Emil Nolde at the Grand Palais

What struck me most about this exhibition, the first retrospective of this artist ever to be held in France, was the astounding array of often contrasting styles he used in his work. Emil Hansen, who took the name of Nolde, the village in Germany close to the Danish border where he was born in 1867, is considered a German Expressionist. Around 90 paintings and 70 engravings, watercolours and drawings are displayed on two floors of the Galleries Nationales at the Grand Palais, After having viewed them I was in no doubt as to why the term “expressionist” has been attached to this artist.

This exhibition begins and ends with the sea, not counting the two rather grotesque early works which hang at the entrance, one entitled Mountain Giants, which were used for a series of postcards. The first room contains 9 paintings executed in the early 1900s which pay homage to his native Schleswig Holstein, beginning with a beautifully calm, light-filled seascape contrasting sharply with the violent, brightly coloured seascapes one encounters at the exhibition's end. Certainly the difference in style is so great that it is hard to believe that they are by the same artist. A painting of a couple on a beach seems almost like an Impressionist work, Moonlight could easily be mistaken for something by the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, while the influence of Van Gogh screams at you from the canvas in Harvest Day.

Next is a room of lithographs, watercolours and woodcuts. Here we find the watercolours for which I know Nolde best, landscapes where delicate colours blend into each other sometimes with streaks of rain or dew still visible (Nolde was known to have discovered this “technique” by accident having left paintings out in the open air).

In 1906 Nolde began a short-lived association with the Die Brueke (The Bridge), one of the most influential strands of German Expressionism centred around the cities of Dresden and Berlin. In this series of paintings Nolde seems to have descended into a frenzy of thickly applied paint, often with little or no concern for structure or form, with only a portrait of Karl Schmitt-Rottluff, one of the founders of Die Brueke, worth a second look. The Magic of Light, a riot of bright yellow, does not deserve its title. The penultimate painting in this room is, perhaps coincidentally, enitled The Bridge.

Following a selection of graphic works, including a number of etchings, we arrive at the centrepiece of this exhibition, namely Nolde's nine-panelled Life of Christ painted in 1912 and dominating a room full of religious works. From 1909 to 1951, Nolde completed 55 religious paintings, which, given their expressionist style, provoked a large measure of controversy. Looked at from a purely stylistic point of view however, some of these works are testament to Nolde's special qualities as a colourist, so much so that I overheard one viewer talking of the “cassis-stained cheeks” of a female sinner in one picture, cassis being a syrup made from blackcurrants.

When the National Socialists came to power, Nolde's art once again met with controversy, with 48 of his paintings (more than any other artist) being included in the 1937 Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst) exhibition held by the Nazis. Subsequently,1052 of Nolde's works were removed from German museums. Nolde had joined the National Socialist Party in 1934, though any genuine sympathy with its ideology is hard to imagine, especially for a man who refused to tow the party line, artistically-speaking, and who once claimed to know nothing of politics. He was banned from painting in 1941 but managed to produce 1000 little watercolours, some of which can be seen in this exhibition, during his period in the town of Seebull, now home to the Nolde Foundation.

Nature is a constant theme throughout this exhibition, be it manifested in a landscape, a seascape, a rustic scene or in the series of paintings Nolde completed in 1913-1914 while on a trip to the South Seas. As I mentioned earlier, this exhibition begins and ends with the sea. The final selection of paintings are of rough, thickly painted seascapes. I pause a moment longer at this point than I did earlier on in the exhibition, trying to identify what it is about Nolde that is so intriguing, for certainly this is an adjective I feel can be applied to his work. So many styles, so many influences and yet a certain uniqueness throughout. I take a last long look at The Sea III, the deep blue and turquoise waves appear to be moving, undulating slowly. The exhibition runs from September 25th 2008 until January 19th. 2009.