CLEMENS KINDLING
CHRISTIAN HOHMANN FINE ART 73-660 El Paseo Palm Desert, CA 92260
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IMPRESSUM © Christian Hohmann Fine Art, Inc. 1st Edition 2013 Any reproduction or use of text or image material in part or in full is only allowed with the written consent of Christian Hohmann Fine Art, Inc. Measurements are for unframed work and may be approximate. Please contact the gallery if you require exact sizes or framed measurements.
Cover: Image to the right:
CORNER MARKET IN ROME | Pastel on Paper | 11” x 8” | 1991 SELF PORTRAIT | Oil on Board | 25 ½” x 19 ½” | 1934
CLEMENS KINDLING
CLEMENS KINDLING (1916-1992)
Born in 1916, Clemens Kindling’s fierce impetus to paint at all costs began in the town of Halle along the river Saale where he grew up compelled to capture the faces and landscapes around him. The youngest of eight children with a missionary father, he was encouraged early to become a priest. But when his father passed away, his mother, who fostered his inherent talent, allowed him to attend the local Burg Giebichenstein Art Academy. At the time, the school was rich with the burgeoning Bauhaus influence and considered one of the most important centers for early German Expressionist exploration. With professors who were themselves students of such masters as Renoir and Cezanne, Kindling developed from this deep historical influence that integrated with his own distinctive voice and carried throughout his pursuant life’s work. His style was composed of an organic and lively view of people and objects absent of rigid straight lines and filled with uneven compositions. Unlikely hues skewed reality while trademarks of the era’s new forays into expressionism were seen
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through color fields surrounded in black and other pivotal signatures. From here, Kindling received a scholarship to the Unified State Schools for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin in 1929. Halfway through his schooling, Hitler’s regime stepped in to abort the creativity being expressed in new and progressive ways in the art world. Most of Kindling’s professors were banished from their posts and he resorted to studying with them in private until, like every young German male, he was drafted into the Army. The course of Kindling’s life would be forever changed from a free and effusive artist to a man struggling to create within the confining circumstances thrust upon him. In the Army as a major war was being planned, while others were grasping at any modicum of sleep they could obtain, Kindling was given the freedom to spend time painting. His superiors recognized the compulsion of this man who simply could not live or thrive without the liberties of expression.
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During wartime, while immersed in the societal and political hatred consciousness against Russia, Kindling spent his time stationed there capturing the faces and environment with a profound tenderness. Seeing life not through a soldier’s eyes but through the rose-colored lens of humanity, he created a series that eventually became an important and thoughtful backward glance called “Pictures of Russia.� After the war, Kindling returned to Halle where he encountered his happiest years, meeting his wife Maria and living as an artist. Even though it was a time of recovery for the people, he was able to maintain his career with a little help from the government, which paid for his studio and materials. This period was short lived as there was great pressure on artists to depict a style of social realism that showed the working class as heroes; a forced subject that Kindling struggled against greatly. He simply wanted to show the world through his own eyes, not the view from a propagandistic angle. As his resistance grew, his portraits instead articulated the common man as
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MARIA | Oil on Canvas | 44 ¾” x 35” | 1950
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VILLAGE STREET | Oil on Board | 19 ½” x 25 ½” | 1938
a haggard breed. Faced with an impending trial to strip him of his rights as an artist, Kindling fled the city at night with his wife, canvases in progress strapped across his body and portfolios of works on paper among the few things they could take. They landed in Dorfmark where they remained throughout the 1950s and bore a daughter. Life was harsh for the artist during this time and in order to support his family he took a real nine to five job that lasted the next 22 years. Although he was widely respected, his art career suffered, going underground as the realities of responsibility and making ends meet took hold. It was only upon his retirement that the artist bloomed again, renewing the early passion to observe his surroundings through color and form. A body of work exploded as a mirror of all that enveloped him including studies of his wife, life and friends as well as the landmarks of his existence from a sawmill near his home to the cities he encountered on travels to places such as Switzerland. A revived maelstrom of work
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started to build itself back up again and when he was discovered by the Hohmann family in the 1970s, his vast body of pastel sketches portrayed the poignant fire of an artist whose drive to create inevitably could not be dampened by struggle nor circumstance. A fruitful time began for the artist that although late in life, was dotted with great accomplishments, many exhibitions and a growing circle of collectors across the nation. Finally getting his due, Kindling was hard at work on a new series of his travels through Italy when he unexpectedly passed away at the age of 76 in 1992. Now recognized as a true and prolific master, with a drive that could not be snuffed by the unfortunate twists of existence, Kindling’s legacy continues carrying the mark of an authentic and unflinching artist. This special exhibition reflects upon the unique life of an artist through works spanning from his earliest paintings in 1938 through the myriad pastels of a final study in Italy before his passing with brush still in hand.
