Picture "With Green Jug" (1960s) (Unique piece)
Picture "With Green Jug" (1960s) (Unique piece)
Quick info
unique piece | signed | titled | watercolour and ink on paper | framed | size 78 x 97.5 cm
Detailed description
Picture "With Green Jug" (1960s) (Unique piece)
In a balanced arrangement, Schmidt-Rottluff presents a green jug alongside two wooden sculptures. The pictorial objects are modelled sparingly yet impressively.
Black ink outlines the contours and creates a link to Schmidt-Rottluff's more well-known paintings. His interest in visualising classical themes such as still life has repeatedly led him to create remarkable compositions.
Due to health reasons in the early 1960s, the artist had to give up oil painting completely and instead devoted himself more to drawing. The present unique piece dates from this period and is a wonderful example of Schmidt-Rottluff's naively expressive way of working.
Watercolour and ink on paper, 1960s. Signed, titled on the back. This work is documented in the archive of the Karl and Emy Schmidt-Rottluff Foundation, Berlin. Motif size/sheet size 50 x 69.8 cm. Size in frame 78 x 97.5 cm as shown.
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About Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
1884-1976
He loved the seclusion of nature, the landscapes of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, which became the place of creation and motif of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff's works. Along with Fritz Bleyl and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, he was a co-founder of the artists' association "Die Brücke", which was founded in 1905. Around that time, he changed his surname by adding his native town of Rottluff.
When he moved to Berlin in 1911, he got inspired by the Futurist, Cubist and African styles of art, which later influenced his work. The artist suffered from the defamation of his art by the Nazi Party. In 1936 they banned him from exhibiting, which was followed five years later by a ban on painting. In a desperate state of mind, Schmidt-Rottluff returned to his hometown and accepted a professorship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin in the late 1940s. Through his teaching position, he found interest in working on large-format watercolours, which later became characteristic of his work.
Painting with glazing watercolours, that are characterised by their transparency, which let deeper layers and painting surfaces shine through.
Often the paper surface is omitted. This contributes significantly to the effect of the work. The aquarelle or watercolour painting requires skilful use of colour, as it dries quickly and corrections are almost impossible.
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.