The artwork entitled “Street, Dresden,” created by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner in 1908, exemplifies the expressionist movement through the medium of oil on canvas. This genre painting is housed in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, NY, US.
The artwork depicts a bustling urban scene in Dresden, characterized by the vivid and exaggerated use of color and form that is emblematic of expressionism. The central figures, prominently dressed in period attire, seem almost ghostly with their elongated features and intense gazes. Surrounding them, the crowd and background are rendered in vibrant, contrasting hues, enhancing the dynamic and somewhat disjointed atmosphere of the street. Kirchner’s bold, angular strokes and the abstracted, almost distorted representation of the figures evoke a sense of agitation and motion, capturing the frenetic energy of early 20th-century urban life.
