Albrecht Altorfer Prints and Multiples

This is an engraving of a tomb monument rubbing that has been highlighted with gold color on a dark grey to black background. The rubbing is of a brass plaque on a stone slab. It has...

Title: Zion Subject: Various biblical images depicting Creation and prayer 1922 Medium: woodcut Frame: 14" x 18" Image: 12.5" x 16.75" Provenance: owned and signed verso by Peter Keil. Central panel shows the Jewish star over a crown, with inscription in Hebrew: "When God comforts Zion, He will comfort all its ruins and make its deserts look like Eden," and "You have sanctified the seventh day, the goal of creation of Heaven and Earth." This is flanked by a Palestinian farmer pioneer on the left and a Jew praying on the right. The lower tier shows six vignettes of the days of creation from Genesis. Hermann Fechenbach was born in 1897 in Württemberg, Germany. He grew up in Bad Mergentheim where his parents had an inn, which served as a meeting place for the local Jewish community. He left school early and through family connections with clothing retailers received training in window dressing. His skill with brush writing was quickly recognised by a big firm in Dortmund where he was responsible for the displays in 10 large windows. He received his conscription papers in 1916 and recalls “being as patriotic as any other fool”. In August 1917 he was involved in a grenade attack in which he was the sole survivor. With serious injuries to both legs he struggled to safety and was eventually transported to a front line “slaughterhouse” where the first of a series of amputations was performed which led to the loss of his left leg. As a result of his injuries his father dropped his opposition to him becoming an artist. His formal art education started in 1918 with training at a Stuttgart handcraft school for invalids. He attended the Academies in Stuttgart and Munich to learn painting and restoration for 3 years. He was influenced at this time by Max Liebermann. He has been compared to Kathe Kollwitz and was a contemporary of Jakob Steinhardt and hermann Struck. In 1923 he went to Florence for a year. While in Florence he started to produce a series of miniature wood engravings to illustrate the stories of Genesis. This was followed by periods in Pisa, Venice, Vienna and Amsterdam. In 1924 he returned to Stuttgart to paint in the contemporary style “Die Neue Sachlichkeit”. (The New Objectivity was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s Weimar republic as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the Kunsthalle in Mannheim, who used it as the title of an art exhibition staged in 1925 to showcase artists who were working in a post-expressionist spirit. These artists—who included Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter and Jeanne Mammen) Every spring and autumn he exhibited at the “Kunstgebit” which served as the showcase for all serious artists of the period. His professional status “Kunstmaler und Grafiker” was recognised by Berlin in 1926. Practically all his work from this period was sold following exhibition. In 1926 he collaborated with an architect friend to build a bungalow in Hohenheim, a non-Jewish area and a suburb of Stuttgart. Hermann alternately lived in his country bungalow and his town studio, producing portraits for sale or barter and wood engravings for his own pleasure. In 1930 he married a non-Jewish professional photographer – Greta Batze. They had a studio in Stuttgart, which was used to teach art to a group of 12 students. In 1933 the Nazi influence removed his name from the official state register together with the right to exhibit. By spending most of his time in his bungalow out of the Jewish quarter the Fechenbachs escaped being registered by the Nazis for some years. They were ostracised and abused by their non-Jewish neighbours. Hermann made weekly visits to friends in town to teach them the practical skills they would need assuming they were to escape from Germany. His energies were directed towards protection and survival. Ultimately the Nazi persecution forced the Fechenbachs to flee their homeland. They moved to Palestine for 3 months in 1938, but found the political and physical environment unsustainable. Greta arrived in England penniless in January 1939 to work as a domestic servant and to find a guarantor for her husband. Hermann arrived in May 1939. They moved to Blackheath a few months later. Hermann resumed his painting and engraving as a means of earning a living. He raised enough money to get his parents out of Germany to join his brothers in Argentina but was unable to save his twin sister Rosa who died in a Nazi concentration camp. In 1940 Hermann was interned in Bury as a suspect alien. He protested about his treatment by starting a hunger strike. Because of his persistence he was moved to a prison in Liverpool. From Liverpool he was moved to the Hutchinson Camp in the Isle of Man with fellow artist Kurt Schwitters. Arrangements were made for Greta to be accommodated near by. While interned he commenced work on “Refugee Impressions”, a series of linocut prints (no wood was available). In 1941 when released from internment the Fechenbachs came under the sponsorship of Dr. Bela Horovitz, the Austrian art publisher who in turn made an introduction to Professor Tancred Borenius. They were offered lodgings with a family in Oxford. Hermann had his first public exhibition for many years in a small gallery in Oxford in 1942. A second exhibition of oils, pencil drawings, coloured linocut and woodblock prints held later in the year was opened by the mayor of Oxford and critically acclaimed. In 1944 the first London exhibition took place at the Anglo-Palestinian club in Piccadilly. There were two exhibitions at the Ben Uri Art gallery during this period. In 1948 a second exhibition at the Anglo Palestinian club was inaugurated by a member of the Rothschild family and several members of Parliament. This was a great success. In 1944 the Fechenbachs moved to a top floor studio flat in Colet Gardens. Open exhibitions were held each Spring at the Embankment from 1946 to 1951. Movietone News produced a short feature on the artist, which was shown in cinemas in England and Germany. In 1969 he published the Genesis story in a hard back volume containing 137 prints. He started to research the fate of the entire Jewish community of Bad Mergentheim during the period of the second world war, liaising with historian Dr. Paul Sauer and Professor Max Miller, historian and theologian. In 1972 Kohlhammer published his partly autobiographical book “The last Jews of Mergentheim”. He exhibited at the Anglo-Palestinian Club & the Ben Uri Gallery in the 1940s. His works only came to prominence during the last year of his life when he exhibited at Blond Fine Art. Peter Keil part of the Junge Wilde. In 1978, the Junge Wilde painting style arose in the German-speaking world in opposition to established avant garde, minimal art and conceptual art. It was linked to the similar Transavanguardia movement in Italy, USA (neo-expressionism) and France (Figuration Libre). They were also known as the Neue Wilde. Artists included; Austria: Siegfried Anzinger, Erwin Bohatsch, Herbert Brandl, Gunter Damisch, Hubert Scheibl, Hubert Schmalix...

