Dance of Colours, 1933

About the Work

Kirchner executed “Dance of Colours” in conjunction with the decoration of a ceremonial hall in the Folkwang Museum in Essen – a project that ultimately came to nought. The print reveals a close interrelationship with the artist’s paintings. The theme is the breaking down of white sunlight into the three pure spectral colours: red, yellow and blue. The dancers symbolize the coloured light and thus also the rhythm and musicality of the colours.

About the Acquisition

From 1900 onwards, the Frankfurt chemist and industrialist Carl Hagemann (1867‒1940) assembled one of the most important private collections of modern art. It included numerous paintings, drawings, watercolours and prints, especially by members of the artist group “Die Brücke”. After Carl Hagemann died in an accident during the Second World War, the then Städel director Ernst Holzinger arranged for Hagemann’s heirs to evacuate his collection with the museum’s collection. In gratitude, the family donated almost all of the works on paper to the Städel Museum in 1948. Further donations and permanent loans as well as purchases of paintings and watercolours from the Hagemann estate helped to compensate for the losses the museum had suffered in 1937 as part of the Nazi’s “Degenerate Art” campaign. Today, the Hagemann Collection forms the core of the Städel museum’s Expressionist collection.