Oskar Schlemmer - Ornamentale Plastik - image-1
Oskar Schlemmer - Ornamentale Plastik - image-2
Oskar Schlemmer - Ornamentale Plastik - image-1Oskar Schlemmer - Ornamentale Plastik - image-2

Lot 255 Dα

Oskar Schlemmer - Ornamentale Plastik

Auction 1143 - overview Cologne
29.11.2019, 18:00 - Modern Art I
Estimate: 80.000 € - 120.000 €
Result: 105.400 € (incl. premium)

Oskar Schlemmer

Ornamentale Plastik
1919

Silver sculpture Height 46 cm. Width 20 cm. Depth 9 cm Unsigned. One of presumably 10 casts initiated by Tut Schlemmer from 1965 ff. Foundry Brotal, Mendrisio. - With fine, lively patina. In perfect condition.

“In Germany in 1919, Schlemmer's polychrome relief constructions signified a bold venture into a new land, even if - with regard to their semi-sculptural montage technique - they were able to build on a European development that had been emerging for several years in the avant-garde of France and had even spread to Russia via Italy. Painters and sculptors alike were seeking to test out new materials as well as a previously unknown expansion, transgression and mutual interpenetration of art forms.” (Karin v. Maur, Oskar Schlemmer, Munich 1982, p. 110).
While the polychrome colouring of the first relief version - “Ornamentplastik” (see comp. illus.), which was still integrated within an idiosyncratically assembled framework - continues to invest the sculptural structure with the sense of a living organ, such as a heart, the treatment in plaster and silver emphasises the graphic element of the composition. Here the mechanical character moves into the foreground; at the same time, the individual compartments interlock as though they were parts of a well-oiled machine. Lined-up quarter rounds, grooved half pipes, serrated friezes of stripes and elongated pipe forms are joined into a sculptural, ornamental collage. It is no coincidence that Schlemmer himself referred to the relief as “Orgel” (Karin v. Maur, Oskar Schlemmer. Das plastische Werk, Stuttgart 1972, p. 17).
One year after the creation of our “Ornmentale Plastik”, the artist was working on the first costumes for his “Triadic Ballet”, which seems to draw on a similar canon of forms. The ballet was performed in Stuttgart, where Oskar Schlemmer had studied under Adolf Hölzel at the academy of art. In 1921 Schlemmer was appointed to the Staatliches Bauhaus, which had been founded in Weimar in 1919.

Catalogue Raisonné

v. Maur P 3 a

Certificate

With a photo-certificate by Freerk C. Valentien, Galerie Valentien Stuttgart, dated 8 June 1977. We would like to thank Karin v. Maur for information.

Provenance

Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart 1977. Private possession since, Rhineland

Literature

Karin v. Maur, Oskar Schlemmer, Das plastische Werk, Stuttgart 1972, p. 16 f., p. 15 with full-page colour illus.

Exhibitions

I.a. Stuttgart 1968 (Württembergischer Kunstverein), 50 Jahre Bauhaus, cat. no, 264, p. 298; travelling exhibition London/Amsterdam/Paris/Chicago/Ontario/Pasadena/Buenos Aires/Tokyo 1968/1970 (Royal Academy/Stedelijk Museum/Musée National d'Art Moderne/Crown Hall/Art Gallery/Pasadena Art Museum/Museo Nacional/Museum of Modern Art), 50 Jahre Bauhaus, cat. no. 216, p. 297; New York/Cologne 1973 (Sabarsky Gallery/Galerie Abels), Expressionisten, cat. no. 77 with colour illus.; Zurich 1973 (Kunstgewerbemuseum), Die Zwanziger Jahre, Konstraste eines Jahrzehnts, cat. 137; Stuttgart 1975 (Galerie Valentien), without cat.; Berlin 1977 (Neue Nationalgalerie/Akademie der Künste), Tendenzen der Zwanziger Jahre, cat. 1/244