How Nazi-banned expressionist Emil Nolde re-envisioned color
Jan Tomes
August 7, 2017
He abandoned his family's farm, but became world-famous for landscape paintings. Expressionist Emil Nolde, born 150 years ago, saw the world in abstract but radical colors - a vision that proved too modern for the Nazis.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
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The magical kaleidoscope of expressionist Emil Nolde's paintings
Born 150 years ago, Emil Nolde became famous for his radical use of color in landscapes. The German expressionist's works were banned by the Nazis, but that didn't stop him from leaving his mark.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
The misunderstood artist
German painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956) is universally recognized as one of the pivotal figures of the European avant-garde. His expressive style and bold use of color deriving from Impressionism, as seen in this "High Sea" painting from 1948, were not immediately understood. He was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1898.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Bridging the divide
Nolde's talent was soon recognized elsewhere and in 1906 he was invited to join the group of young expressionists "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) that had formed a year earlier in Dresden. He participated in the group's two touring exhibition projects, but Nolde tended to be reclusive and left the collective the following year. Pictured is his self-portrait from 1917.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
The eye must travel
Nolde was a loner and a passionate traveler, and many of his famous paintings were influenced by excursions into nature. The picturesque mountain sceneries he became known for stem from his many hiking tours in Europe while some of his watercolors were shaped by his travels to Africa, the South Pacific, Russia, and China. This still life with a striped goat is from 1920.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Germany's van Gogh
No art is ever created in a vacuum, and even Nolde looked to other artists for inspiration. He was mainly interested in the work of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and his floral paintings. Since pictures of flowers constitute a significant portion of Nolde's work, including these "Large Poppies" from 1942, they often overshadow his more exciting pieces and portraits.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Expensive flowers
Nolde left the art world a rich legacy: a portfolio containing more than 500 works, which have since become extraordinarily valuable. This floral painting, "Flower Garden" from 1908, sold for over $3 million at Sotheby's in London in 2012.
Image: Wikipedia/Gemeinfrei
The master of color
During his lifetime, Nolde became famous for his impressive use of color. "There is silver blue, sky blue, and thunder blue. Every color harbors its soul, which makes me happy or repels me, and which acts as a stimulus," he once said. Pictured is Nolde's "Society" from 1911.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
Degenerate art
Nolde's paintings were confiscated from museums and deemed "degenerate" in Nazi Germany, even though Nolde himself was a supporter of the regime. The traditionalist Nazis banned art considered too modern or experimental. Some works, like "Candle Dancers" from 1912, were also seen as too erotic. During the war, he privately painted small-scale watercolors, which he called "unpainted pictures."
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
A German export
Nolde received various awards in West Germany in the 1950s. Today, art lovers can view works like "Muggy Evening" (1930) at the Nolde Foundation in Seebüll, Germany, where the artist died, or in galleries and museums all over the world. Nolde is shown regularly during exhibitions at institutions like New York's MoMA, the Kunstmuseum in Basel, or Albertina in Vienna.
Image: Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
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"Every color harbors its own soul," said Emil Nolde, arguably the most famous German expressionist, who would have celebrated his 150th birthday on August 7. His work embodies this vision, and the fantastic use of color in his paintings never ceases to amaze.
Whether he painted blood-red flowers and skies, lakes and mountains dyed in cerulean, or bright orange fields that flow into deep magenta backgrounds, his work reads as a profound exploration of hues and moods.
Without a doubt, his life was just as colorful. He was born in 1867 as Emil Hansen to a peasant family in Nolde in what was then Prussia (now Burkal in Denmark). He had no interest in becoming a farmer, though later in life he would live reclusively and dedicate a significant portion of his work to rural landscapes.
After training and working as a furniture maker and wood carver, he was rejected from studying art in Munich. Instead he pursued art education in Dachau and Paris - and his talent was finally recognized.
In 1906, he was invited to join the Die Brücke (The Bridge).
The German expressionist avant-garde group, which had been founded by Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in 1905, relied on crude drawings, radical colors and complete abstraction.
Nolde, preferring isolation as an artist, withdrew from the group in 1907.
Banned by Hitler, despite being a fan
Despite his proclamation that "art is exalted above religion and race," Nolde was a vocal supporter of Hitler during his rise to power.
But being favored by prominent Nazi figures such as Joseph Goebbels and Fritz Hippler did not help him in the end. The regime condemned his art as "degenerate," and Nolde was forbidden from painting until the end of World War II, just like many other avant-garde artists. Their work was simply too modern for the traditionalist Nazis.
Before his death in 1956, Nolde was rehabilitated and awarded the German Order of Merit. A selection of his oeuvre is presented in the gallery above.
