Oskar Schlemmer Lot n° 28

Oskar Schlemmer Three Women from Backwards Around 1932 Watercolor and pencil on ivory-colored China paper. 13.3 x 12.5 cm (14.5 x 14.5 cm). Framed under glass. With the work number "751" in pencil lower left, with the red estate stamp "B 325" lower right and on the former lower card. - With Oskar Schlemmer's printed label on the verso of the frame board, inscribed in ink "Drei Frauen von rückwärts. Watercolor. Breslau, ca. 1932. 13.3 : 12.5 cm" and stamped with the work number "No 751". - In very good, extremely fresh condition. v. Maur A 476 Provenance Estate of the artist; Galerie Krugier, Geneva; Marguerite Bleuler, Zurich; R. N. Ketterer, Campione d'Italia; Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, Auction 36, Nov. 1979; Günter P. Landmann Collection, Munich Exhibitions Wuppertal 1947, Oskar Schlemmer. 124 Gemälde, Aquarelle, Lithos, Ölpapiere, Fensterbilder, Liste Nr. 44 (?); Hannover u.a. Wanderausstellung 1960/1961(Kestner-Gesellschaft u.a.), Oskar Schlemmer. Hand drawings and watercolors, cat. No. 60; Berlin 1963 (Akademie der Künste), Oskar Schlemmer, Cat. No. 150; Geneva 1964 (Galerie Krugier), Oskar Schlemmer, Suites No. 6, Cat. No. 71 Literature Hildebrandt WK no. 751; Will Grohmann, Oskar Schlemmer, Aquarelle, Wiesbaden 1960, no. 19, color illus. 19 As early as the early 1920s, during his active Bauhaus period, Oskar Schlemmer devoted himself to the human figure in space in a variety of ways. From 1929 to 1932, when Schlemmer taught at the Academy of Art in Breslau, the motif of the staircase became the focus of his painterly exploration. The unity of man and architecture, of body and spirit, of statics and movement formulated in these works corresponded to the fundamental Bauhaus idea. It culminated in "Bauhaus Staircase" (1932, Museum of Modern Art, New York), Schlemmer's most famous painting, with which he protested against the announced closure of the Bauhaus by the National Socialists. The light watercolor "Three Women from Backwards" was created in this context. In a square format, Schlemmer unites three back figures, distinguishable by their clothing and hairstyles and endowed with lively body language, but executed as idealized types. The artist anchors the figures in an undefined spatial situation defined by shades of gray and clear lines. Even without a recognizable staircase, the motif of ascending is realized. The figure placed in the foreground leads the eye into the pictorial space in the manner of a repoussoir, while the other two define the middle and background, resulting in an enormously emphasized depth of space. At the same time, the depiction of the figures is staggered from bust to half-length figure to kneeling figure. Schlemmer thus creates a strong rhythm in the depiction and achieves the desired unity of the person with the surrounding space.