A Group With a Public Relations Strategy

Narrator: In the eight years of Brücke’s existence between 1905 and 1913 the group managed to organise twenty-five exhibitions, twelve of which were one-off events confined to a single location and the other thirteen were travelling exhibitions that took place in seventy-five venues in fifty-two towns.
 
From the outset the group embedded their shows within a public relations strategy, producing a plethora of publicity material based on their own original printed matter, including stamps and vignettes, invitations, tickets, posters, and catalogues.
 
To explain the intentions behind their work to organisers, reviewers, visitors, and – in short –everyone who participated in the art market, the artists formulated their manifesto in the course of 1906, initially printed by letterpress in the form of a handout that visitors could pick up at exhibitions.
 
Kirchner also made a woodcut of the text, printed on laid paper with a title-page vignette, as an exclusive version for members of the group and for collectors. This text says little about the artists’ plans, being more of a battle cry which, like the name of the group itself, outlines their cause and their desire to cast tradition aside and predicate artistic expression on the unbridled urge to create, independence, and personal freedom.