Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Mandolinistin, 1921

A medley of colours by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, born on this day in 1880. Kirchner was a founding member of the artists group Die Brücke

—the catalyst for German Expressionism. Die Brücke members viewed academic art as stultifying, and sought instead to “bring life and art into harmony, upending conventions in both to cultivate what they considered a more instinctual and natural way of being”, according to MoMA. This striking portrait of a mandolin player exemplifies the defining elements of the group’s style (“simplified forms, radical flattening, and vivid, non-naturalistic colours”), as well as Kirchner’s enduring fascination with cabaret acts.