Staffelung im Blau (Schichten). 1964.
Oil on canvas.
Herold 504. Monogrammed lower right. Once more monogrammed and dated on the reverse. 104 x 132 cm ( 40,9 x 51,9 in).

PROVENIENZ: Collection Prof. Robert Häusser (acquired directly from the artist).

Ausstellung: Große Kunstausstellung, Haus der Kunst, Munich 1969, cat.no. 866 (with two labels on the stretcher).
Georg Meistermann, Kunstverein Oldenburg, 1970, cat.no. 23.
Georg Meistermann, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn/Kunstverein Mannheim, Düsseldorf 1971 (=Kunst und Altertum am Rhein, no. 36), cat.no. 35, p. 29 (ill. in colours).
Georg Meistermann - Bilder und Graphiken, Galerie Eberwein/Stadthalle Offenburg, Freiburg 1980.
Georg Meistermann. Bilder, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen am Rhein/Deutsch-Französische Gesellschaft, Tübingen, Ludwigshafen 1981, p. 34/35 (ill. in colours, there erroneously dated 1959).

LITERATUR: H. W. Keiser, Georg Meistermann, in: Die Kunst, issue 7, July 1981, ill. 7, n. p.

Georg Meistermann trained at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1928 until 1933. In the years 1937-39 Meistermann travelled to France several times. Late Cubism became the basis of his painting, from which he developed a style that was increasingly abstract. From 1938 Meistermann also designed stained-glass windows and attained a mastery in this field that was acclaimed worldwide. After the end of World War II, Meistermann’s reputation grew. In 1950 he was awarded the Blevin-Davis Prize, then the most important German art competition. Moreover, he was appointed to head the class for fine graphic art at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main in 1953. This position was followed by an appointment as professor for fine art and monumental painting at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. In 1959 Meistermann was awarded the Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz [Grand Federal Cross of Merit], followed by an appointment as professor to the Karlsruhe Art Academy, where he stayed until he retired in 1976. In addition, Meistermann was president of the German Artists League from 1967 until 1972.

Georg Meistermann’s relaunch of his career as an artist after the war was under the sign of abstraction – an understanding of the image, which related content free of objects to surface intervals. Dematerialisation was the solution in the years that followed. Under the aspect of colour, spatial and surface tensions, the moment of hovering became a Leitmotif for Meistermann. In the present painting, which forms no monochrome closed surfaces but instead is configured as open through many small, finely nuanced brush strokes, the struggle for surface tension and weightlessness are also clearly felt.

In 1986 the Düsseldorf Art Academy made this acclaimed artist and former student an honorary member. Georg Meistermann died on 12 June 1990 not long after being awarded another class of the Federal Cross of Merit. Thanks to Georg Meistermann’s work Germany again rejoined international developments in art following the second world war. [ME]

Zustand: In good condition. The edges partially negligibly rubbed. Isolated tiny brown spots. Barely noticeable, superficial trace of rubbing on the lower left margin of the image, not interfering with the overall impression.