This fall, the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent is dedicating an exhibition to the German artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970). Heckel was one of the leading figures of German Expressionism and a co-founder of the artists' association Brücke. During World War I, he worked as a nurse for the Red Cross in Roeselare, Ostend, and Ghent. His fascination with the Flemish landscapes and cities is reflected in striking artworks: romantic and expressive, spiritual and tangible, and above all, hopeful. With this monographic exhibition, the MSK highlights a lesser-known but particularly intriguing period of this influential artist.
From the end of the 19th century, young artists in Germany resisted the fleeting nature of Impressionism. In Dresden, the Brücke artists' association was founded in 1905. The 22-year-old Erich Heckel was one of the co-founders. This association of self-taught artists aimed to express strong joie de vivre in a common style of bright colors and angular forms. This style is called Expressionism: the artist tries to convey inner emotions through form and color rather than objective reality.
At the outbreak of World War I, Heckel was in his early thirties. Nevertheless, he already enjoyed a solid reputation in Germany. During the war, he became acquainted with Flanders. As a nurse for the Red Cross, he traveled to Ghent, Roeselare, and Ostend. On the hospital train, assembled by Walter Kaesbach, a curator of the Berlin National Gallery, were other painters and writers. As a result, the emergency hospital at Ostend station grew into a true artists' colony. Heckel met James Ensor there and developed a special friendship with his fellow nurse, the young poet Ernst Morwitz, whose literary world had a significant influence on his visual work.
During the war, Heckel's artistic activities continued. Because painting materials were hard to come by, he made do with what was available: coarse-woven linen and diluted tempera. For his woodcuts, he used mahogany wood salvaged from the paneling of the station waiting room. During his leave in Germany, Heckel continued his work, maintained contacts with collectors, and planned exhibitions.
Between their shifting duties, the members of the artists' colony had enough time to devote to their art. In addition to several paintings, many gouaches, watercolors, drawings, and graphic works have been preserved: views of Roeselare, Ostend, and Ghent, sometimes featuring picturesque figures and bathers, but also still lifes, landscapes, and seascapes. Despite the historical context, Heckel's stay in Flanders extended beyond World War I. Heckel was not a 'war artist' but a nurse working mainly behind the front lines. As a draftsman, he made numerous sketches of the places he visited and the people he observed. As a painter, he was particularly impressed by the Flemish landscape and the North Sea, with their unique cloud formations where light always tries to break through; motifs that seemed both foreign and familiar to him. The Flemish landscapes reminded him of the early days of the Brücke, when Heckel and his friends Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff would go out to paint en plein air.
The MSK possesses a small but fine ensemble of German Expressionism, including a view of Bruges by Heckel from 1917. With this monographic exhibition, which relies on valuable loans from German collections, the MSK highlights a lesser-known but particularly intriguing period within the oeuvre of this leading artist. Inspired by the Flemish landscape and influenced by the artistic and literary interests of his comrades, he was able to give a personal expression to his unique World War I experience. His typically Flemish landscapes are romantic and expressive, spiritual and tangible, nostalgic, and, in these difficult times, above all, hopeful.