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Werner Drewes Paintings

American, 1899-1985

Werner Drewes was a painter, printmaker, and teacher, who was born in Canig, Germany, in 1899. His father, a Lutheran Minister, hoped he would become an architect, but Werner chose the life of an artist. After he served on the front line in France during the war, Werner was admitted to the Bauhaus in 1921, where he studied under Klee, Itten, and Muche. Later, he traveled through Europe to study such old masters as Tintoretto, Velasquez and El Greco. After marrying Margaret Schrobsdorff, they traveled throughout South America, North America and Asia. In 1930, Werner immigrated to New York City with his family. In New York City, despite the Depression, Werner joined other Bauhaus artists such as Piet Mondrian and Lyonel Feininger to make a living as an artist. This group became the core of the American Abstract Artists group. Werner taught at Columbia University, worked on the design of the 1939 World's Fair building, and had shows at the Museum of Modern Art, Kleeman Gallery, and elsewhere. In 1946, he accepted a tenured position at the Washington University in St. Louis. In his later years, he moved to Virginia and continued to show at galleries in Germany, Turkey, and in the United States. The Smithsonian held a show attributing his 65 years as a printmaker at the Museum for American Artists.

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Artist: Werner Drewes
1944 Abstract Oil Painting by Werner Drewes, Mid-Century Modern Masterpiece
By Werner Drewes
Located in Denver, CO
This captivating 1944 abstract oil on canvas by renowned artist Werner Drewes exemplifies mid-century modern art at its finest. Featuring bold, vibrant hues of green, blue, and red, ...
Category

20th Century Abstract Expressionist Werner Drewes Paintings

Materials

Oil

Composition 209 (Abstract Bauhaus painting)
By Werner Drewes
Located in Wilton Manors, FL
Werner Drewes (1899-1985). Composition 209, 1939. oil on canvas, 20 x 24 inches; 28 x 32 inches in original frame. Signed and dated with artist monogram lower left and again on verso...
Category

Mid-20th Century Abstract Geometric Werner Drewes Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Datura Stramonium, 20th Century Still Life Watercolor with Flowers in a Vase
By Werner Drewes
Located in Denver, CO
This original vintage watercolor painting, titled "Datura Stramonii," is a stunning work by renowned American abstractionist Werner Drewes. The composition captures the delicate beau...
Category

Mid-20th Century American Impressionist Werner Drewes Paintings

Materials

Watercolor

Werner Drewes Modernist American Painting, Southwest Subject, 1947
By Werner Drewes
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Werner Drewes (1899-1985) oil on canvas, 1947 Titled: “Adobe Village” Measures: 15 ½ x 36 Frame: 21 x 42 Signed lower left and also on the verso In excellent condition. Born in Nie...
Category

