Gothic Modern

Around 1900, Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, and their contemporaries discovered Gothic art as a powerful source of inspiration for their own work. Their enthusiasm for works from Germany and Northern Europe unleashed energies for creative experiments in modern art that transcended national boundaries, thereby conjuring a new 'Gothic Modernity.'

What makes Gothic art from the 12th to the 15th century modern? This richly illustrated book addresses this question by examining the profound influence of medieval Gothic on the development of art around 1900. The lost era of Gothic appears to artists in terms of figurative language, motifs, and expressive power as modern and pioneering for their own art. This perspective inspired an entire generation from the 1870s to the 1920s to create novel visual worlds that incorporated contemporary issues of artistry, intellectual property, modern society, sexuality, spirituality, and identity.

Artists: Joseph Alanen, Hans Baldung Grien, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Karl Bennewitz von Löfen, Fritz Boehle, Dirk Bouts, Arnold Böcklin, Gustav Carus, Lovis Corinth, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Otto Dix, Albrecht Dürer, James Ensor, Lyonel Feininger, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Matthias Grünewald, Ernst Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Theodor Kittelsen, Max Klinger, Käthe Kollwitz, Lowis Korinth, Georges Lacombe, Eugène Laermans, Théophile Lybaert, Karel Masek, Constantin Meunier, Georges Minne, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Edvard Munch, Ejnar Nielsen, Emil Nolde, Karl Nordström, Prins Eugen, Arthur Roessler, Tyko Sallinen, O. R. Schatz, Helene Schjerfbeck, Sascha Schneider, Hugo Simberg, Max Slevogt, Agnes Slott-Möller, Harald Slott-Møller, Gustav Adolph Spangenberg, Carl Spitzweg, Marianne Stokes, Henrik Sørensen, Hans Thoma, Gustave van de Woestyne, Vincent van Gogh, Emanuel Vigeland, Gustav Vigeland.