Resumen de Ernst Kirchner's Streetwalkers: Art, Luxury, and Immorality in Berlin, 1913-1916
This essay argues that Ernst Kirchner’s street scenes from 1913-14 participated in a discourse about luxury and immorality, implicating art, advertising, and fashion and focusing on the display window that arose in Berlin at the time. Political conservatives attempted to pass laws they claimed would protect youth and check immorality. The debate called attention both to a new relationship between sexuality and public space that was developing in the city and to art’s transformation through new commercial practices. Issues of censorship contributed to the imaginary in Kirchner’s street scenes and the identification drawn between himself, the prostitute, and the metropolis.
