle, purchased his painting entitled Bauernmittag (Lunch of the Farmers), which was subsequently confiscated during the “Entartete Kunst” (Degenerate art) campaign conducted by the Nazi regime in 1937. During the summer he was visited by Scherer and Müller. Influenced by Kirchner’s work, the two young artists founded the Rot-Blau Swiss expressionist group together with Paul Camenisch on New Year’s Eve in Castel San Pietro, in the Canton of Ticino.

1925–1926
Kirchner worked closely with Müller, travelling with him to Dresden to visit the Internationale Kunstausstellung exhibition, where he set up a room dedicated to the new Swiss art, inviting Müller, Scherer, Camenisch and Philipp Bauknecht to display their work. Camenisch stayed with him in Davos from July to September. Schiefler published the first volume of the catalogue raisonné of his graphic work (the second would be published in 1931). On 14 December Müller died of typhus.

1927–1933
On 13 May 1927 Scherer also died, and the remaining Rot-Blau members decided to dissolve the group. Kirchner staged an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel in memory of Müller, for which he wrote the catalogue text and made the woodcut for the poster. In 1928 he published another of his writings in the catalogue for the commemorative exhibition devoted to Scherer. The same year the second Rot-Blau group was founded, from which he firmly distanced himself. After the National Socialist Party came to power in Jan­uary 1933, his relations with Germany became increasingly difficult. He held a major anthological exhibition at the Kunsthalle in Berne, in the catalogue for which he published his last contribution under the pseudonym Louis de Marsalle, whom he subsequently declared deceased.

1934–1937
Kirchner’s health continued to deteriorate, leading him to become a heavy user of barbiturates. In January 1937 he inaugurated his first solo exhibition at an American museum at the Detroit Institute of Arts. In Germany his art was branded “degenerate” and over 600 of his works were confiscated. Thirty-two of them were displayed at the Entartete Kunst exhibition in Munich in 1937.

1938
After Austria was annexed by Germany, Kirchner’s mental health deteriorated drastically, causing him to destroy many of his works. On the morning of 15 June he fatally shot himself in his house in Wildboden. In July five of his works were displayed at the Twentieth-Century German Art exhibition in London, staged in response to the Entartete Kunst exhibition in Munich.