During the Great War the German expressionist painter Erich Heckel worked for the Red Cross in Roeselare, Ostend and Ghent. He draws the suffering of the wounded, but also paints the Flemish landscape. It’s art that the Nazis later called ‘degenerate’. The Ghent Fine Arts Museum MSK is staging the first ever Erich Heckel exhibition outside Germany’s borders. Heckel even caught the eye of British pop star David Bowie. Bowie was a big fan and honoured him on a record sleeve.
War wounded with a dazed look, heads bandaged: Erich Heckel's images from the Great War are unfortunately no different from what we see in the news every day. “Current events have caught up with us,” says curator Lieven Van Den Abeele. “The images of war, destruction and suffering are unfortunately still the same. This work is so strong because you see personal suffering, but it also takes on a universal meaning.”
For 4 years, from 1915 to 1918, German artist Erich Heckel worked in Flanders as a nurse with the Red Cross. During that time, he produced as many as 75 paintings and hundreds of drawings, watercolours and prints. A large selection from his Flemish period is now on display at the MSK in Ghent.
Erich Heckel was already an established artist in Germany, as a member of the expressionist Brücke group, when World War I broke out. “Like many artists and intellectuals, he was excited about that war and volunteered to go to the front. But fortunately he was too old, 31 in 1914. He was turned down,” explains Lieven Van Den Abeele.
Nurse in the stations of Roeselare, Ostend and Ghent
Heckel then tried through the Red Cross. Together with a number of other artists and writers, he was sent to Flanders. They were set to work as Red Cross nurses in the railway stations of Roeselare, Ostend and Ghent, which serve as “Krankensammelstelle,” or triagestations for the soldiers who are taken from the front wounded.
Work 24 hours, rest 24 hours: that's how the regime worked. Besides nursing, Erich Heckel still has time for his sketchbooks, where he “reports current events almost like a journalist.” He portrays soldiers, doctors, fellow nurses, civilians. Defeated faces with the marks of traumatic experiences. Boys with shellshock. A woman with a blank stare at a café table in Roeselare.
“The question is not whether he was for or against war, nationalist or pacifist,” says Lieven Van Den Abeele. “Erich Heckel was a very humane artist with a great empathy for human beings. On his first return to Berlin, he goes to visit the wounded in the city; they recognize him, they ask to hear stories from the front.”
Artist material is scarce in those years. Heckel and his friends make do with paint of inferior quality and cut their woodcuts from boards of old panelling. Heckel has freedom of movement and makes trips to Bruges, Ghent, the River Leie region and the coast.
The Flemish fields and the waters of the North Sea Erich Heckel paints with expressionist flare. Of particular note is the “North Sea” with a wild sky in angular fragments, two rainbows and wild waves, as if a sea battle is raging.
War often resonates in Heckel's land and seascapes. One image of the royal galleries in Ostend shows the impact of a projectile with black clouds of dust.
James Ensor’s buddy
During his Flemish years, Erich Heckel is also in contact with Flemish artists. Especially with James Ensor he possesses a good relationship. Heckel visits his studio. They continue to correspond even after the war and Heckel paints the Ostend master's portrait.
Ensor, with his love of light and dark, may also have influenced Heckel, says Lieven Van Den Abeele. For Heckel, light and sun symbolised hope. “After rain comes sunshine. He also writes this in a letter, “aber Frühling wird es doch”.
Despite everything, spring is inescapable. It brings to mind what the British contemporary artist David Hockney said during the pandemic, “Do remember they can't cancel spring.”
Degenerate art
The story of Erich Heckel (1883-1970) continues after the war. In the 1930s, the Nazis condemn his paintings as “entartet,” degenerate art. Much is lost. Moreover, in 1945 his studio in Berlin is bombed by the Allies.
Ironically, the war also resulted in Erich Heckel's art ending up in Ghent. In 1991 architect and art collector Tony Simon-Wolfskehl donated some works to the MSK out of gratitude because, as a Jew, she could find safely by going into hiding in Ghent. One of the highlights of the exhibition is an Expressionist view of the Augustijnenrei in Bruges by Heckel. It comes from the estate of a Jewish woman who was in hiding in the city. It was her own father who bought the painting in Germany in the 1920s.
The Ghent exhibition is the first outside Germany to bring Erich Heckel's drawings, woodcuts, stone prints and paintings together from a variety of museums and collections. About time, thinks Lieven Van den Abeele: “German expressionism has not been shown here for the last 20, 30 years.”
Erich Heckel's Flemish period, during the war years 1915-1918, is very important, the curator emphasizes. “This is a piece of art history that was written here. We are showing the works that were made here. But the importance is not just local, but much broader: it is part of wider art history.” And as for Erich Heckel's motives and subjects, “This is a universal story that is unfortunately still relevant today.”
David Bowie and Iggy Pop: fans of Erich Heckel
And then there’s this: among all the letters, books, and other records in the MSK, there are also 2 famous record covers: 'Heroes' by David Bowie and 'The idiot' by Iggy Pop. When they lived and worked in Berlin in the 1970s, they discovered Erich Heckel's work in the museum. Especially the painting “Roquairol” with the expressive hands inspired them to strike the same pose. Art collector Bowie later bought some of Heckel's works
'Erich Heckel in Flanders' at the MSK in Ghent until 26 January 2025. The fascinating story of this artist is also told in a new book by Lieven Van Den Abeele.