Eric Heckel
Eric Heckel was a German expressionist whose graphic work, in the form of drawings, lithographs, woodcuts and engravings, is of equal importance to his painting between 1904 and 1906, Heckel studied architecture in Dresden, where he met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, with whom he founded a group known as Die Brucke (the bridge) in 1905.
Declaring Cezanne, Van Gogh, Munch and primitive art to be their inspiration, the group began to produce paintings and graphics that combined a radical simplification of formwith an increasingly strident colour sense. Like the Fauves, Die Brucke artists took their subjects directly from nature. Keckels painting Bathers emphasizes harmony, the human figures are depicted as part of their natural surroundings. Although Die Bruckebroke up in 1913, certain basic features of their expressive common style continued to influence Heckels work> He served as a Red Cross orderly in the First World War, during which time he met Max Beckmann and the Belgian artist James Ensor. In later years, Heckels style became more decorative and lyrical.
Between 1949 and 1955, Heckel taught at the Karlsruhe Acadamy of Art.
text: The A-Z of Art, Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson.
Images: google images.
