Expressionist Graphics

Even today, Expressionist prints are among the most outstanding artistic achievements of the 20th century. Over the summer of 2012, the Ernst Barlach Museum Ratzeburg showed 70 selected works by Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Erich Heckel, Käthe Kollwitz and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

A specific quality that characterizes Expressionism is the simplification of expression and concentration on the essential. At the same time, the expressive power is to be increased with the uncompromising claim to inner and sincere truth. The goal of artistic activity is the liberation of man from the fetters of the real, the visible, the material world in favor of a higher reality lying behind it.