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Lot Essay
Although strongly associated with the Surrealist movement, Richard Oelze is a singular figure in history of art of the 20th century. He joined the Bauhaus in Weimar as a student in 1921, where he is said to have attended a paintings course with Paul Klee, yet it was probably the preparatory classes of Johannes Itten (1888-1967) and his mysticism which had a greater influence on him. In 1929, after the forced closure of the Bauhaus, Oelze first moved to Dresden, then Ascona, then Berlin and finally to Paris, where he lived between 1932-36 and made the acquaintance of Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Leonor Fini, Victor Brauner and others. It was in those years that he began to exhibit with the Surrealists. Noteworthy are his participations at the Salon des Sur-Indépendants in 1933 in Paris and the Exposition Minotaure in 1934 in Brussels, followed by the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition at the New Burlington Galleries London, and finally the exhibition Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York under the curatorship of Alfred Barr. It was Barr who in 1940 acquired Oelze's painting Erwartung (1935-36) for the museum. The preparatory drawing for this painting, arguably his best-known work, is in the Hegewisch Collection.
Just as Oelze was gaining some recognition as a painter, World War II - which he spent serving in the German Army as a cartographer - almost put an end to his public career as an artist. After the war, he settled in Worpswede in Northern Germany, living in poverty and near-complete isolation. Only thanks to his partner in later life, Ellida Schargo von Alten, who rescued him from neglect and oblivion, did he engage with the world again. In the 1960s, younger artists including Klaus Hegewisch's friend Horst Janssen were among the first to 'rediscover' Richard Oelze. Once again, the art world took notice of him and he received a number of prestigious awards. His first retrospective at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in 1964 finally established his position as an important, albeit somewhat divergent, protagonist of Surrealism. In the final years of his life he retreated once more into isolation, became too weak to paint and so sensitive to noise and light that he no longer left his house (see C. Hopfengart, Die Söhne des Junggesellen - Richard Oelze - Einzelgänger des Surrealismus, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen, November 2000 - January 2001, pp. 9-14).
The present large drawing of Vogel Fritz is an unusual motif for Oelze who, apart from some exquisite portraits, rarely created singular figures and is mostly known for his mysterious landscapes. Stylistically however, 'Fritz the Bird' is very much as Oelze saw and depicted the world: not as being made of solid shapes and objects, but rather as mirages or clusters of particles temporarily taking on a biomorphic appearance before transforming into something else or disintegrating altogether.
Despite this ethereal quality, there is also something funny and endearing about Fritz, reminiscent of the ceramics created by the Martin Brothers (active 1873 - 1914), a family of English potters particularly known for their grotesque bird figures.
Just as Oelze was gaining some recognition as a painter, World War II - which he spent serving in the German Army as a cartographer - almost put an end to his public career as an artist. After the war, he settled in Worpswede in Northern Germany, living in poverty and near-complete isolation. Only thanks to his partner in later life, Ellida Schargo von Alten, who rescued him from neglect and oblivion, did he engage with the world again. In the 1960s, younger artists including Klaus Hegewisch's friend Horst Janssen were among the first to 'rediscover' Richard Oelze. Once again, the art world took notice of him and he received a number of prestigious awards. His first retrospective at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in 1964 finally established his position as an important, albeit somewhat divergent, protagonist of Surrealism. In the final years of his life he retreated once more into isolation, became too weak to paint and so sensitive to noise and light that he no longer left his house (see C. Hopfengart, Die Söhne des Junggesellen - Richard Oelze - Einzelgänger des Surrealismus, exh. cat., Kunsthalle Bremen, November 2000 - January 2001, pp. 9-14).
The present large drawing of Vogel Fritz is an unusual motif for Oelze who, apart from some exquisite portraits, rarely created singular figures and is mostly known for his mysterious landscapes. Stylistically however, 'Fritz the Bird' is very much as Oelze saw and depicted the world: not as being made of solid shapes and objects, but rather as mirages or clusters of particles temporarily taking on a biomorphic appearance before transforming into something else or disintegrating altogether.
Despite this ethereal quality, there is also something funny and endearing about Fritz, reminiscent of the ceramics created by the Martin Brothers (active 1873 - 1914), a family of English potters particularly known for their grotesque bird figures.