Lot 17 D

Even if Georg Tappert remained spared from the harrowing experiences of combat and military hospitals which traumatised his fellow artist Otto Dix, the First World War nonetheless left its mark on his development as an artist. “When the works that Georg Tappert created after 1915 are compared with those from before, it reveals differences that are not to be explained solely through an outward stylistic change caused, for example, by stronger cubist influences. What outwardly presents itself as an increasing decomposition of form and a dilution of absolute colour actually signifies an altered attitude towards his environment and himself. The provocation has decreased, the dubiousness increased; the contours of the images' subjects are dissolved to a greater degree and integrated into the surroundings. The superficial fades away while the background emerges more clearly”, writes Gerhard Wietek with regard to the transformation in Tappert's artistic expression (Gerhard Wietek, Georg Tappert 1880-1957. Ein Wegbereiter der Deutschen Moderne, Munich 1980, p. 44). The Marian image is a theme that Tappert first dealt with in 1914 in printed works; during the war years, he expanded from it to include additional religious subjects. Tappert translated the expressive visual idiom of woodcuts like “Madonna” or “Drei trauernde Frauen” (Wietek Druckgraphik 62 and 66), which were created in 1916/17 and are reminiscent of medieval devotional prints, into pure painting in the picture “Drei Marien”. The sharp contours of the faces and hands are embedded within a surrounding space entirely moulded out of colour. The highly dynamic brushwork and the complementary colour contrasts give a powerful sense of immediacy to the heartfelt depiction of the Three Marys, who are told of Christ's resurrection by an angel at his tomb.