Oil on canvas
Signed and dated lower right. 120 x 94,5 cm (47,2 x 37,2 in)
In orig. artist's frame.

PROVENANCE: Graphisches Kabinett Guenther Franke, Munich (with gallery label on stretcher).
Private collection Germany.

EXHIBITION: Münchener Kunst. Sonderausstellung in der Neuen Pinakothek Munich, 18 January - 28 February 1935, illu. p. 11.

At the tender age of eleven Edgar Ende decided to go without a university-entrance diploma, but to become a painter. He started an appretinceship to become a decoration painter in 1915 and attended courses at the school of applied art in Hamburg-Altona at the same time. This was where he examined the paintings of Hans von Marées and Rudolf Steiner's writings. Having completed both his vocational training in 1919, the artist also finished school a year later and took further classes at the Hamburg School of Fine and Applied Arts. He got a studio in the 'Donnersche Schloss', and joined the 'Altonaer Künstlerverein' (Altona Artists' Association), he also showed works at Karl Nierendorf in Berlin and with the Hamburg Secession. The painter Ivo Hauptmann bought works from him. In 1922 Ende attended lectures of Ernst Cassirer at the university ad became occupied with the writings by Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung. After several stays in Berlin, where he repeatedly participated in exhibitions, the artist left Hamburg for good and settles in Garmisch and a few years later in Munich. The early 1930s were an extremely prolific time for the painter. He sketched his spontaneous ideas, images that seemed to have developed from his subconscious on the so-called 'Dunkelkammerskizzen' (dark room sketches) and creates paintings from another image world.

In the respective literature the image worlds of Edgar Ende are often described as “romantic surrealism“. This is definitely a suitable definition, as it is visualized dream worlds that Ende depicts in a cool and realistic manner in the style of New Objectivity. The encrypted imageries gives reason for manifold interpretation, which, depending on mood and inspiration, will be more or less relating to reality, as the often trivial titles reveal. This work conjures up associations with Italian paintings of the Cinquecento, with war in heaven, but also with the grim battle between good and evil. Both components are contained in this picture’s expression and that seems to make an interpretation even more difficult, but also inspiring. Whatever Ende had in mind with this motif will probably remain unexplored. What remained is a painting style that had already found its way of a secret liberation in an epoch of distortion.

An occupational and exhibition ban was imposed on Edgar Ende in 1936, in 1937 his works were removed from German museums and galleries as they were considered "degenerate". Most of his works were destroyed during air raids on Munich in 1944. After the war the artist was one of the co-founders of the occupational union for artists and the 'Neue Gruppe’, he took part in the Biennale in Venice, as well as in numerous group exhibitions. He was also a jury member of the 'Große Münchner Kunstausstellung' in the 'Haus der Kunst'. In 1951 he met André Breton in Paris and founded the International Surrealist Association. In the 1950s and 60s the artist went on numerous journeys, he was member of many committees and experimented with new painting techniques and discovered photography as an artistic means. In 1963 he was appointed honorary member of the Munich Academy of Visual Arts. After a last unusually productive period the artist died in Netterndorf in 1965. [KD].