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DAVOS | Oil on Board | 23 ¾” x 28 ¾” | 1980
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ODER MARSH | Oil on Board | 23 ¾” x 28 ¾” | 1960
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SAWMILL IN THE VILLAGE | Oil on Board | 32 ½” x 47 ½” | 1976
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WOMEN ABOVE PRAG | Oil on Board | 28 ¾” x 36 ¼” | 1986
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FOUR GIRLS AT THE LAKE | Oil on Board | 25 ¼” x 31” | 1986
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MALCESINE, ITALY | Pastel on Paper | 8” x 10 ½” | 1991
CORNER MARKET IN ROME | Pastel on Paper | 11” x 8” | 1991
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IN ITALY | Pastel on Paper | 6” x 9 ½” | 1991
IN ROME | Pastel on Paper | 7 ½” x 9 ¼” | 1991
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PARIS | Pastel on Paper | 11 ½” x 7” | 1985
IN PARIS | Pastel on Paper | 11 ¾” x 8 ¼” | 1985
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PARIS II | Pastel on Paper | 10 ¼” x 7” | 1985
BERLIN UNTER DEN LINDEN II | Pastel on Paper | 13” x 19” | 1947
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BERLIN UNTER DEN LINDEN I | Pastel on Paper | 12 ½” x 19” | 1947
BERLIN | Pastel on Paper | 11 ¾” x 19” | 1947
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SMALL ALLEYWAY IN HEIDELBERG | Pastel on Paper | 9 ½” x 5 ½” | 1985
HAMBURG HARBOR | Pastel on Paper | 13 ½” x 18” | 1947
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HALLE MARKET | Pastel on Paper | 14” x 19” | 1948
WHITE FLEET IN DRESDEN | Pastel on Paper | 13 ¾” x 18 ½” | 1947
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FRAUKE | Pastel on Paper | 17 ¾” x 11 ¾” | 1958
IN THE CAFE | Pastel on Paper | 9” x 13” | 1986
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FORBACH | Pastel on Paper | 6 ¼” x 9 ½” | 1986
HILDESHEIM | Pastel on Paper | 15 ½” x 22” | 1965
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FRANKFURT AM MAIN |Pastel on Paper | 13 ¾” x 19” | 1947
FALKENBURG | Pastel on Paper | 15” x 20” | 1947
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STILL LIFE II | Pastel on Paper | 10” x 17 ¼” | 1960
STILL LIFE | Pastel on Paper | 9 ¾” x 17 ¾” | 1960
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LIEGEND | Tempera on Paper | 12 ½” x 16 ½” | 1960
NUDE ON LILAC | Tempera on Paper | 19 ½” x 27” | 1952
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ARTISTS OF THE GALLERY PAINTING Mohamed Abla Deladier Almeida Michael Azgour Zivana Gojanovich Eberhard H체ckst채dt Thomas Jessen Denis Jully Manzur Kargar Bernd Kirschner Wiebke Kramer Gabriele Lockstaedt Gerd Lieder Heiner Meyer Armin Mueller-Stahl Neil Nagy Heinz Rabbow Thomas Ritter Peter Schettler Doug Smith Karin Voelker Edward Walton Wilcox Rimi Yang PHOTOGRAPHY Karin Szekessy Stefanie Schneider
ESTATES Bob Freimark Clemens Kindling David Schneuer Paul Wunderlich SCULPTURE Baerbel Dieckmann jd hansen John Helton Holger Lassen Siegfried Neuenhausen Stefan Reichmann Christopher Schulz Pierre Schumann Heinz Spilker FINE PRINTS Marc Chagall Corneille Xenia Hausner Rudolf Hausner Joan Miro Pablo Picasso and many more...
Christian and Kaarina Hohmann
ABOUT THE GALLERY CHRISTIAN HOHMANN | FINE ART represents over thirty years of lineage in the art world by the Hart/Hohmann family founded in Germany. Director Christian Hohmann’s parents Werner and Ursula opened their first gallery in 1976 in the cultural tourist destination of Walsrode, which quickly became a success attracting cosmopolitan visitors from all over the world. In 1998, his aunt Eva Hart ventured to the States and opened a gallery in Carmel by the Sea, a premiere address for the California fine art world. She introduced art collectors to the best European contemporary artists, a relatively untapped market in the area, and one in which was found a thriving market. Only two years later the Hart family opened another location in the heart of Chicago. Back in Germany, 19-year old Christian was honing his own career by studying Art History and Economy at the University of Trier. He also spent time working with acclaimed artist Prof. Rudolf Hausner, an important representative of the Viennese School of Fantastic Realism, to publish several important Fine Art Prints. Two years later he opened his first gallery in Hamburg at 21. In 1998 he partnered up with Thomas Levy, one of Germany’s premier art dealers and gallery owners, to open a gallery villa in Hamburg-Poeseldorf. The gallery highlighted artists such as Joan Miro, Marc Chagall, Francis Bacon, and Xenia Hausner and participated in art expos including Art Frankfurt and the prestigious Hamburg Photo Triennale. Three years later, Hohmann collaborated on a project gallery in Berlin-Mitte. In 2002 Eva Hart decided to open a flagship gallery in Palm Desert, CA. Located on the exclusive El Paseo Drive in the renowned playground for the Forbes 400, the gallery played host to visitors from all over the world looking for paradise
weather, perfect golf and tennis and world-class art. Christian joined his aunt as gallery director and went on to facilitate stellar exhibitions from modern classics like Joan Miro, Chagall, and Gabriele Muenter to contemporary artists such as Paul Wunderlich, Eberhard Hückstädt and Karin Voelker. In the summer of 2009, the Harts retired and Christian decided to carry on the family tradition solo with a new 5,000 square feet signature space, also located on El Paseo Drive. Today, Christian Hohmann Fine Art reflects this rich legacy in the art world, which began in Germany over 30 years ago, and now spans across the United States. With a longstanding tradition of presenting both European and national artists of the highest caliber to the discerning collector, the gallery’s strong figurative program is accentuated by diverse offerings in 20th century master works by both familiar and emerging names. The gallery features an exquisite selection of original paintings and sculpture by over 60 unique artists while also representing many artists’ estates and publishing books and catalogs of important work. With a true passion for art, educating the client, and a devotion to its artists, the gallery has garnered a world-class reputation as a sophisticated destination for art.
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Clemens Kindling (1916 - 1992) Š Hohmann Fine Art $20
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