EXCEPTIONAL SALE
Museum Quality Artifacts
This one of a kind woodcut was the base to create a
‘Die Brücke Group’s’ poster. That poster was made for the official opening of
the Group’s exhibition in Dresden. Image of the famous ‘Die Brûcke’ poster is
shown separately but not part of the sale.
As there is only 1 woodcut, this artifact is really
‘unique’. Was bought during an auction organised by the Sheldon Ross Gallery in
1999. Comes with COA and provenance.
This Fritz Bleyl woodcut etching is truly a ‘one of a
kind’ collector’s item.
Specifications
✓ Size: 21 x 31
cm
✓ Handsigned by
Fritz Bleyl
Information on Fritz Bleyl
Hilmar Friedrich Wilhelm Bleyl, known as Fritz Bleyl
(8 October 1880 – 19 August 1966), was a German artist of the Expressionist
school, and one of the four founders of artist group Die Brücke (“The Bridge”).
He designed graphics for the group including, for
their first show, a poster, which was banned by the police. He left the group
after only two years, when he married, to look after his family, and did not
exhibit publicly thereafter.
Fritz Bleyl was born in Zwickau, Kingdom of Saxony, and grew up in the Erzgebirge region.
In 1901 he began studying architecture at the
Königliche Technische Hochschule (technical university) of Dresden, as his
parents wished; however, his own desire was to become a painter. Bleyl became
close friends with fellow student, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, whom he met during
the first term. They discussed art together and also studied nature, having a
radical outlook in common. In 1905, Bleyl along with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and
two other architecture students, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and Erich Heckel,
founded the artists group Die Brücke (“The Bridge”). The group aimed to eschew
the prevalent traditional academic style and find a new mode of artistic expression,
which would form a bridge (hence the name) between the past and the present.
Their group was one of the seminal ones, which in due course had a major impact
on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and created the style of
Expressionism.
They met initially in Kirchner’s first studio, which
had previously been a butcher’s shop but the studio lived up to Bleyl’s
description, becoming a venue which overthrew social conventions to allow
casual love-making and frequent nudity. Group life-drawing sessions took place
using models from the social circle, rather than professionals, and choosing
quarter-hour poses to encourage spontaneity. The group composed a manifesto
(mostly Kirchner’s work), which was carved on wood and asserted a new generation,
“who want freedom in our work and in our lives, independence from older,
established forces.
As part of the affirmation of their national heritage, they revived older media, particularly woodcut prints. Bleyl specialised in graphic design and created several significant posters and tickets presenting the group to the general public. In September and October 1906, the first group exhibition was held, focused on the female nude, in the showroom of K.F.M. Seifert and Co. in Dresden. Deriving from the life studies, Bleyl created a lithographic poster for the show printed in orange ink on white paper. It has a narrow, portrait format, more akin to Japanese woodcuts than conventional contemporary prints, and was a distinct contrast to the poster designed by Otto Gussmann for the Third German Exhibition of Applied Arts, which had opened four months previously in Dresden. Bleyl omits iconography such as a crown, a lamp and a flowing gown, to show a bold nude of the model full-length above the lettering. Police censors barred the display of the poster under Paragraph 184, the National Penal Code pornography clause, after perceiving pubic hair in the shadow underneath the stomach.
In 1905, Bleyl completed his university studies and, the following year,
began to teach at the Bauschule (school of architecture) in Freiberg, Saxony.
He chose a bourgeois lifestyle, marrying in 1907 and, with a concern to support
his family, left the group. He was replaced by Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller.
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