Werner Drewes Art

Watercolor on paper Painted at the Bauhaus, Dessau, German Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, Werner Drewes was one of the first artists to introd...

Forest or Blue Forest Color woodcut, 1958 Signed in pencil lower right Edition: 260 The Print Club of Cleveland Publication No. 39 for 1961 (see photo of their label) Note: The Clev...

Mechanical Ballet Signed and dated Medium: Relief Print - Color Woodcut Substrate: Japanese Paper Size: Sheet 24 X 19. image 15 X 11 inches Subject: Abstract Year: 1978 Werner Drewes (1899–1985) was a painter, printmaker, and art teacher. Considered to be one of the founding fathers of American abstraction, he was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. His mature style encompassed both nonobjective and figurative work and the emotional content of this work was consistently more expressive than formal. Drewes was as highly regarded for his printmaking as for his painting. His friend, Herwarth Walden, helped shape his appreciation for expressionist literature and art. Walden produced the quarterly magazine, Der Sturm and ran a gallery of contemporary art, Galerie Der Sturm, from which, in 1919, Drewes purchased an expressionist painting by William Wauer titled Blutrausch (Bloodlust). In the same year he made the acquaintance of Heinrich Vogeler and participated in Vogeler's socialist utopian artists' commune, Barkenhoff, at Worpswede, Lower Saxony. In 1919 Drewes also enrolled at the Königlich Technischen Hochschule Charlottenburg to study architecture and the following year he studied the same subject at the Technischen Hochschule Stuttgart. Preferring art over architecture, he then enrolled in Stuttgart's school of applied arts (Kunstgewerbeschule) where he studied life drawing and learned to work with colored stained glass. At this time he joined a group of artists and architects associated with the newly formed Merz Akademie, a college of design, art, and media in Stuttgart. In 1921 his friendship with a French artist, Sébastien Laurent, led him to begin studies in Weimar at Bauhaus, His instructors were Johannes Itten and Lyonel Feininger, whose paintings were expressionist and abstract, and Paul Klee, who taught bookbinding, stained glass, and murals. While at Bauhaus Drewes produced a portfolio of ten woodblock prints entitled "Ecce Homo." After his return to Germany in 1927 he resumed study at Bauhaus, which had been forced to relocate in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt. His instructors at that time were László Moholy-Nagy (metal work), Wassily Kandinsky, and (painting), and Lyonel Feininger (prints). At this time he also worked and exhibited in Frankfurt. With the rise of Nazism abstract artists found it increasingly difficult to sell their work and, in 1930, Drewes, finding the political pressure unbearable, emigrated to the United States. In 1930 Drewes had a solo exhibition at the 135th Street Branch of the New York Public Library and a two-person show at the S.P.R. Penthouse Gallery (with Carl Sprinchorn...

Werner Drewes (German/American 1899 – 1985) "Abstract," WPA Modern Mid-Century German American Oil Painting Non Objective, 13 x 17 inches. Signed lower righ...

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...

Woodblock Image Size: approx 12 x 16 inches Framed Size: approx 16 x 20 inches Signed and Numbered Ed. 20 WERNER DREWES 1899 Germany--1985 USA The son of a Lutheran minister who ...

This watercolor by Werner Drewes was made 1945. Signed in the lower left "Drewes" with a 'painted over' cypher and date in the lower right corner. The finished painting i...

Werner Drewes made this ink drawing with watercolor wash in 1935. Signed lower left with artist cypher and date in the lower right. The paper size is 8 1/2 x 11." (21.4 x 27....

This watercolor by Werner Drewes is dated 1944. Signed lower left with his cypher lower right. Inscribed "44." Paper size 8 3/4 x 11 7/8" (22.5 x 30.4 cm). Werner ...

This drawing by Werner Drewes was created in 1948. It is signed with his cypher and inscribed "48." The paper size is 5 1/4 x 7 9/16 (13.2 x 19.2 cm). Werner Drewes (189...

Signed lower right; dated lower left

An abstracted view of a mountain lake (most likely from Colorado). Housed in a custom hardwood frame. Outer dimensions measure 29.75 x 23.5 x 2 inches; ...