This book presents the work of Friedrich Karl Gotsch, an artist from the second gener-ation of Expressionists, who trained at the Dresden School of Fine Arts in the early 1920s. Influenced by Die BrUcke in his approach to form, he in fact owed the full flow-ering of his individuality and the release of his creative talent to Kokoschka. Gotsch's art enjoyed a new lease of life after the Second World War, reaching the peak of its popu-larity in the fifties and sixties. Starting in a straightforwardly Expressionist style, his work soon became highly individual and instantly recognisable: the energy, contrasting primary colours, vivid outlines and free brushwork combine to produce particularly powerful, spellbinding paintings. This sumptuous book-cum-catalogue includes an introductory essay on Gotsch's art by Marion Leuba, curator for the Beaune museums, followed by a further illustrated essay by the art historian Chantal Bartolini, who highlights the various stages in the artist's development over his long creative life and the cultural milieux and influences which helped forge them. These two contributions are followed by a catalogue of full-page colour plates.
This retrospective of Gotsch's painting provides an opportunity to discover or rediscover an artist of the first rank within the Expressionist movement whose influence stretched beyond the borders of Schleswig-Holstein, where the Gotsch Foundation is situated, and indeed was not confined to Germany itself.

Contributions by: Regine Bonnefoit, Marion Leuba