until you return

And I have no thing when you are no longer here
the children are silent
the dog, muffled
even the sun seems somehow listless and hesitant
the moon hides her face
too ashamed to peek between the clouds
birds cease their singing
the breeze is muted.

you are journeying distant lands
seeing new sights
while my sight becomes ever dimmer
the more I look into the space where you are not
it is as if my soul too has departed
slipped inside your red suitcase
to keep you safe
while I remain empty
until you return

Dusun 7

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german expressionism

                           Karl Christian Ludwig Hofer or Carl Hofer was a famous 'German Expressionist' painter, born on October 11, 1878, in Karlsruhe, Germany. During 1896-1901, Carl Hofer studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown. Here, he was drawn to 'Expressionism,' owing to its essence of distorting reality for a distinct emotional effect.
He cruised through the whole of Europe in his bid to learn more. During 1903-1908, he explored Rome. One of Carl Hofer's most famous lithographs of those times was "Girls on the Seaside and Girls at the Window (1908)." From 1908 to 1913, the artist was in Paris. Here, the French painter, Paul Cézanne, the frontrunner of 'Expressionism' and 'Cubism,' deeply influenced Hofer. Cézanne's brilliant portrayal of even the most complex of human emotions impressed Carl. Similarly, Spanish painter, El Greco, helped him manifest Byzantine traditions in his paintings with western concept. Carl Hofer also explored India during 1909-11, and learnt the free use of vibrant colors in paintings.
During World War I (1914-1917), Hofer enlisted into the military service in France. In 1917, after the war, Hofer went to Switzerland, returning to Berlin in 1919. War atrocities affected the artist deeply, which reflected in his works thereafter. Karl's 'Expressionist' works continued to have an undercurrent of melancholy in them. He profusely portrayed phantoms, ghosts, and horrific skeletons in his paintings. In 1920, he became an arts professor at Hochschule für Bildende Künste (High School of Fine Arts) in Berlin.
During the Second World War, in 1933, under Hitler's regime, Hofer's paintings were confiscated, prohibited from exhibition, and were labeled as 'degenerate art.' Despite the war turmoil, in 1938, one of Carl's masterpieces, "The Wind," earned him the first International prize at the Carnegie International Exhibition. The painting portrayed two defenseless subjects in a whirl of blue drapery. Both, critics and admirers, lauded the painting alike for its multiple connotations, apart from its brilliant lines and colors.
After the war, in 1945, Carl Hofer returned to Berlin and was elected the President of the High School of Fine Arts there. All this while, his paintings continued to depict the war outrage and grief. His last, prominent masterpiece, "Früchtestillleben (Äpfel in Tüte)," created in 1946, depicts still life fruits painted in contrasting colors against a neutral, bold background.
Carl Hofer died on April 03, 1955, at Berlin (West). In spite of being a leading 'German Expressionist' painter, he never was a part of 'Expressionist' groups, such as "Die Brücke." Paintings, graphics, drawings, and writings, the artist delivered a broad spectrum of works. Until today, Karl Hofer continues to inspire art critics and students as a frontrunner of 'German Expressionism.'

expressionism art

                           What do we think of when we think of expressionism? We vaguely realize that it is the name of an art movement, basically centered in Germany post-World War I, yet the root word, 'expression', remains topmost and we look to that word for our first information about the movement. An expression is centered on the human face, changing its shape according to its mood, eyebrows lifting to question, chin quivering in sadness, mouth turning up at the corner for a full-on smile. An artist we may said to be, each one of us, as we paint our faces to express our innermost feelings. Of course, we mature and school our expression to an adult's equanimity to a great degree, yet sometimes the feelings are simply too powerful to shove aside or hide and they burst forth for the world to see. An artist does this all the time, his mood and the expression of it translating itself to the canvas before him. He feels, he expresses himself to the canvas, and so expressionism is defined.
Moving on to the Expressionism Movement that centered around Germany, the mood of the country was grim: her army disbanded, her currency devalued and her populace facing monumental unemployment, Germany's artists worked a great deal in chiaroscuro, juxtaposing shades of gray with white and all subjects shadowed by uncertainty. Even the shadows themselves were surreal, jagged splotches of darkness that mirrored the times. The movement technically began prior to Germany's defeat in the war, but it came to international notice and its full flowering after the war, especially since its influence on not only art, but architecture, music and writing. Movies, too, a moving form of art, showed the influence of expressionism's darker aspects, and the movie Nosferatu was a prime example of this. Since movies at that time did not talk, the international scene translated very well into a sort of pan-language accessible to everyone on earth. A certain loss was experienced with the coming of sound to the moving picture.
Expressionism in later years is linked to abstract expressionism, the form of art in which artists allow their spontaneous movements to release the creativity of their subconscious minds. Most often, the image that the public has is of the abstract expressionist painting rapidly with a large brush, hurling, spackling or slapping paint on a canvas. Their work is actually carefully planned, though it resembles a slap-dash of chaos. Most artists believe that the method of painting is as important as the finished work itself. In general, the subject matter is represented as a feeling, for example, white paint portraying innocence and red paint, passion or violence. The size of the canvas says a lot about the movement, because the canvases in general are larger than what is thought of as normal and they represent the sheer magnitude of emotions that flavor our daily lives. Artists, with their heightened sensibilities, need such a large canvas to express their artistic vision to the world.