The Neue Galerie in New York is opening the first US museum exhibition dedicated to German Expressionist artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970), running from October 9, 2025 to January 12, 2026. Heckel was a co-founder of the influential group Die Brücke in 1905, alongside Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl. Unlike the more flamboyant Kirchner, Heckel was introverted and avoided scandal, but he served as the group's organizational driving force, organizing key exhibitions and transforming Die Brücke into a promotional platform. The show features around 40 works from 1905 to 1920, including loans from the Harvard Art Museums and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
This exhibition matters because it corrects a long-standing imbalance in art-historical attention: while Kirchner has received dozens of museum shows, Heckel has been largely overlooked in the US despite his radical, self-taught approach to color and woodcut. The show highlights how Heckel's unsung role was crucial to Die Brücke's success, and it draws on the Neue Galerie's own collection—including a painting given to founder Ronald Lauder by his mother Estée Lauder. By elevating Heckel, the exhibition deepens understanding of German Expressionism and challenges the narrative that Kirchner alone defined the movement.