"People become artists out of despair."

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German painter and printmaker who in 1905 founded Die Brücke, the artist group that laid the foundation for German Expressionism. With his distinctive style — sketchy forms and vivid colours — he moved between dazzling natural motifs and raw urban environments. His monumental series Berliner Straßenszenen is considered one of the high points of Expressionism. The Nazis branded his art as "degenerate" and confiscated over 600 of his works in 1937. The following year he took his own life.