Hans Rilke - Aus dem Urwald (Afrikanische Figuren) - image-1

Lot 327 Dα

Hans Rilke - Aus dem Urwald (Afrikanische Figuren)

Auction 1110 - overview Cologne
01.06.2018, 17:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 4.000 €
Result: 4.340 € (incl. premium)

Hans Rilke

Aus dem Urwald (Afrikanische Figuren)
1924

Watercolours, India ink and pencil on firm drawing paper 50.2 x 46.2 cm Framed under glass. Signed 'Hans Rilke' lower right centre and dated '1924' left in brush and India ink. - Drawn, mathematical-geometric constructions verso. - The left lower corner diagonally torn; otherwise in fine condition.

This exceptional watercolour offered here combines Rilke's masterly drawing technique with the differentiated arrangement of coloured volumes in a density typical of his work. The primitivist motif not only refers to the reception of African art at that time, but may reflectively refer to Rilke's own attempts at expressive sculpture, which are lost today.
The painter and graphic artist Hans Rilke from Rheydt, whose early work was largely destroyed during the bombing of the Second World War, had lived in Düsseldorf since 1910 and not only joined the political "Aktivistenbund" there in 1919 after attending a seminar for art teachers and the arts and crafts school, he was also accepted into the circles around Johanna Ey and the artists of the "Junges Rheinland" in the early twenties. The style of his best works from this period was influenced by socially critical topics, by expressionist, abstract-cubist and fantastic tendencies, which bear witness to his encounter i.a. with the work of George Grosz and Gert Wollheim.

Provenance

Old West-German private collection (until 1997); Galerie Remmert und Barth, Düsseldorf; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia

Literature

Cf. Anna Steins, Hans Rilke - Werk ohne Wirkung?, in: exhib. cat. Hans Rilke, Städtisches Museum Schloß Rheydt, Mönchengladbach 1996, p. 31 - 48.

Exhibitions

Düsseldorf 1997 (Galerie Remmert und Barth), Überblick 1997, cat. no. 131 with colour illus.