Wikipedia

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

This article is about the German painter. For people with the same or similar names, seeCarl Schmidt.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff(Karl Schmidtuntil 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a Germanexpressionistpainterandprintmaker;he was one of the four founders of the artist groupDie Brücke.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Born(1884-12-01)1 December 1884
Rottluff (now a district ofChemnitz),German Empire
Died10 August 1976(1976-08-10)(aged 91)
West Berlin,West Germany
EducationSächsische Technische Hochschule
Known forPainting, printmaking, woodcutting
StyleExpressionism
MovementDie Brücke

Life and work

edit

Schmidt-Rottluff was born in Rottluff, nowadays a district ofChemnitz,on 1 December 1884. He attended thehumanistischegymnasium(classics-oriented secondary school) in Chemnitz, where he befriendedErich Heckel.He enrolled in architecture at the Sächsische Technische Hochschule inDresdenin 1905, following in Heckel's footsteps, but gave up after one term.[1]Whilst he was there, however,Erich Heckelintroduced him toErnst Ludwig KirchnerandFritz Bleyl.They all passionately shared similar artistic interests and used architecture as a front to study art. They foundedDie Brückein Dresden on 7 June 1905, with the aim of creating a style that was uncompromising and which renounced all traditions. Its first exhibition opened in Leipzig in November of the same year.[2]

Woman with a Bagby Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1915)

In 1906, Schmidt added his native town of Rottluff to his surname. He spent the summer of that year on the island ofAlsenwithEmil Nolde,where he convinced him to join Die Brücke. Being known as a loner of the group, Schmidt-Rottluff spent the summers on the coast at Dangast, nearBremenfrom 1907 to 1912.

From 1905 to 1911, during the group's Dresden stay, Schmidt-Rottluff and his fellow group members followed a similar path of development, and were heavily influenced by the styles ofArt NouveauandNeo-impressionism.Schmidt-Rottluff’s works stood out from his peers because of their balance of composition and simple form, which together served to exaggerate their flatness. He spent 1910 painting some of his most infamous landscape works that received recognition and fame. In December 1911, he and the other members of Die Brücke moved from Dresden to Berlin.[1]

The group was dissolved in 1913, largely due to the artist's independent moves toBerlinand a systemic shift in artistic direction from each individual member. Schmidt-Rottluff began to adopt more subdued coloring and placed greater emphasis in his pictures on draughtsmanship, which featured dark, contrasting lines between shapes rather than juxtaposing colors, which had previously been the norm. Around 1909 he was instrumental in reviving thewoodcutas a beloved and usable medium. From 1912 to 1920, he adopted a much more angular style in his woodcuts and experimented with carved wood sculptures.

Schmidt-Rottluff served as a soldier on theEastern Frontfrom 1915 until 1918, but these experiences never heavily reflected in his artwork. At the end of the war he became a member of theArbeitsrat für Kunstin Berlin, which was an anti-academic, socialist movement of German artists during theGerman Revolution of 1918–19.Schmidt-Rottluff’s angular, contrasting style became more colorful and looser in the early 1920s, and by the mid-1920s he began to evolve into flat shapes with gentle outlines. Through this development he remained committed to landscape painting as a whole.

The rewards and honors Schmidt-Rottluff received afterWorld War I,asExpressionismgained recognition in Germany, were stripped from him after the rise to power of theNazi Party.He was expelled from thePrussian Academy of Artsin 1933, two years after his admission[3]In 1937, 608 of Schmidt-Rottluff's paintings were seized from museums by theNazisand several of them shown in exhibitions of "degenerate art".By 1941, he had been expelled from the painters guild and banned from painting. Much of his work was lost in the destruction of his Berlin studio inWorld War II,where he briefly returned to Rottluff afterwards to recover.[1]His reputation was gradually rehabilitated after the war. In 1947, Schmidt-Rottluff was appointed professor at the University of Arts inBerlin-Charlottenburg,where he would go on to have a great influence on the new generation of German artists. An endowment made by him in 1964 provided the basis for theBrücke MuseuminWest Berlin,which opened in 1967 as a repository of works by members of the group.[3]He was a prolific artist, with 300 woodcuts, 105lithographs,70etchings,and 78 commercial prints described inRosa Schapire'sCatalogue raisonné.

He died in Berlin on 10 August 1976.

edit
  • Schmidt-Rottluff,Seehofsallee in Sierksdorf,date unknown; from poster on an information table inChemnitz
  • Kirchner,Artist Community,(1926/27) oil on canvas; painted after theDie Brückeyears. (Schmidt-Rottluff on the right, with glasses.)

