Lot 200 Dα

It was probably even during his studies at the Bauhaus that Fritz Winter first came into contact with Will Grohmann, who at that time was a close friend of the two Bauhaus masters Paul Klee and Oskar Schlemmer. Winter's solo exhibition “Fritz Winter - Variationen über ein Raumthema” (“Fritz Winter - Variations on a Spatial Theme”) in 1931 was the latest point at which he would have first met Grohmann, and the pair subsequently struck up a lively correspondence. They maintained contact even after the Nazis had taken power and after the end of the War at the latest, Grohmann became one of Fritz Winter's most important friends and supporters. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, he thanked him with the words: “On this 4 December, a great many of my generation will undoubtedly think of you with tremendous gratitude. For how many people did you pave the way?! Not to mention the number of people who have learned about art through your books.” (Fritz Winter writing to Will Grohmann, letter dated 1 December 1967, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart/Will Grohmann Archive, quoted from Dresden 2012/2013, catalogue volume p. 322).
This work is from what is perhaps the most important group of works in Fritz Winter's oeuvre. Winter's “Triebkräfte der Erde” were created in secret while the War was still going on and represent the pinnacle of his creative experiments with geometric and crystalline forms and the transparencies of space and surface. In his nonrepresentational pictorial language, these attempt to give expression to the latent forces of nature and their growth in obscurity between light and dark. These are the works for which Winter was to be celebrated after the end of the War.
Our work, which formed part of Will Grohmann's collection along with probably nine other works by the artist, can be considered a key piece in his oeuvre and an allegory for the resilience of art.