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Collections

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Shadow of life1924

Not on view
Book cover design with flat hunter green and goldenrod yellow forms; back cover shows a black silhouette profile, front cover shows an angular outlined figure with raised hand, both set against mountain shapes
Woodcut printed on book endpapers in dark navy on vivid pink, with a horizontal dark band spanning both pages. Left page shows a cluster of expressive faces; right page depicts two nude walking figures rendered in angular, gestural lines.
Woodcut book frontispiece in red and black on cream paper; a dark angular figure with raised hands stands over a skull, surrounded by red abstract forms and German text reading "Georg Heym / Umbra Vitae / Kurt Wolff Verlag München"
Artist or Maker
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Publisher
Kurt Wolff
Title
Shadow of life
Place Made
Germany, Munich
Date Made
1924
Medium
Printed material and fifty woodcuts on wove paper
Credit Line
The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, purchased with funds provided by Anna Bing Arnold, Museum Associates Acquisition Fund, and deaccession funds
Accession Number
83.1.116.1-.50
Classification
Books
Collecting Area
Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies
Selected Bibliography

  • Davis, Bruce. German Expressionist Prints and Drawings: The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies. Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989; Munich, Germany: Prestel, 1989.

  • Dübe, Annemarie und Wolf-Dieter. Das graphische Werk. München : Prestel, 1980.
  • Reed, Orrel P., German expressionist art: the Robert Gore Rifkind Collection: prints, drawings, illustrated books, periodicals, posters. Exhibition Catalogue. Los Angeles: Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, 1977.