Collections

edit

Schmidt-Rottluff's works are included in the collections of, among others, theMuseum of Modern Art,[4]theNeue Galerie,theLos Angeles County Museum of Art,[5]theHigh Museum of Art,[6]theBritish Museum,[7]theNorth Carolina Museum of Art,[8]thePortland Art Museum,[9]theSmart Museum of Art,[10]theUniversity of Michigan Museum of Art,[11]theCooper Hewitt,[12]theClark Art Institute,[13]theMcNay Art Museum,[14]theIndianapolis Museum of Art,[15]theThyssen-Bornemisza National Museum,[16]theStadel Museum,[17]theBrooklyn Museum,[18]theHammer Museum,[19]theDetroit Institute of Arts,[20]theFine Arts Museums of San Francisco,[21]theSaint Louis Art Museum,[22]theCentre Pompidou,[23]and theMuscarelle Museum of Art.[24]The Museum am Theaterplatz in Chemnitz has a large collection of work from Schmidt-Rottluff.[25]

In 2011, theNeue Nationalgaleriereturned two paintings by Schmidt-Rottluff, a 1920 self-portrait and a 1910 landscape titledFarm in Dangast,to the heirs of Robert Graetz, a Berlin businessman who was deported by the Nazis to Poland in 1942. A German government panel, led by former constitutional judgeJutta Limbach,had previously ruled that the loss was almost certainly a result of Nazi persecution and the paintings should be returned.[26]Schmidt Rottluff's esteemedSelf Portrait with Monocleis now in theStaatliche Museum.

Art market

edit

In 1997, £925,500 was paid for Schmidt-Rottluff'sDangaster Park(1910) atSotheby'sin London.[27]At a 2001Phillips de Puryauction, British art dealer James Roundell bought Schmidt-Rottluff'sThe Reader(1911) for $3.9 million.[28]The top price ever paid at auction for a work by Schmidt-Rottluff was almost $6 million forAkte im Freien – Drei badende Frauen (Outdoor Nudes – Three Bathing Women)(1913) atChristie’sin London in 2008.[26]

See also

edit

Notes and references

edit
  1. ^abcCarey, Frances; Griffiths, Anthony (1984). "Karl Schmidt-Rottluff".The Print in Germany 1880–1933.London: British Museum Publications. p. 123.ISBN0-7141-1621-1.
  2. ^Grisebach, Lucius (2003).Schmidt-Rottluff [Schmidt], Karl.doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T076652.ISBN978-1-884446-05-4.Retrieved12 April2018.{{cite book}}:|website=ignored (help)
  3. ^abKarl Schmidt-RottluffMuseum of Modern Art,New York.
  4. ^"Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. House in the Park (Haus im Park) (plate, folio 9 verso) KG Brücke. 1910 | MoMA".The Museum of Modern Art.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  5. ^"Karl Schmidt-Rottluff | LACMA Collections".collections.lacma.org.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  6. ^"Frauenkopf (Head of a Woman)".High Museum of Art.Retrieved2019-04-11.
  7. ^"print | British Museum".The British Museum.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  8. ^"Portrait of Emy – NCMALearn".learn.ncartmuseum.org.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  9. ^"Karl Schmidt-Rottluff".portlandartmuseum.us.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  10. ^"Works | Karl Schmidt-Rottluff | People | Smart Museum of Art | The University of Chicago".smartcollection.uchicago.edu.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  11. ^"Exchange: Men with Boat (Fishermen with Boat); Ausfahrende Fischer".exchange.umma.umich.edu.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  12. ^"Print, Model, 1910".Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  13. ^"Mourners on the Beach".clarkart.edu.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  14. ^"Katzen (Cats) from Zehn Holzschnitte von Schmidt-Rottluff (Ten Woodcuts by Schmidt-Rottluff)".McNay Art Museum.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  15. ^"Mutter (Mother)".Indianapolis Museum of Art Online Collection.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  16. ^"Schmidt-Rottluff, Karl".Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  17. ^"Karl Schmidt-Rottluff".Digital Collection.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  18. ^"Brooklyn Museum".brooklynmuseum.org.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  19. ^"Art | Hammer Museum".hammer.ucla.edu.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  20. ^"Still Life, Cactus".dia.org.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  21. ^"Nach dem Fang (After the Catch) - Karl Schmidt-Rottluff".FAMSF Search the Collections.2018-11-27.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  22. ^"Village on the Sea".Saint Louis Art Museum.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  23. ^"Kopf".Centre Pompidou.Retrieved2021-06-11.
  24. ^"Melancholie, (woodcut)".Curators at Work VI.Muscarelle Museum of Art.2016.Retrieved20 Jun2018.
  25. ^Elizabeth Zach (July 27, 2012),In Germany, an Unlikely Art Hub Honed by EnthusiasmNew York Times.
  26. ^abCatherine Hickley (November 18, 2011),Berlin Will Return Paintings to Auschwitz Victim’s HeirBloomberg.
  27. ^Souren Melikian (October 25, 1997),Great Substitution Game Generates High Stakes and Huge ProfitsInternational Herald Tribune.
  28. ^Carol Vogel (November 6, 2001),First Art Auction of Season Indicates a Healthy MarketNew York Times.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Karl_Schmidt-Rottluff&oldid=1252510656"