Sale: 342 / Modern Art / Sideways, Dec. 03. 2008 in Munich Lot 304

Alexander Kanoldt - Fabrik hinter Bäumen


304
Alexander Kanoldt
Fabrik hinter Bäumen, 1938.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 14,000 / $ 15,400
Sold:
€ 24,400 / $ 26,840

(incl. surcharge)

Fabrik hinter Bäumen. Um 1938.
Oil on canvas.
With the label on the stretcher, there inscribed 'Gärten mit Dächern 1 Fabrikschlot hinten g/K[...] 70 x 60 AK.'. 60 : 70,5 cm (23,6 : 27,7 in). Kanoldt began an apprenticeship as a decorative painter at the local Kunstgewerbeschule at the age of eighteen, but decided to join the Academy in 1901. He took drawing lessons with Ernst Schurth and became acquainted with Adolf Erbslöh. During this time Kanoldt closely studied Neo-Impressionist techniques, which inspired his technically extremely sophisticated colour lithographs. In 1904 Kanoldt continued his studies in Friedrich Fehr's painter's class and became his master pupil between 1906 and 1909. Kanoldt moved to Munich in 1908, where he founded the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung', a forerunner of the 'Blauer Reiter', together with Alexej von Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter and others one year later. Kanoldt also took part in their first exhibition at Heinrich Thannhauser's Moderne Galerie in Munich in 1909. In 1913 Kanoldt, as well as Carl Caspar, Jawlensky and Paul Klee, was a member of the "Münchener Neue Sezession". During a lengthy stay in Italy in 1924 Kanoldt produced multi-perspective architectural landscapes and serene interiors. These works mark a new beginning in Kanoldt's work and result in an invitation to exhibit works in the "Neue Sachlichkeit" exhibition in 1924 at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. His was the second largest group of works after Max Beckmann. In 1925 Oskar Moll invited him to teach at the Breslau Kunstakademie, a post that he gave up again in 1931. Together with Karl Hofer, Kanoldt was founder of the 'Badische Secession' in Freiburg in 1927, in 1931 he opened a private painting school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. In 1932 he joined the Munich artist group "Die Sieben" and exhibited at their shows. During this period Kanoldt mostly painted still-lives and Italian landscapes. Their rational style reflects a proximity to the "Neue Sachlichkeit".

Our work is among the very last pictures by Kanoldt’s hand and was probably painted during the trip he took to the Upper Palatinate in early summer of 1938. In this late phase, the artist detached himself from the formal idiom of New Objectivity to turn to Late Impressionism. However, his renewed powers of creativity, which had been steadily reviving since the summer of 1937, now proved his undoing. The stringent measures taken in conformity with the official state cultural policies increasingly caused him difficulties. The authorities confiscated many of Kanoldt’s works under the auspices of the “Degenerate Art” operation and in spring 1938, the Gestapo searched his Berlin flat.

This overt hostility seriously affected Kanoldt’s health, exacerbating his heart disease. He died of it on 24 January 1939. [ME]

PROVENIENZ: Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich.
Private collection South Germany.
AUSSTELLUNG: Alexander Kanoldt. Ölbilder, Handzeichnungen, Lithographien, Galerie Gunzenhauser, Munich 1981, cat.no. 12 (ill.).
Alexander Kanoldt 1881-1939. Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Lithographien, Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg im Breisgau, 14 March - 26 April 1987/Von der Heydt-Museum der Stadt Wuppertal, 17 May - 5 July 1987, cat.no. 60, p. 152 (ill.).

In good condition, colours still fresh. Partially with minor craquelé. Edges barely noticeably rubbed due to the framing. With a few negligible retouchings, probably by the artist's own hand.




304
Alexander Kanoldt
Fabrik hinter Bäumen, 1938.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 14,000 / $ 15,400
Sold:
€ 24,400 / $ 26,840

(incl. surcharge)