Immo

Details

Konrad Cramer (1888-1963)
Immo
signed and dated 'Konrad Cramer./11. 1928.' (lower right)--inscribed with title (in the composition)
oil and pencil on board
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm.)

Provenance

Daughter of the artist.
Sid Deutsch Gallery, New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1999.

Literature

F. Riehlman, T. Wolf, Konrad Cramer: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, 1981, pp. 16, 58, no. 22, pl. 21, illustrated.
T. Wolf, Konrad Cramer: His Art and His Context, Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1984, p. 104, no. 168, illustrated.
Sid Deutsch Gallery, Late Nineteenth & Twentieth-Century American Masters, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1989, p. 25.
Sid Deutsch Gallery, American Cubism, 1909-1949, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1992, p. 5.
Boca Raton Museum of Art, American Modernism: Paintings from the Dr. and Mrs. Mark S. Kauffman Collection, exhibition catalogue, Boca Raton, Florida, 2003, pp. 28-29, 68, no. 15, illustrated.

Exhibited

Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, Bard College, E.C. Blum Art Institute, and elsewhere, Konrad Cramer: A Retrospective, November 21, 1981-January 24, 1982.
New York, Sid Deutsch Gallery, Late Nineteenth & Twentieth-Century American Masters, October 1989.
Boca Raton, Florida, Boca Raton Museum of Art, and elsewhere, American Modernism: Paintings from the Dr. and Mrs. Mark S. Kauffman Collection, November 19, 2003-January 18, 2004.
Tampa, Florida, Tampa Museum of Art, American Modernism from the Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Mark S. Kauffman, January 8-February 27, 2011.

Brought to you by

Bridget Young

byoung@christies.com +1 212 636 2140

Lot Essay

After his arrival in the United States in 1913, Konrad Cramer established his reputation as a cubist painter fusing his German European background with American culture and industry. "Immo"...a painting that demonstrates that Cramer could use an established modernist style to express his personal imagery. The style adeptly mimics Picasso's and Braque's paintings of 1911-12 with its earth tones, dissolving planes and tantalizing fragments of words. The letters "Immo" and "ty," suggest "immorality" or "immortality," or perhaps an interpenetration of the two,." (T. Wolf, "Konrad Cramer: His Art and His Context," Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1984, p. 104.) The latent sexual innuendos and iconography, including the female leg and garter, the hint of pink lingerie and the nude figure in the lower right quadrant support the suggestion of immorality as the overwhelming theme.

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