Werner Drewes

MODERN/POST-WAR

WERNER DREWES

WERNER DREWES

AMERICAN, 1899 - 1985

Werner Drewes (1899–1985) -considered one of the founding fathers of American abstraction - was one of the first artists to introduce concepts of the Bauhaus school within the United States. Trained as an architect at the Bauhaus, and studying with artists such as Paul Klee, Drewes merged concerns with art, craft, and functionalism with Synthetic Cubism in his early work, blending drawing and careful design in highly controlled abstractions. The rigorous design of these images evokes architecture and household objects in the manner of Cubism, but he would later turn towards a freer and more complete abstraction, drawing influence from Wassily Kandinsky.

In 1930, Drewes moved from Germany to the United States. From 1934 to 1936, Drewes taught at the Brooklyn Museum under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project. In 1936, the year he became an American citizen, Drewes joined the American Artists Congress, exhibited at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and helped found the American Abstract Artists group. A member of the faculty at Columbia University in New York from 1937 to 1940, Drewes also served as director of graphic art for the WPA Federal Art Project in New York. In 1946 he joined the faculty of the School of Fine Arts at Washington University in St. Louis, where he remained until 1965. Drewes retired in 1965 and moved to Reston, Virginia, where he remained active as an artist until his death in 1985.

PARACHUTING, 1934

OIL ON CANVAS 24 ¼ X 32 INCHES DATED AND INSCRIBED WITH THE ARTIST’S PEACE SIGN SYMBOL LOWER LEFT

PROVENANCE:

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF PROFESSOR CORNELIUS OSGOOD AND SOO SUI-LING OSGOOD

CRYSTALLIC GREEN, 1948

OIL ON CANVAS 35 X 27 INCHES SIGNED LOWER RIGHT

PROVENANCE: KLEEMANN GALLERIES, NEW YORK PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF PROFESSOR CORNELIUS OSGOOD AND SOO SUI-LING OSGOOD

COMP 134, RED IN RED, 1936

OIL ON CANVAS

24 X 32 INCHES

DATED & INSCRIBED WITH THE ARTIST’S PEACE SIGN SYMBOL LOWER RIGHT

PROVENANCE:

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF PROFESSOR CORNELIUS OSGOOD AND SOO SUI-LING OSGOOD

SONG OF THE ENGINE ROOM, 1949-50

OIL ON CANVAS 32 X 36 INCHES SIGNED LOWER RIGHT

PROVENANCE: PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF PROFESSOR CORNELIUS OSGOOD AND SOO SUI-LING OSGOOD

MOMENTUM, 1981

OIL ON CANVAS 30 X 44 INCHES SIGNED LOWER LEFT

PROVENANCE: THE ARTIST; GARY SNYDER FINE ART, NY PRIVATE COLLECTION, NY

GROWNING INSTABILITY, 1974

OIL ON CANVAS 30 X 34 INCHES SIGNED LOWER LEFT

PROVENANCE: THE ARTIST: PRIVATE COLLECTION, NY

ISLANDS IN THE CLOUDS, 1942

OIL ON CANVAS

25 X 35 INCHES

34.5 X 44 INCHES FRAMED

SIGNED LOWER RIGHT

PROVENANCE:

NIERNDORF GALLERY, NEW YORK. MEREDITH LONG & COMPANY, HOUSTON, TEXAS. ZOLLA LIEBERMAN GALLERIES, INC., CHICAGO. ACQUIRED FROM THE ABOVE BY THE PRESENT OWNER, 1993.

EXHIBITED: NEW YORK, THE MUSEUM OF NONOBJECTIVE PAINTING [SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM], 1942.

UNTITLED (#391), 1944

OIL ON CANVAS

18 1/4 X 21 INCHES DATED WITH ARTIST’S DEVICE ‘44’ LOWER RIGHT

PROVENANCE: THE ARTIST. ACQUIRED BY THE PRESENT OWNER FROM THE ABOVE.

LOOSE CONTACT, 1938

OIL ON CANVAS 38 1/2 X 42 INCHES SIGNED AT LOWER LEFT, DATED WITH INSIGNIA LOWER RIGHT

PROVENANCE:

MEREDITH LONG & COMPANY, HOUSTON, TX (LABEL VERSO) PRIVATE COLLECTION, CHICAGO, IL

EXHIBITED: THEME AND IMPROVISATION: KANDINSKY AND THE AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE, 1912-1950, PHILIPS COLLECTION, WASHINGTON, DC; DAYTON ART INSTITUTE, OHIO; TERRA MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART, CHICAGO, IL; AMON CARTER MUSEUM, TEXAS, SEPTEMBER 1992 - AUGUST 1993 (LABEL VERSO).

FIGHT, 1945

OIL ON CANVAS

18 X 12 INCHES

SIGNED LOWER RIGHT, DATED VERSO, NUMBER #340

PROVENANCE: THE ARTIST, ACA GALLERIES. THE ESTATE OF LARRY CASPER, PAST PRESIDENT OF THE APPRAISERS ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA.

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