Sale: 380 / Modern Art, June 04. 2011 in Munich Lot 54

 
Georg Tappert - Stillleben mit Blumenvase und Äpfeln


54
Georg Tappert
Stillleben mit Blumenvase und Äpfeln, 1918.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 22,500 / $ 24,300

(incl. surcharge)
Oil on canvas
Wietek 188. Signed and dated upper left. 67 x 85,5 cm (26,3 x 33,6 in)

PROVENANCE: Karl & Faber, Munich, auction 147, May 1978, lot 2089.
Private collection Southern Germany.

Georg Tappert discovered fine art after an apprenticeship as a tailor and two years spent working for different tailor's businesses, when Max Liebermann, the president of the 'Berliner Secession' acknowledged that he "possessed a talent which was worth developing". The young Tappert took this letter of recommendation to Ludwig Schmitt-Reutte at the Academy in Karlsruhe. When Tappert went to Saaleck Castle near Weimar for two years in 1903 to work as Paul Schultze-Naumburg's assistant he missed the liberal atmosphere of the Karlsruhe Akademie. Tappert joined the 'Deutscher Künstlerbund' in 1904. In 1906 he spent one year in Berlin as an independent painter and graphic artist, exhibiting his works in his first one-man exhibition at Paul Cassirer's gallery. In Worpswede, where he met Paula Modersohn-Becker, who influenced his own work considerably, Tappert founded his own art school in 1907. One of this school's most famous pupils was Wilhelm Morgner. When Tappert moved back to Berlin in 1909, he exhibited works at the Secession exhibitions. He continued teaching art together with Moritz Melzer at the newly founded 'Schule für freie und angewandte Kunst' (School of fine and applied arts). The rejection of works by 27 artists - including Georg Tappert - submitted to the 20th 'Sezession' exhibition led to the foundation of the 'Neue Sezession 1910' and its first exhibition in May. Tappert was the first chairman of this association, which was presided over by Max Pechstein. The association's survival until 1914 is largely owed to Tappert's commitment in this function. A demand for free and varied art resulted in the Berlin exhibition of the 'Juryfreien' in 1911. He taught at the Königliche Kunstschule and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin-Wilmersdorf until 1915 when he was drafted into the war. In 1918, the foundation of the 'Novembergruppe' was an important step in Tappert's artistic development. Tappert enthusiastically supported the group's call for new art forms and a very close intermingling of art and the ordinary population.

This work must be seen in the light of a recourse to late-impressionist tendencies and the influence of Paul Cézanne‘ is still lifes. Unlike other works from these days, Tappert devoted himself to a painting style that sought to trace a feeling for form and color and not so much the treatment of new impulses. But also in the realization of traditional motifs, for instance the still lifes with apples by many of his contemporaries that were all more or less oriented towards Cézanne, the artistic impulse and Tappert’s compositional forces in handling the different levels can be perceived right away. In combination with his striking colors they make for this work’s fundamental tone.

The artist resumed his teaching at the Staatliche Kunstschule in 1919 and was appointed professor, at the age of 41 he also taught at the Reimann-Schule up until 1924. He married his former student Kathleen Bagot in 1919, however, she died at at young age in 1925. Hitler's rise to success meant a long period of ostracism for the artist. He was dismissed from his teaching post in 1937 and banned from any artistic work, forcing him into an inner emigration. In 1945, at the age of 65, Tappert dedicated his time to the reconstruction of the Hochschule für Kunsterziehung. He did not resume his own artistic activities, but continues teaching up until 1953. This year Tappert gave up teaching and, at a very old age, married his niece Annalise Friedrich, who was great help to him during the cruel wartime. Georg Tappert died in Berlin on 17 November 1957. [KD].




54
Georg Tappert
Stillleben mit Blumenvase und Äpfeln, 1918.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 20,000 / $ 21,600
Sold:
€ 22,500 / $ 24,300

(incl. surcharge)