Ex Libris Kurucz Laszlo is an original Modern Artwork realized in the 20th Century. Original B/W woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. The work is glued on cardboard. Total dim...

Ex Libris Cseh Lajos Konive is an original Modern Artwork realized in the 20t Century. Original B/W woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. The work is glued on cardboard. Total ...

Ex Libris Dr. Jilek Zsuzsa is an original Contemporary Artwork realized in the early 20th Century. Original B/W woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. The work is glued on cardbo...

Stage is an original woodcut print realized by Moses Levi in 1914. The state of preservation of the artwork is very good. Passepartout dimension: 52.5 x 37 cm.

Ex Libris Victor Vernik is a Contemporary Artwork realized in the mid.20th Century. B/W woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. The work is glued on cardboard. Total dimensions:...

Tim Engelland (American, 1950-2012) Untitled, 1996 Woodcut 7 1/2 x 8 1/2 in. Signed and dated lower right: T. Engelland, 1996 Numbered lower left: 102/200 A lifelong artist, Engelland specialized in oil portraits and landscapes, and also worked extensively in woodcuts and linocuts. He was born on Jan. 5, 1950, in Ames, Iowa, the son of Charles Wilbur “Will” Engelland and Patricia Fairman Engelland.. Tim grew up in Terre Haute, IN, attending Fairbanks Elementary School and Indiana State University’s Laboratory School. He knew he wanted to be an artist from an early age, and was mentored by Lab School’s John Laska, graduating in 1968. He received a BFA from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art; was a Norfolk Fellow at Yale University; and received his MFA from Cornell University, teaching there for two years after graduation. He spent the majority of his career, from 1976-2004, at Deerfield Academy, a prestigious preparatory school in Deerfield, Mass. There he taught art and photography, coached basketball and lacrosse, and served as faculty resident. When the school began accepting female students, Tim designed The Deerfield Girl, a bronze statue to accompany The Deerfield Boy statue...

Ex Libris Ewy is an original Contemporary Artwork realized in the 1970s Original woodcut print on ivory-colored paper. The work is glued on cardboard. Total dimensions: 21 x 15...

Ex Libris Rodziny is an original Contemporary Artwork realized in the mid-20th Century. Original Ex Libris. Original colored woodcut on ivory-colored paper. The work is glued o...

Tim Engelland (American, 1950-2012) Snowy Night - Hitchcock, 1993 Woodcut 8 1/2 x 9 in. Titled, numbered, signed, and dated bottom: A/Proof, "Snowy Nigh...

Arabian Women is an original woodcut on yellowish paper realized by Moses Levy. Signed and titled in Italian" Donne Arabe". The State of preservation is very good. Included a Passepartout: The artwork represents three Arabian women, through confident and strong strokes in intense black, The artwork is made by the Expressionistic style of creation, the contrast between black and white are well defined. Moses Levy (Italian, 1885–1968) In 1900 he enrolled at the Institute of Fine Arts in Lucca and found Lorenzo Viani as a fellow student. Levy and Viani also attend courses at the Nude School of the Academy of Fine Arts held by the painter Giovanni Fattori together in Florence. During this period, Levy became passionate about graphics and came into contact with Renato Natali...