HELENE BAILLY is an art gallery in Paris that exhibits works from the Expressionist movement, notably featuring Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Emerging in early 20th-century Germany, Expressionism brought together artists seeking to convey an inner and subjective vision of the world, often marked by anxiety and rebellion. This movement did not form a single unified group, but two key centers stand out: Die Brücke (“The Bridge”), a collective founded in Dresden in 1905 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and other young painters, and Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”), a circle formed in Munich in 1911 around Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc.

Despite their differences, Expressionist artists rejected naturalism and academic conventions, distorting forms, exaggerating colors, and infusing their works with powerful emotional intensity. Expressionist paintings often carry a dramatic tension: tormented figures in Kirchner’s work, a mystical bestiary in Marc’s, and spiritual impulses in Kandinsky’s—all aiming to give form to raw emotion in response to an oppressive reality.

Following World War I, Expressionism left a lasting impact on the European avant-garde, paving the way for further experimentation in modern art.