Sean Barlett

Spent eight weeks researching the German Expressionism artists group Die Brcke. The research included the analysis of 20 Die Brcke artists prints found in the Albion College Print Collection. Such collection was compared with the German collection at the University of Michigan Museum of Art, by which a historical find was produced pertaining to artist, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Utilized the Albion College Art Collection to curate the newly finished Ludington Center, which is located in downtown Albion, Michigan. Upon being first appointed as the Curator of Collections by the Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management, the Ford Institute for Public Policy, and the Career and Internship Center, I was tasked with studying the architecture of the space to find the best focal points by which artwork should be placed. I then recommended the style and time period of art which would best fit the location, and after approval, I spent several weeks researching the art collection for the most suitable pieces. After many were pulled to be reviewed, eight were finalized. Such artists of the works include Richard Haas, Robert Wood, and Paul L. Stewart. All artworks are now hung on the second floor of the Ludington Center. I'm now in the process of completing the first floor, which is set to have works by Phillip C. Curtis and Yaacov Agam.

Recommended change in objectives and processes for the Fine Arts Recruitment Plan and assisted in implementing approved changes. Utilized social media communication and marketing in order to recruit Fine Arts students to attend Albion College. Assisted in the planning and execution of the Distinguished Artists Program, a scholarship opportunity for accepted Albion College students. Coordinated the Albion College Ambassador Program (ACAP) for out-of-state prospective students.

Expressionism was a late nineteenth and early twentieth-century art movement that emphasized strong emotions and psychic states through subject matter, form, technique, and media. In these works, Expression was represented not only thematically, but also through medium. Although Expressionism occurred throughout Europe, Germany may have provided the most fertile ground for the development of Expressionist movements. At the end of the nineteenth century, there was no centralized German art style, but there had been art rebellions throughout the German art world, including the Dresden Secession in 1893 and the Berlin Secession in 1898. By 1903, the Munich Secession was already on the verge of disbanding, and young German artists were well prepared to leave the safety of naturalism and conventional subject matter. Kirchner and the other members of Die Brücke found woodcut prints, with their jagged lines, flattened forms, and stark tonal contrasts an unparalleled medium for their most dramatic work. In my thesis, I will argue that the woodcut as used by the artists in Die Brücke, primarily Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, was both a physical and emotional release, a critical reflection of social mores, and a bridge to Germany’s past art forms.