Lot Essay
1949 was a year of prodigious activity for Fritz Winter - a year in which he picked up the threads of a career that had been halted in 1944 with his internship as a prisoner of war. Winter's works from 1949 have traditionally been seen as marking a new beginning. It was through these works that Winter began to develop the logic of lyrical abstract painting that came to characterise his work of the early 1950s. However, in many ways, and despite the hiatus of the war, Winter's 1949 pictures can also be seen to be a direct continuation of his seminal series of works the Triebkräfte der Erde (Driving forces of the Earth) of 1944.
Like the present work, most of Winter's paintings from 1949 were painted in oil on board or paper. This allowed the artist to attain a particular translucent effect, and gave a certain natural feel to the rhythmic forms of his pictures. It is an effect not dissimilar from Winter's play with light that had obsessed him through the 1930s and came to play such an important part in the Triebkräfte der Erde paintings.
Like the present work, most of Winter's paintings from 1949 were painted in oil on board or paper. This allowed the artist to attain a particular translucent effect, and gave a certain natural feel to the rhythmic forms of his pictures. It is an effect not dissimilar from Winter's play with light that had obsessed him through the 1930s and came to play such an important part in the Triebkräfte der Erde paintings.