Sale: 369 / Post War/ Contemporary Art, June 12. 2010 in Munich Lot 212

 
Emil Schumacher - J.A.T


212
Emil Schumacher
J.A.T, 1957.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 29,280 / $ 31,622

(incl. surcharge)

Oil with sand on canvas
Signed and dated lower right. Inscribed "Titel J.A.T.", with an arrow indicating the direction as well as with date "12.III 57" on stretcher. 50,8 x 70,5 cm (20 x 27,7 in)
The title is the abbreviation of John Anthony Thwaites. Stretcher with two stamps, of which one illegible. [DB].

We are grateful to Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, Emil Schumacher Foundation Hagen, for his expert advice. This work is registered under the number 0/4.382 in the foundation's archive.

PROVENANCE: Collection of the art critic John Anthony Thwaites.
Private collection Hesse.

Emil Schumacher, born in the Westphalian town of Hagen in 1912, began a three-year degree at the school for applied arts in Dortmund when he was 20 years old. He started working as an independent artist in 1935 and founded the artist and exhibition association "junger westen" in 1947 together with a few other artists. The style of his work changed drastically in 1950. He abandoned painting objects and turned towards the expressive power of painting alone. Color itself gradually became the decisive element of his works. This biographical artistic process happened during a period, which was determined by the French École de Paris, Tachism and American Action Painting. While abstraction itself was typical of this period, it also became a typical aspect of Emil Schumacher's personal style.

This painting is a prime example of Schumacher’s development. The range of colors is restrained to black, white and shades of brown. The surface is strongly structured by a pastose application of the paint and is ruptured by strokes and arches. The canvas serves as the medium for the material.

Schumacher became internationally known and praised around the middle of the 1950s as one of the most important artists of the Informel. He was awarded numerous international prizes, of which the Guggenheim Award in New York in 1958 was only the beginning. He was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg the same year, accepted a post as professor in Karlsruhe in 1966 and taught as a guest professor at the university in Minneapolis/USA in 1967 for one year. The Deutsche Bundestag (German Parliament) honored him in 1998 by commissioning a mural for the Reichstag building in Berlin. Emil Schumacher died in San José on 4 October 1999, one year after the large retrospective exhibition in Munich. [DB].




212
Emil Schumacher
J.A.T, 1957.
Oil
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 29,280 / $ 31,622

(incl. surcharge)