By Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: (after) Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (German, 1884-1976)
Title: "Sitzende Frau mit Blüten (Seated Woman with Flowers)"
Series: Die Aktion
Year: 1914
Medium: The Complete Vol. 4, No. 11 issue of 'Die Aktion' with a Lithograph on cream smooth wove paper
Limited edition: Unknown
Printer: F.E. Haag, Melle, Hanover, Germany
Publisher: Verlag der Wochenschrift DIE AKTION, Berlin, Germany
Sheet size: 12.25" x 9.25"
Image size: 3.82" x 3.25"
Condition: Toning to sheets (as normal). Light water staining at center right edge and upper right corner. Some separation and small paper losses at spine. It is otherwise in very good condition
Extremely rare
A very nice copy of this extremely scarce issue
Notes:
Provenance: private collection - Fürstenberg/Havel, Germany. The lithograph on the cover is a smaller-sized reproduction after Schmidt-Rottluff's 1913 larger original signed woodcut edition, ("Das Graphische Werk Bis 1923" - Schapire No. 114, page 28). Published March 14th, 1914. A total of 14 pages. There is an example of this complete issue in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY.
In 1911 Franz Pfemfert, a cantankerous critic of capitalism and Wilhelmine society, founded Die Aktion as a political and literary journal. In April of the following year, a new subtitle declared the journal a "weekly for politics, literature, and art." Although politics remained the priority, Die Aktion began featuring visual art coverage as well as original prints and illustrations.
Artist Max Oppenheimer (MOPP) worked closely with 'Die Aktion' in its early years, portraying in its pages many of the young writers who gave the journal its distinctive voice. Egon Schiele made his first woodcuts at Pfemfert's urging in 1916, for publication in the journal. Other frequent contributors included Ludwig Meidner and, later, Conrad Felixmüller and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.
Adamantly opposed to World War I, Pfemfert skirted tightened censorship from August 1914 to October 1918 by treating contemporary events only through artistic and literary allusions. At a time when reading books by foreign authors was considered unpatriotic, he dedicated entire issues of Die Aktion to Russian, French, and Belgian authors and artists. In late 1918, however, Pfemfert resumed vocal political critique, siding with the radical left. His selection of prints, formerly varied, became overtly political. After 1921, he ceased art coverage altogether, decreased the number of issues, and used the publication exclusively as a mouthpiece for his own increasingly partisan views.
Biography:
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (born December 1, 1884, Rottluff, near Chemnitz, Germany—died August 9, 1976, West Berlin [now Berlin]), German painter and printmaker who was noted for his Expressionist landscapes and nudes.
In 1905 Schmidt-Rottluff began to study architecture in Dresden, Germany, where he and his friend Erich Heckel met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Fritz Bleyl...
Category
1910s Expressionist Nude Prints
