Cats in Art: Gray Cat on a Cushion (Kirchner)

Sorry for being dark, changes coming. Here is a Cats in Art post that I ran 5 years ago in Nov 2013.  Here's the original link.

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From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi. This is post 2 of 3 examining the cat works of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and, like last week, is a post-World War I work.

Image credit Art is Not for Sissies, here.  Gray Cat on a Cushion, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1919-20, oil on canvas, 31" x 27", held by Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany.

Zuffi comments:  

A comparison between Kirchner's works before and after the First World War highlights with dramatic effect the state of mind of a German intellectual.  The cat is tense, the forward-pointing whiskers a clear sign of nervousness; and its tail looks as it is about to beat against the cushion.  The animal's glaring eyes and the violent colors in the background, where the fabric seems to evoke explosive flashes of light, add to this painting's sense of tension.

In this image Zuffi descriptively nails it--the kitty is agitated, restless, ready to detonate.  One would try to pet this cat at one's own risk (I know this, for we have a similarly twitchy cat who can go from a hiss to a purr--and back--in less than 10 seconds).

I do love the background as well.  The colors are quite at odds with the central image of the cat, but contribute to the overall discordance of the scene.

In looking at the series of chronological works of Kirchner, I could see the light openness of his earlier works being supplanted by his somewhat darker post-war art.  He was quite changed by his experiences as a soldier in the war...and who could not be?

Here is a telling quote from Kirchner himself on the war (as found in The Art Story, here):

"The heaviest burden of all is the pressure of the war and the increasing superficiality. It gives me incessantly the impression of a bloody carnival. I feel as though the outcome is in the air and everything is topsy-turvy. All the same, I keep on trying to get some order in my thoughts and to create a picture of the age out of confusion, which is after all my function." 

Through all the madness, Kirchner still knew what he had to do as an artist:

 "...I keep on trying to get some order in my thoughts and to create a picture of the age out of confusion, which is after all my function."

Cats in Art: Black Cat (Kirchner)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi. This is post 4 of 4 examining the cat works of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from the early 1900s.


I thought I was done with Kirchner after 3 paintings, but then I was browsing and came across another.  That's the thing with this series: art history is not found at one place.  For example, I've been on numerous sites that purport to be "...the complete works of xxxxx" and then another image, previously unseen (by me), pops up somewhere else.

Anyway, here's the next (last?) Kirchner painting:

Image credit Art in the Picture, here.  Black Cat, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1926, oil on canvas, size ?, held by ?

 

 

Not to anthropomorphize too much, but the kitty is, well, simply gorgeous.  That's the only word, to me, that does this image justice.  Sleek, powerful, regal...you just run out of words and are left with gorgeous.

 

And maybe I'm playing too much of the armchair psychologist here, but notice how the background is so much more subdued that Kirchner's former use of garish, clashing colors?  I'm thinking that his WW I experiences have perhaps faded and he's just more at peace when he painted this in 1926.

 

Actually, the background seems almost Van Gogh-like--greenish blue plants and flowers.

 

Anyway, before you click off my site, take one more look at the Black Cat by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

 

I defy you to come up with a more apt descriptor than the word gorgeous.

 

 

Cats in art: Girl With a Cat (Franzi) (Kirchner)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.  This is post 3 of 3 examining the cat works of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner from the early 1900s.

As a side note, due a mental processing failure, I simply cannot bring myself to use the convention of saying "early 20th century.''  It bears some relation to dyslexia, I believe, rendering it too hard for me to process and think through to get the number right.  When somebody says "1900s" I know immediately the time period they are talking about.  When somebody says "20th century" it's a 2-stage process to figure out they mean the 1900s.

Besides, "__th century" sounds pretentious to me.

 

Image credit WikiPaintings, here.  Girl With a Cat (Franzi), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910, oil on canvas, 89 x 116 cm.

