Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: The Dresden and Berlin Years

Of all the artists in the early modern period, Kirchner was most responsive to the underlying tension between nature and civilization that fascinated his generation. This preoccupation culminates in his paintings of metropolitan Berlin, where he combines elegance with fierce rawness to reveal the potential wildness of the crowd. His masterpieces from the years 1905 to 1915, his most important and innovative period, are the focus of this book and the exhibition it accompanies, opening at the National Gallery of Art in Washington in March 2003.