Sigmund Menkes

Expressionist Figure Study

Expressionist ink drawing of wheat stalks There is an inscription "Happy New Year" on verso Hand signed Framed it measures 7.75 X 5.75 The actual paper is 3 X 3.5 Born in 1897, Ben-...

Miniature Landscape Provenance: Virginia Field, Arts administrator; New York, N.Y. Assistant director for Asia House gallery. (she was friends with John von Wicht and Andy Warhol) Born in 1897, Ben-Zion Weinman...

Miniature Abstract Totem. Signed with initials. Provenance: Virginia Field, Arts administrator; New York, N.Y. Assistant director for Asia House gallery. (she was friends with John v...

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner ( Germany 1880-1938 ) Expressionist Female Women Dancing Mixed Media on Paper Drawing or Painting Expressionism Dimensions: 20" L 16" H in This bore a sticker from Christies auction house and another collection sticker verso but they have been inadvertently removed. I do have the photo. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 – 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th-century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a breakdown and was discharged. His work was branded as "Entartete Kunst" or "degenerate" by the Nazis in 1933, and in 1937 more than 600 of his works were sold or destroyed. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was born in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria. His parents were of Prussian descent and his mother was a descendant of the Huguenots, a fact to which Kirchner often referred. As Kirchner's father searched for a job, the family moved frequently and Kirchner attended schools in Frankfurt and Perlen until his father earned the position of Professor of Paper Sciences at the College of technology in Chemnitz, where Kirchner attended secondary school. Although Kirchner's parents encouraged his artistic career they also wanted him to complete his formal education so in 1901, he began studying architecture at the Königliche Technische Hochschule (royal technical university) of Dresden. The institution provided a wide range of studies in addition to architecture, such as freehand drawing, perspective drawing and the historical study of art. While in attendance, he became close friends with Fritz Bleyl, whom Kirchner met during the first term. They discussed art together and also studied nature, having a radical outlook in common. Kirchner continued studies in Munich from 1903 to 1904, returning to Dresden in 1905 to complete his degree. In 1905, Kirchner, along with Bleyl and two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel, founded the artists group Die Brücke ("The Bridge") later to include Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller. From then on, he committed himself to art. The group aimed to eschew the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression, which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present. They responded both to past artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Matthias Grünewald and Lucas Cranach the Elder, as well as contemporary international avant-garde movements. As part of the affirmation of their national heritage, they revived older media, particularly woodcut or woodblock prints. Kirchner's studio became a venue which overthrew social conventions to allow casual love-making and frequent nudity. Group life-drawing sessions took place using nude models from the social circle, rather than professionals, and choosing quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity. In 1911, he moved to Berlin, where he founded a private art school, MIUM-Institut, in collaboration with Max Pechstein with the aim of promulgating "Moderner Unterricht im Malen" (modern teaching of painting). This was not a success and closed the following year, when he also began a relationship with Erna Schilling that lasted the rest of his life. In 1917, at the suggestion of Eberhard Grisebach [de], Helene Spengler invited Kirchner to Davos where he viewed an exhibition of Ferdinand Hodler paintings. "When I was leaving, I thought of Vincent Van Gogh's fate and thought that it would be his as well, sooner or later. Only later will people understand and see how much he has contributed to painting". In 1921 Kirchner visited Zurich at the beginning of May and met the dancer, Nina Hard, whom he invited back to Frauenkirch (despite Erna's objections). Nina Hard would become an important model for Kirchner and would be featured in many of his works. Kirchner began creating designs for carpets which were then woven by Lise Gujer. In 1925, Kirchner became close friends with fellow artist, Albert Müller...

Photograph

Mid Century Italian watercolour on paper of a tablescape, signed and dated (1956) bottom right. The artist is currently unknown. Presented under glass in original, period plain woo...

Woodcut and hand-painted paper collage

We are proud to present a just arrived series of original pen and ink and ink wash drawings by Austrian/American artist Gustav Rehberger. These works were acquired directly from the ...