Inner Tropical Sea

Werner Drewes initially studied architecture before enrolling, in the early 1920s, at the Bauhaus under the tutelage of Klee, Kandinsky and Feininger. The artist emigrated to the United States in 1930, seeking to escape from the political upheaval in Germany. He was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists and participated in the Federal Arts Project in New York before taking on a teaching position at Washington University in St. Louis. As an artist for over sixty five years, he employed various media from drawing and watercolor, through woodcut and etching, to painting and collage. Drewes moved easily between pure abstraction and expressionistic figuration, translating potent artistic forms to express powerful emotions. His works have been widely exhibited in prominent art institutions including Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian Institution, Whitney Museum of American Art and Museum of modern Art, New York.