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Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

* 1884, Rottluff bei Chemnitz 1976, Berlin

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
  • Biography
  • Museums and Collections

* 1884, Rottluff bei Chemnitz, 1976, Berlin

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Karl Schmidt was born in Rottluff near Chemnitz in 1884. He changed his name to Schmidt-Rottluff in 1905, adding to his family name the name of the place where he was born. He died in Berlin in 1976. He met Erich Heckel (1883-1970) at school in 1902. His earliest paintings date from 1904. In 1905 he enrolled at the Dresden Polytechnic to study architecture but broke off his studies in 1906. Through Heckel he came into contact with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) and Fritz Bleyl (1880-1966). In 1905 he was a founding member of the German Expressionist group Die Brücke. He visited Emil Nolde (1867-1956) on the remote Baltic island of Alsen in 1906. He spent the summers of 1907-12 intermittently with Heckel in Dangast. He visited Norway in 1911 and moved to Berlin shortly thereafter. In 1913 Die Brücke broke up. He served in the army from 1915 to 1918. He travelled to France, Switzerland, Italy and Dalmatia in 1923-5. In 1936 his work was branded as degenerate and he was banned from exhibiting. In 1941 he was banned from painting. He chose to live in isolation, first in Pomerania and in 1943, in Rottluff. In 1947 he was rehabilitated as an artist on his appointment as professor at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. In 1956 he was awarded the Ordre pour le mérite. In 1967 the Brücke Museum was opened to the public in Berlin. The core of the collection consists of an important donation of work made by Schmidt-Rottluff to the City of Berlin.

(We are sorry, currently only the German version is available)

Berlin, Brücke-Museum

Bernried, Buchheim Museum

Chemnitz, Kunstsammlungen

Frankfurt, Städelmuseum

Mannheim, Kunsthalle

Saarbrücken, Saarlandmuseum

Wuppertal, Von-der-Heydt-Museum

Baden-Baden, Sammlung Frieder Burda

London, Tate Gallery

New York, Museum of Modern Art

Die Werke Karl Schmidt-Rottluffs befinden sich in zahlreichen öffentlichen und privaten Sammlungen im In- und Ausland

(We are sorry, currently only the German version is available)