Emil Nolde – Herbert Beck. The strength of colour, Lugano

The encounter with great expressionist Emil Nolde (1867-1956) at the Galerie Commeter in Hamburg in 1952 was for Herbert Beck (1920-2010) the inspiring event of his artistic career. “Achieving the brilliance of Nolde’s colours was the goal of countless studies,” Beck later wrote.

The juxtaposition of two watercolour masters in the exhibition?Emil Nolde-Herbert Beck. The Strength of Colour, illustrates Nolde’s unsurpassed skill, but also Beck’s continuation of this expressive painting in new areas of drawing and content. The exhibition incorporates 93 works of art including watercolours and paintings, divided into six thematic chapters. Alongside works from the Braglia Collection, of which the painting Waldrand created by Emil Nolde in 1909 is a recent acquisition, are works from the Stiftung Seebüll Ada und Emil Nolde, the Renate und Friedrich Johenning Stiftung, the Olbricht Collection, the Nachlass Herbert Beck and private collections.?

Nolde never had any pupils; his art is unique, as is his style and painting technique. As an avant-garde and revolutionary painter, he made his mark on the history of art in the early 20th century and can now be found in all of the world’s most important museums. At the age of 32, after meeting Nolde, Herbert Beck began to explore the secrets of colour and painting secrets of the Expressionist master and developed a personal technique that allowed him to work even more expressively. Over the course of decades, he perfected his painting technique, working wet-on-wet on thick handmade paper so that he could apply watercolour densely. This creates an intense, luminous colouring in his works that is typical of the artist.

Emil Nolde and Herbert Beck capture the public’s attention through the radiant colouring of their works, from which emanates an entirely personal inner radiance.?