Couple Playing Ball

An abstract space bathed in intense sunlight.
A man and a woman energetically play catch.

A feral man rendered in orange and black.
A buoyant woman in yellow and blue.
Within a swirl of vibrant colors, their bodies are dramatically elongated.
An innocent, radiant pulse of life, as though liberated from gravity itself.
It might seem, at first glance, like a joyful, peaceful scene from a holiday.

Yet in truth, there was no peace in the background of this painting.
It was created in 1933—
the year Kirchner's worst nightmare became reality.

That year, the Nazis seized power in Germany,
marking the beginning of systematic persecution against avant-garde art.
The works into which Kirchner had poured his heart and soul
were fiercely denounced as "degenerate art."
More than six hundred of his paintings were confiscated from museums across Germany,
only to be sold off or ruthlessly destroyed.

"My God, it truly tears my heart apart."

Kirchner recorded his bitter despair in his diary.
He had founded Die Brücke to cultivate genuine German art,
yet he was now condemned as un-German.
A senseless brutality.
The darkness of politics was threatening to swallow him whole.