Nearby, a lean, angular Schmidt-Rottluff nude from 1914 awkwardly folds herself into a schematic landscape, as if aspiring to become one of the Demoiselles d'Avignon, while a jagged Kirchner streetscape, 1912-14, offers yet another creative transformation of Cubist notions.

WSJ: Before Darkness Fell | German Expressionism 1900-1930 | Neue Galerie | By Karen Wilkin

Just as successful was one of the Egon Schiele gouaches that sold to benefit Ronald Lauder's jewel-like little Neue Galerie in New York, and a roughly hewn head in wood carved in 1916-1917 by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, a German Expressionist sculptor.

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