Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,"Black Cat (Bobby)", 1924-26.
Oil on canvas, 70 x 60 cm, Gordon 773
Puzzle: Photoprint with finished surface,
42 x 35.7 cm, 525 pieces, 3mm wood, guarantee for lost parts,
made in Switzerland.
© Ernst Ludwig Kirchner AG

Berlin, 05 August 2009 (kk) - As from now there is a new haven for fans of one of the most important German artists of the 20th century: in Berlin, the former stronghold of Expressionism, Ketterer Kunst is operating the first and hitherto only KIRCHNERSHOP in Germany at Fasanenstrasse 70.

Aficionados of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner can now take home many of his exciting motifs on numerous useful objects and accessories in addition to attending the exhibitions and auctions at Ketterer Kunst where original works by the great "Die Brücke" artist are regularly represented.

Everything is there from pocket mirrors to T-shirts. The range includes sets of coloured pencils and erasers, footmats and bath towels, glasses, dish towels and trivial pursuit games. Prices for some 45 products on offer range from € 4 for instance, for magnets "Nude" and "Davos" to € 108 for the belt "Flying People". Other articles made of high-quality materials, most of them fairtrade, made in the artist’s adopted country are soon to follow. This autumn, "Gerda", a dress collection inspired by the 1914 Kirchner portrait in oils of "Gerda", is to enlarge the selection of products on offer. It will be rounded off by numerous publications dealing with the Expressionist artist’s work.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was not just a painter and sculptor, one of the most important draughtsmen and printmaker. He was also a graduate architect*. His aim as an artist was to lead mankind to new and lofty heights through the works he designed in form and colour down to the smallest utilitarian article. Furniture, trays and coffe mills were all sketched, designed and painted by Kirchner in his studios in Dresden and Berlin and his homes in Davos. The Ernst Ludwig Kirchner AG views it as its mission to ensure this intention of the artist’s continues to be promoted by providing a wide range of useful items designed as the artist would wish to be sold jointly with Ketterer Kunst at the KIRCHNERSHOP in Berlin.

Not quite so well known but just as exciting is Armin Mueller-Stahl’s work as a writer and visual artist. Although he has been painting as a means of expression for over forty years, his work was not presented publicly in Germany until the 2001 spring exhibition at the Babelsberg Film Museum in Potsdam.

"Painting, writing, making music and acting simply belong together, as I see it," says Armin Mueller-Stahl himself. And goes on to add: "Creative desire is an attempt to throw off the shackles of life." Painting and drawing seem to be particularly helpful to him in this because they represent "the more honest proceedings" he feels. "Painting seeks the truth. Here what matters, unlike in writing, where good punch-lines count, is representing as authentically as possible in its entirety a figure telling someone something," the artist explains.

Armin Mueller-Stahl’s visual works with a special focus on his prints have been documented at the Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen Schloß Gottorf on the initiative of Professor Dr. Herwig Guratzsch, who will retire as director of that institution at the end of May 2009.