This course explores the early twentieth-century art group Die Brücke, a key German Expressionist movement that sought to act as a “bridge” between Old Master painting and modern art. Artists studied include Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Erich Heckel. The course examines how these artists fused ideas drawn from modern masters — such as the colour of Van Gogh and Matisse, and the spatial structures of Cézanne, Henri Rousseau, and Edvard Munch — with compositional approaches found in the work of Old Masters including Lucas Cranach the Elder, Grünewald, and Dürer. Equal emphasis is placed on the profound influence of African sculpture, particularly works by sculptors from Cameroon, which are known to have strongly influenced Kirchner. This influence is also shared by artists such as Picasso, Modigliani, Soutine, and more recently Josef Herman.

Day 1: Analysis of one or more artists of your choice from the course. Day 2: Working from photographs of subjects such as interiors, landscapes, cityscapes, and figures — alongside images of Cameroonian sculpture — you will experiment with selected ideas from Day 1, producing preparatory studies that explore colour and composition. Day 3: Using the studies developed on Day 2, you will create a larger-scale Expressionist painting of your own.