1940s Werner Drewes Paintings

Materials

Paint

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Richard Andres (American, 1927-2013) Untitled, c. 1949 oil on canvas 18 x 32 inches Richard Andres was born in Buffalo, New York in 1927. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1950, he was immediately drafted and served for two years in the army as a mural painter. He received his Master of Arts from Kent State in 1961. A frequent exhibitor at galleries and museums and winner of multiple May Show prizes, Andres taught art in the Cleveland Public Schools for 28 years, as well as teaching the University of Buffalo, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Western Reserve University. Very little in Richard Andres’ childhood would have predicted his love of classical music, mid-century-modern architecture and certainly not his lifelong passion for art and in particular abstract art. Richard’s father, Raymond, had no more than a third-grade education, and his mother, Clara, was one of thirteen children – only three of whom lived into adulthood and none of whom attended high school. They lived, when Richard was a boy, in a dingy area of Buffalo, NY in a walk-up apartment situated above a tavern. Raymond and Clara supplemented the income from their factory jobs in the bar downstairs with Raymond playing ragtime on the piano and Clara serving drinks. This often left Richard and his two older brothers at home alone to fend for themselves. The two older boys, Raymond and Russell, were - unlike Richard- rather rough and tumble and entertained themselves with stickball, boxing and the like. Richard, on the other hand, from a very young age liked to draw, or better yet even, to paint with the small set of watercolors he received for Christmas one year. Paper, however, at the height of the depression, was hard to come by. Luckily, Clara used paper doilies as decoration for the apartment and Richard would contentedly paint and then cut up doilies, gluing the pieces together to create collages. At eight-years-old, he discovered the Albright-Knox Museum (then known as the Albright Art Gallery) and spent several hours a week there studying the paintings. He was particularly fond of Charles Burchfield‘s landscapes, enamored with their ‘messiness’ and thinking that they somehow captured more ‘feeling’ than works he was previously familiar with. For his tenth Christmas, he asked for and received a ‘how-to’ paint book by Elliot O’Hare. Through this self-teaching, he assembled the portfolio needed for acceptance to Buffalo Technical High School where he studied Advertising Arts. In his Junior year, he was encouraged to enter a watercolor painting, “Two Barns,” in the national 1944-45 Ingersoll Art Award Contest and was one of twelve grand prize winners – each one winning one hundred dollars. More importantly the painting was exhibited at the Carnegie Institute Galleries, which resulted in his winning a national scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art (The Cleveland Art Institute). He flourished at the art school under the tutelage of faculty members such as Carl Gaertner, as well as that of visiting artists such as William Sommer and Henry George Keller. He would say in later years that Gaertner, in particular, influenced his attitude toward life as well as art. “Gaertner,” Andres said, “believed that there was no need to be a ‘tortured artist’, that an artist should rather enjoy beauty, family, and life in general.” Free to spend his days as he chose, he wandered the Cleveland Art Museum for most of the hours he was not attending classes or painting; the remaining time was spent drinking coffee at a local hangout with art school friends – which is where he met fellow Henry Keller scholarship winner, Avis Johnson. Richard was immediately smitten with Avis, but being rather shy, it took him the entire summer of 1948 to build up his courage to ask her out. Over that summer he ‘thought about Avis’ and worked in a diner to save money. He also used the hundred-dollar prize money won in High School to visit the first Max Beckmann retrospective in the United States at the City Art Museum in St. Louis. Over a half century later he spoke of that exhibit with a reverence usually reserved for spiritual matters, “I walked in and it was like nothing I had ever seen before... the color...It just glowed.” Returning to campus in the Fall, the first thing he did was go to the coffee shop in hopes of finding Avis. He did, and she, upon seeing him, realized that she was also smitten with him. They quickly became known as ‘the couple’ on campus, and a year later, with Richard being drafted for the Korean war, they were quickly married by a Justice of the Peace, celebrating after with family at Avis’s Cleveland home. As a gift, faculty member John Paul Miller designed and made the simple gold wedding ring Avis wore for their 65 years of marriage. During those 65 years neither wavered in their mutual love, nor in the respect they shared for one another’s art. The couple lived in a converted chicken coop in Missouri while Richard was in boot camp. At the camp, he would volunteer for any job offered and one of those jobs ended up being painting road signs. His commander noticed how quickly and neatly he worked and gave him more painting work to do - eventually recommending him for a position painting murals for Army offices in Panama. 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WPA Modern Mid-Century Abstract German American Oil Painting Non Objective
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Signed lower right WERNER DREWES 1899 Germany--1985 USA The son of a Lutheran minister who was interested in archaeology and the natural sciences, WERNER DREWES believed that art p...
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Abstract
H 17.5 in W 23.5 in D 2 in
Mountain Lake
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Mountain Lake
Mountain Lake
H 29.75 in W 23.5 in D 2 in

Werner Drewes paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Werner Drewes paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Werner Drewes in paint, oil paint, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Werner Drewes paintings, so small editions measuring 6 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Mark Tobey, Agnes Hart, and Virginia Dehn. Werner Drewes paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $5,500 and tops out at $70,000, while the average work can sell for $7,238.

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