A member of the Berlin Novembergruppe in the early 1900's with George Grosz and Otto Dix, who he shared a studio with, he created paintings of the places and buildings he saw.
His images and life were greatly affected by his involvement in two world wars and the fact he was banned from carrying out his works by the Nazi's during the war. Labelled one of the degenerate artists by Hitler, he was relieved of his post as professor at the Dusseldorf academy.
His works look at humans and the technology and development of the world in the same way Demuth's 'My Egypt' does, which was also painted in the 20's.
His paintings feature Industrial backdrops filled with planes, ships and very occasionally people and are mysterious in both composition and content.
He looks at whats going on in the world around him and mixes mythical happenings into the frame.
In the image above we see what looks like an everyday type of town scene. A road being worked on, smoke coming from the chimney of a house or bar and industrial works and blocks of flats but mixed with this we see a red blob in the sky where the sun should be, what looks like a black abandoned coffin in the road, and a single plane sits in the sky next to what appears to be a large black expanse resembling a bird bursting into flames. The structure of the bridge is also a mystery. it appears to be impassable to any vehicle and there are no people at all.
The pinks, blues, reds and other colours are bright and vivid, and the perfect detail is consistent throughout the whole image.
in this painting I think he's mixing what he sees with what he's seen.
His town growing around him coupled with the memories of the scenes he witnessed in the wars.
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