RUDOLPH SCHLICHTER Allemand, 1890-1955

Rudolf Schlichter is a German expressionist and Dadaist painter, draftsman, and engraver whose work is characterized by sharp social criticism and grotesque aesthetics. Born on April 6, 1890, in Calw, Germany, he received academic training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart before settling in Berlin, where he became a major figure in the avant-garde movements. After World War I, he fully committed to the Dada movement and Expressionism, developing a style characterized by expressive distortion, dark colors, and the accumulation of details creating an oppressive atmosphere. His works denounce urban poverty, modern alienation, and the corruption of capitalist society. His themes also include direct political criticism of the established system. The rise of Nazism in 1933 marked a tragic turning point: his art was declared "degenerate" by the Hitler regime, his works were removed from museums, and he was forbidden to exhibit. Schlichter went into exile in Switzerland and then France, continuing his artistic creation as an act of cultural resistance. After World War II, he returned to Germany where he continued to paint until his death on May 13, 1955, in Berlin. Schlichter is recognized as a major expressionist painter whose political engagement and denunciation of the grotesque reality of modern society make him an important figure in the history of twentieth-century art.