Stadtbahnbogen (Tramway Arch)

Artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938)

Date1915

Dimensions21 1/2 × 24 3/4 in. (54.6 × 62.9 cm)

MediumFour color lithograph on paper (yellow, green, blue on black)

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineWilliam J. Hitchcock Fund in memory of Grace J. Hitchcock

Object number

2018.19

Not on View

DescriptionAmong Kirchner’s finest, this large, 4-color lithograph, Tramway Arch, belongs to his most productive and innovative artistic period. Created as part of his famous Berlin city scenes, this complex image with its jarring colors, sharply tilted perspective, and gestural lines, powerfully captures the mechanized dynamism and energy of the rapidly growing Berlin metropolis. Dominating the composition is a massive, stone archway that rises behind a steel bridge and is framed by an isolated apartment building. Above, a rail train passes by a house, as a tram (trolley car) emerges below from beneath the criss-crossing structures and thoroughfares. Countering these machine-driven modes of transportation are scurrying, anonymous pedestrians who make their way along either side of the embankment.

Label TextTramway Arch belongs to E.L. Kirchner’s most productive and innovative artistic period. Created as part of his famous Berlin city scenes (1912–15), this four-color lithograph—with its jarring colors, tilted perspective, and deliberately distorted spaces—captures the growing industrial infrastructure and energy of the rapidly changing metropolis in the first decades of the 20th century. Dominating the composition is a massive stone archway that rises behind a steel bridge and is framed by an isolated apartment building on the left. Above, a train passes on an elevated track as a tram (streetcar) emerges below from a network of interlocking transportation systems. Countering the mechanized modes of transportation are anonymous pedestrians hurrying along walkways. A superb example of Kirchner’s ability to register the psychological experience of modern, industrial existence, Tramway Arch evokes the intense sensations produced by the pervasive noise, bustle, and traffic of urban life. A co-founder of the early Expressionist artists’ group Brücke (Bridge), Kirchner regarded printmaking as an integral component of his artistic practice and became widely known for his innovative and unorthodox approach. Though Kirchner created more than 2,000 woodcuts, etchings, and lithographs, Tramway Arch is a rare work belonging to a small group of only 10 color lithographs produced during his career.Published ReferencesGordon, Donald, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, A Retrospective Exhibition, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1968, cat. no. 124, repr. p. 148.

High Museum of Art, Art in Berlin 1815 -1989, exhibition catalogue, Atlanta Georgia, High Museum of Art, 1989, cat.no. 39, p.145.

Moeller, Magdelena M., Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik, exhibition catalogue, Germany, Hatje Cantz Verlag, p. 206-207, 1999.

Moeller, Magdelena M., Ernst L. Kirchner, Farbige Druckgraphik, exhibition catalogue, Germany, Hirmer Verlag, 2009, p. 45.

Exhibition HistorySeattle Art Museum; Pasadena Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, A Retrospective Exhibition, 1969.

Atlanta, Georgia, High Museum of Art, Art in Berlin 1815 -1989, 1989.

Berlin, Brücke-Museum; Essen, Germany, Museum Folkwang; Bremen, Germany, Kunsthalle Bremen,Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Meisterwerke der Druckgraphik, 1990-1991.

Berlin, Brücke-Museum; Bremen, Germany, Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Ernst L. Kirchner, Farbige Druckgraphik, 2008 -2009.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Lloyd, Jill and Janis Staggs, ed., Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Munich, Prestel Verlag, 2019, pl. 95, repr. (col.).