STREET, BERLIN | 1913 | by ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER
The vigorously painted STREET, BERLIN explores the figure of the city prostitute: chic streetwalkers who have angular, mask-like faces. The two women proudly walk down the busy, tilted street of cloaked men with more sullen expressions.
STREET, BERLIN accentuates the hidden sensuality beneath the prostitutes' haughty fashion. The luxury and anxious energy in painting also serve as a commentary on a PRE-WORLD WAR I German culture, as KIRCHNER believed increasing political tensions further detached urban individuals from society.
The Streetwalker series, of which this is a famous example, is one of the most admired areas of KIRCHNER'S art. The models for the series may have been dancer Gerda Schilling and her sister EDNA, who later became the artist's lover. He once described the two women as having "beautiful, architecturally structured, rigorously formed bodies," and his encounter with them undoubtedly influenced this series of figure paintings.
