Conrad Felixmüller
1897 - 1977

Kohlenbergarbeiter. 1920.
Lithograph in colors.
Signed, dated, titled, numbered, and inscribed “Lithography color proof.” Monogrammed in the plate. One of ten copies. On smooth wove paper. 56.5 x 39 cm (22.2 x 15.3 in). Sheet: 58,7 x 43 cm (23,1 x 16,9 in).
[CH].

• Felixmüller is one of the most important representatives of the second generation of German expressionists.
• The early 1920s are considered the most outstanding and mature creative phase of the socio-critical expressionists.
• In the year of its creation, Felixmüller was awarded the so-called “Rome Prize,” however, he decided not to travel to Rome with the scholarship, and went to the Rhenish lignite mining area instead.
• A highlight of his work: in the Ruhr region, he created drawings, paintings, and approximately twelve haunting graphic works, including very sensitive portraits and social studies such as “Kohlenbergarbeiter” (Coal Miner).
• Copies of this print have fetched the highest prices among the artist’s graphic works over the past 30 years (source: artprice.com).
• In the past ten years, only one other copy of this color lithograph has been offered on the international auction market (different color scheme, source: artprice.com).

PROVENANCE: Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin.
Private collection, Berlin.

EXHIBITION: Licht und Schatten der Zwanziger Jahre. 205 works by German artists from 1914 to 1933, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, August 22–November 29, 1977, cat. no. 17 (with black-and-white illustration).

LITERATURE: Gerhard. Söhn, Conrad Felixmüller. Das graphische Werk 1912-1974, Düsseldorf 1975, CR no. 211.

“Rome called, but he went to the Ruhr region: In his pictures, the young Conrad Felixmüller gave the anonymous workers a face and thus also dignity. ”
Angelika Storm-Rusche, in: General-Anzeiger, Bonn, July 15, 2001, on the occasion of the exhibition “Conrad Felixmüller. Strudelnd im Strom der Zeit at the August Macke House, Bonn.