Sale: 529 / Post War / Contemporary Art, June 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 164

 

164
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart
Composition no 141, 1942/43.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 93,750 / $ 101,250

(incl. surcharge)
Composition no 141. 1942/43.
Oil on canvas.
Valstar-Verhoff K 141. Jaffé 146. Signed, dated "1942-43" and titled on the reverse. 60 x 80 cm (23.6 x 31.4 in). [EH].

• Together with Kurt Schwitters and Carl Buchheister, Vordemberge-Gildewart founded the group "neues abstraktes hannover".
• The work "Composition no 142" with a similar motif is in the Guggenheim-Museum, New York.
• Comprehensive exhibition history
.

PROVENANCE: Ilse Vordemberge-Leda (on loan to the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, inv. no. 30-X-1967 (with the number on the stretcher).
Galerie Dr. J. Schégl, Zurich.
Collection Christian H. Fischbacher, St. Gallen (until 2006, Christie's).
Private collection (aquired 2006 from the above).

EXHIBITION: Experimentelen, Vereniging Haagsche Kunstkring, The Hague, 1947.
Vordemberge-Gildewart, Magazijn De Bijenkorf, Amsterdam,1950
Hedendaagse Nederlandse Kunst, Kunstzaal van Lier, Amsterdam, 1950.
Vordemberge - Gildewart. Arbeiten aus den Jahren 1923-1954. Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Cologne September 18 - October 16, 1954, cat. no. 12. (with a partly pasted over label on the stretcher).
Vordemberge - Gildewart. Werke aus den Jahren 1923-1954, Kunstverein Ulm, Museum der Stadt Ulm, June 5 - July 3, 1955.
josef albers, fritz glarner, friedrich vordemberge-gildewart. Kunsthaus Zürich, April 28 - June 10, 1956, cat no. 110.
Vordemberge - Gildewart, Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum, Hagen, Kaiserslautern / Frankfurter Kunstverein / Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Künstlerclub Die Insel, Hamburg, 1957-1958, Kat.-Nr. 29.
Commemorative exhibition Vordemberge-Gildewart. Ulmer Museum March 16 - April 28, 1963.
Vordemberge-Gildewart, Toninelli Arte Modern, Milan and Galleria del Levante, Rome, Sept.-Oct.1965. Cat no. 15.
Vordemberge-Gildewart. Haags Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, 1966.
Vordemberge-Gildewart. Galerie d'Eendt, Amsterdam 1966
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, Kunsthalle Mannheim, October 3 - November 15, 1970, cat. no. 37.
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. Compositions and Constructions, Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago 1971, no. 5022-b (with a partly pasted over gallery label on the stretcher)
The non-objective world. 1939-1955, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, July 6 - September 8, 1972, cat.no. 193 (with a partly pasted over gallery label on the stretcher)
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. retrospective 1924-1962, Annely Juda Fine Art, London, September 15 - November 11, 1972, cat. no. 27 (with a partly pasted over gallery label on the stretcher).
Vordemberge-Gildewart. Galleria d'Arte Martano, Turin, May – June 1973, cat. no. 4 .
Vordemberge-Gildewart, Galerie Liatowitsch, Basel 1973. (with remains of label on the stretcher)
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. Bilder und Collagen. Werke 1924-1962, Galerie René Ziegler, Zürich / Geneva, 1974-1975.
Vordemberge-Gildewart, Ulmer Museum April 20 - June 1, 1975, cat. no. 63.
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart-Adolf Fleischmann, Galerie Reckermann, Cologne, 1975-76.

LITERATURE: H.L.C. Jaffé, Vordemberge-Gildewart. Mensch und Werk, Cologne 1971, pp. 84ff., no. 146.
D. Helms, Vordemberge-Gildewart, Vol. 12 in: 'Niedersächsische Künstler der Gegenwart', Göttingen / Berlin / Frankfurt / Zürich 1972.
D. Helms (editor), Vordemberge-Gildewart: The complete works, Munich 1990, pp. 299, 301 (illu.).
Christie's, Amsterdam, December 7, 2006, lot 316.
Stiftung Vordemberge-Gildewart (editor), Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. New Oeuvre Catalogue, no. K 141, https://vordemberge-gildewart.eu/the-new-oeuvre/catalogue/paintings/k-141/.

Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart in noted his studio book about this work
"completed on February 22, 1943"

Vordemberge-Gildewart went down in art history as the innovator of typography. His typeface designs were present in the world of consumer products for many decades, just to mention the logos of Continental tires (1924) and Agfa films (1957). His painterly oeuvre is no less important. Together with Kurt Schwitters, Carl Buchheister, Rudolf Jahns and Hans Nitzschke, he founded the group "neue abstrakte hannover", a local group of the "International Association of Expressionists, Futurists, Cubists and Constructivists" in Hanover in 1927. Their aim was to develop Constructivism in the sense of El Lissitzky. They shared studios at the Kestnergesellschaft and worked in a mutually stimulating environment. However, things changed a great deal when the Nazis seized power. Eventually Vordemberge-Gildewart emigrated to Amsterdam in 1938.
Vordemberge-Gildewart deliberately foregoes individual accents in his sculptures. The representation is reduced to the highest level of objectivity. The reduction to purely geometric forms is only logical. The slightly floating forms are placed in front of differently toned color surfaces, the darker brown with a clear surface structure, the lighter ocher entirely smooth. Our "Composition no 141" was followed by "Composition no 142" - part of the renowned Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection in New York - which is characterized by a play of forms in front of a green background in two parts. Both paintings have a clear light frame in their image. The clarity and structure can also be seen as an unshakable belief in the positive impact this order can have on future on societies. [EH]



164
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart
Composition no 141, 1942/43.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 60,000 / $ 64,800
Sold:
€ 93,750 / $ 101,250

(incl. surcharge)