Milwaukee Art Museum Analysis

The first third of the 20th century in Europe was a time of modernization. Populations were beginning to centralize themselves in the cities, rather than in the countryside, because cities offered a lot of perks for their inhabitants. With a growing interest in what the modern world can offer, many artists were drawn to these cities to depict and explore the marvels that they contained. However, some artists remained in the rural areas of Europe and some lived in more suburban areas. The Milwaukee Art Museum has a specific gallery that deals with this issue of the dichotomy of increasing modernism and continuing ruralism through the eyes of German Expressionist artists. All of the artists in this gallery were associated with a German Expressionist movement, mostly die brücke and der blaue reiter, and the pieces curated together show a gradient of subject from country to city life. The center of each of the four walls of the gallery show an extreme of either city or country life, and the paintings closest to the corners are the more ambiguous.
The next wall clockwise hold three paintings: Yellow Still Life by Gabriele Munter (1909), Windblown by Marianne Werefkin (1910), and Road in Multicolored October also by Munter (1959). The third wall contains two large painting by Kirchner: Street Scene (1926) and Street at Schoneberg City Park (1912-1913). The fourth, and final wall contained three more paintings: Lady in Red by Oskar Kokoschka (1911), Roses on Path by Emil Nolde (1935), and Hot Blooded Girl by Paul Klee (1938). All of these artists identified as German Expressionists at some point in their careers, even if these pieces were not produced during these