Picture "Flower Still Life" (1952) (Unique piece)
Picture "Flower Still Life" (1952) (Unique piece)
Quick info
unique piece | inscribed | gouache on wove paper | framed | size 49 x 41 cm
Detailed description
Picture "Flower Still Life" (1952) (Unique piece)
In 1931, Gabriele Münter settled permanently in Murnau, Germany, dedicating herself to nature studies and the theme of floral still lifes. This work from 1952 reflects her deep artistic engagement with the subject. Against a monochrome background, a vibrant summer bouquet radiates with colour.
What a beautiful thought: Wandering through her lush garden in Murnau, picking these flowers and then capturing them in the quiet of her studio. "After a short period of struggle, I made a great leap - from painting nature impressionistically to feeling its essence, to abstraction, to extracting its core," she later wrote in her diary.
Gouache on chamois-coloured wove paper, 1952, inscribed with the factory number "B 28/52." Written confirmation from the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation, Munich, dated 15 May 2024, confirms that the work is recorded in the artist's workbook from 1952 under the number B 28, is available. Motif size/sheet size 32 x 25 cm. Size in frame 49 x 41 cm as shown.
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About Gabriele Münter
1877-1962
Gabriele Münter was an Expressionist painter and a member of the New Munich Artists' Association but did not belong to the Blaue Reiter movement.
Gabriele Münter became known as Wassily Kandinsky's companion. She saved a significant part of his works through the war and post-war period and later made them known to the public, together with paintings by artist friends of the Blaue Reiter and her own works.
When Gabriele Münter bought a house in Murnau in 1909, which she lived in during the summer with her partner Kandinsky, the idyllically situated domicile soon developed into a centre of the avant-garde. Marc, Macke and Werefkin, Jawlensky were regular guests. They all found much inspiration for their artistic work in the area around the Staffelsee – art history likes to describe these years surrounding the founding of the Blaue Reiter as the "Murnau period".
With the beginning of the First World War and the separation from Kandinsky, turbulent years followed for Münter. In 1931, she moved to Murnau for good. The landscape in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps plays a major role in her work from this period, as it did at the beginning of the century. When Münter died in Murnau in 1962, she had long been considered, along with Paula Modersohn-Becker, the most important Expressionist painter.
A one-of-a-kind or unique piece is a work of art personally created by the artist. It exists only once due to the type of production (oil painting, watercolour, drawing, lost-wax sculpture etc.).
In addition to the classic unique pieces, there are also the so-called "serial unique pieces". They present a series of works with the same colour, motif and technique, manually prepared by the same artist. The serial unique pieces are rooted in "serial art", a genre of modern art that aims to create an aesthetic effect through series, repetitions, and variations of the same objects or themes or a system of constant and variable elements or principles.
The historical starting point is considered to be Claude Monet's "Les Meules" (1890/1891), where, for the first time, a series was created that went beyond a mere group of works. The other artists, who addressed to the serial art, include Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian and above all Gerhard Richter.