Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938). Cows Descending, 1917. Woodcut, 16 5/8 x 23 1/8" (42.2 x 58.7 cm.). Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Gift of A. Conger Goodyear, by exchange, 1949. Charles Clifton Fund, 2003.

Collective Identity: Expressionism to Realism and the Art of Printmaking in Germany
February 21 - May 27, 2007

Albrecht Dürer, who is considered one of the greatest printmakers of all time, produced both woodcuts and engravings with a level of detail that is virtually unsurpassed. Dürer, among other German printmakers of the sixteenth century, was an enormous influence on early-twentieth-century German artists who were concerned with such issues as the atrocities of war, death, the difficulty of city life, and man's relationship with nature during a period of social upheaval and uncertainty in pre- and post-World War I Germany. In an effort to explore mediums beyond traditional painting and sculpture, these artists revitalized the woodcut - as well as other printmaking techniques such as etching and lithography - with an aggressively unique sense of color, line, and form. By reflecting back on a 400-year-old tradition of printmaking throughout Germany, this exhibition takes a closer look at the medium of printmaking and how it has formed a collective, national identity. This exhibition provides a historical context for this work by pairing sixteenth-century German prints with their twentieth-century counterparts, including prints by Max Beckmann, Albrecht Dürer, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Käthe Kollwitz, and Emil Nolde.