 

As in many of Kirchner's paintings, we see nudes and glaring primary colors.  In this image, the question becomes whether the purple cat is going to engage the girl in play.  And whether the play would be wholesome and playful, or instead would deal with fighting.  The girl seems preoccupied with her thoughts while the cat is gathering steam behind her, for what purpose?

 

And the title...is the girl's name Franzi...or is the cat's name?

 

Here are some thoughts from Kirchner himself on the notion of art (as found in The Art Story, here):

"A painter paints the appearance of things, not their objective correctness, in fact he creates new appearances of things."

"My paintings are allegories not portraits."

"It seems as though the goal of my work has always been to dissolve myself completely into the sensations of the surroundings in order to then integrate this into a coherent painterly form."

"All art needs this visible world and will always need it. Quite simply because, being accessible to all, it is the key to all other worlds."

The comment I like best?   "My paintings are allegories not portraits."

 

 

 

 

Cats in Art: Gray Cat on a Cushion (Kirchner)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi. This is post 2 of 3 examining the cat works of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and, like last week, is a post-World War I work.

 

Image credit Art is Not for Sissies, here.  Gray Cat on a Cushion, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1919-20, oil on canvas, 31" x 27", held by Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany.

 

Zuffi comments: 

 

A comparison between Kirchner's works before and after the First World War highlights with dramatic effect the state of mind of a German intellectual.  The cat is tense, the forward-pointing whiskers a clear sign of nervousness; and its tail looks as it is about to beat against the cushion.  The animal's glaring eyes and the violent colors in the background, where the fabric seems to evoke explosive flashes of light, add to this painting's sense of tension.

 

In this image Zuffi descriptively nails it--the kitty is agitated, restless, ready to detonate.  One would try to pet this cat at one's own risk (I know this, for we have a similarly twitchy cat who can go from a hiss to a purr in less than 10 seconds).

 

I do love the background as well.  The colors are quite at odds with the central image of the cat, but contribute to the overall discordance of the scene.

 

In looking at the series of chronological works of Kirchner, I could see the light openness of his earlier works being supplanted by his somewhat darker post-war art.  He was quite changed by his experiences as a soldier in the war...and who could not be?

 

Here is a telling quote from Kirchner himself on the war (as found in The Art Story, here):

 

"The heaviest burden of all is the pressure of the war and the increasing superficiality. It gives me incessantly the impression of a bloody carnival. I feel as though the outcome is in the air and everything is topsy-turvy. All the same, I keep on trying to get some order in my thoughts and to create a picture of the age out of confusion, which is after all my function."

Through all the madness, Kirchner still knew what he had to do as an artist:

 "...I keep on trying to get some order in my thoughts and to create a picture of the age out of confusion, which is after all my function."

 

 

Cats in Art: The Living Room (Kirchner)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.

 

Image credit Artflakes, here, The Living Room,  Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1920, oil on canvas, 35" x 59", held by Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany.

 

You just gotta love a painting that contains only a cat as the sole focus.  Yet for me the painting is a bit jarring: the cat's black fur contrasts starkly with the vivid colors of the sofa.  Moreover, the cat is horizontal while the vertical striping of the background dominates the rest of the image, lending another discordant note.

 

Zuffi comments:

 

Even in this context, however, the black cat maintains its age-old indifference, calmly purring on the divan, impassive and reassuring.

 

 

 

 

Cats in Art: Marcella (Kirchner)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.

Image credit here.  Marcella, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910, oil on canvas, 39" x 30", held by Brucke Museum, Berlin, Germany.

Zuffi tells us:

Marcella is huddled on a divan, in a solitude that is emphasized by the liquor bottles on the table; her wide eyes gaze into the distance..  Almost in the same pose, and on the same divan, is a white cat; but unlike the girl, the cat is sleeping soundly.  In the apparent similarity between the poses, Kirchner appears to want to stress their opposing attitudes: the pensive anxiety of Marcella, and the peaceful, almost philosophical abandon of the cat.

Me, I just know that cats like to be with you while pretending they are not actually with you.