Carl Hofer

German Expressionist drawing of abstracted figures by Carl Hofer

Carl Hofer (German, 1875 – 1955) Die Liebenden (The lovers) Black ink and remnants of crayon on paper Signed with monogram ‘CH’ (lower right) 13.3/4 x 9.3/4 in. (35 x 24.8 cm.) P...

Carl Hofer (German, 1875 – 1955) Die Badegaste II (The bathers) Black crayon on paper 19.1/4 x 15 in. (49 x 38 cm.) With studio stamp (on the reverse) and signature of the artist’s wife Elizabeth Hofer Provenance: These works come from the artist’s second wife Elizabeth and from then by descent. Carl Hofer was a German expressionist painter and the director of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. One of the most important painters of the Expressionist movement, his work was among those that was considered degenerate art by the Nazis. He studied in Karlsruhe under Hans Thoma. He first visited Paris in 1899 making acquaintance with Julius Meier-Graefe. In 1902 he studied in Stuttgardt and became friends with the sculptor Hermann Haller...

Figures is a drawing realized in the Mid-20th Century. Watercolor on paper. Good conditions with slight foxing. The artwork is realized through deft expressive strokes.

Genre: Expressionist Subject: Figures Medium: Ink Surface: Paper Dimensions w/Frame: 14 1/4" x 12 1/4" Zygmunt (Sigmund) Menkes born in Lviv (Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Empire) Polish painter of Jewish origin, born in 1896 in Lvov, died in 1986 in Riverdale, New York. Member of the École de Paris group in the 1920s and 1930s. From the beginning of 1935 he lived and worked in the United States; he was a representative of the Expressionist Colorism movement. Menkes began his artistic studies in 1912 at the Industrial School in Lviv. At the same time he worked as a restorer of rural churches. Between 1919 and 1922 he supplemented his studies at Krakow's Academy of Fine Arts and in 1922 expanded on this education and broadened his artistic skills in the private studio of Alexander Archipenko in Berlin. In 1923 Menkes settled in Paris, where he became a member of the École de Paris - a community that was primarily made up of artists hailing from Central and Eastern Europe who rented inexpensive studios in the "La Ruche" building in the Montparnasse district. Menkes developed close friendships with Eugeniusz Zak and Marc Chagall. Two years later, Menkes made the decision to settle permanently in France. He participated in a series of the city's salons, including the Salon d'Automne (1924, 1925, 1927), the Salon des Independants (1925-1928), and Tuileries Salon (1928, 1929, 1931, 1938). He presented his works in a number of Parisian galleries, among them, the Bernheim, de France, and Le Portique. In 1930 the artist traveled to the United States to present his work in Cleveland and New York. He also exhibited his paintings in Canada and England. He visited Poland frequently, spent time in Berlin in 1928, and toured Spain with Artur Nacht-Samborski in 1935, moving to the United States the same year. In 1936 Menkes had his first solo exhibition in New York at the Sullivan Gallery on 57th Street. He also worked with the Associated American Artists Gallery and the French Art Gallery, and for years was a lecturer at the Art Students League. Solo exhibitions of his work were organized by the Galerie Le Portique in Paris (1928), the Friends of Fine Arts Society in Lviv (1930), and at the Jewish Society for Support of the Fine Arts in Warsaw (1931). In Poland the artist was a member of groups with a Coloristic orientation, including Nowa Generacja (New Generation) and Zwornik (Keystone), participating in their exhibitions in Lviv (1932, 1935) and Warsaw (1935, 1938). Menkes received a series of important distinctions for his work, including the Carol H. Beck Medal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia, 1943), the Gold Medal of the Corcoran Gallery (Washington, D.C., 1947), the Andrew Carnegie...