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Lot Essay
In 1925 Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart gave a lecture in which for the first time, he publicly expressed his views on 'the absolute'. First of all Vordemberge-Gildewart brushed aside Kandinsky's theory set forth in 'Über das Geistige in der Kunst' because this theory still dealt, according to Vordemberge-Gildewart with a certain "content". Contray to Kandinsky's view, real absolute art does not have a content, he stated. He emphasised that 'the spiritual in art does not exist and the consequence of this is the absolute Gestaltung. For absolute art so-called content and object are totally impossible. He even regarded colour and form, contrast and space (time is also included) as the only content and his conclusion in the end is that 'form alone is dominant, it is no dummy and it has no longer any contact with natural phenomena'. Perhaps the term absolute was chosen somewhat unhappily: the old meaning of the word, disengaged or independent of the visible world, was not really intended: rather what was meant was kind of art with classical qualities such as purity and clarity, visible within reality (D. Helms (ed.), 1990, op.cit, p. 208)
To flea from the dangerous situation in Germany in the late 1930's. Vordemberge Gildewart and his wife Ilse Leda decided to come to Amsterdam. Earlier plans to move to Italy and Switzerland had failed and the contacts he made in the spring of 1938 when he took part in an exhibition entitled Abstracte Kunst in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, seemed helpful. The start in Amsterdam was not an easy one: there they felt isolated, despite the encouragement of the Stedelijk Museum and his connection with a small number of artists and architects in Amsterdam. Sandberg had been an admirer of Vordemberge-Gildewart and it was he who provided a reference to help the artist find his first home in Amsterdam and offered him to do graphic design work for the museum. Vordemberge-Gildewart was not able to exhibit his free paintings and compositions in the Netherlands during the war, but he did exhibit his typographical work.
About the paintings from 1942 Dietrich Helms writes:
'The use of lines passing across the picture suggests a division which from "composition NO. 134/1942' often takes place by breaking down the background into two or more areas of colour. (..) The division is never parallel to the edges, but always slightly on the diagonal. This creates an exchange of movement between two segments of the picture and juxtaposes them in such a way that the colour of the background forms an area with specific tendency to movement, making possible the poise of the individual forms and thereby coupling these areas of differing from one another. (D. Helms, 1990, op.cit, p. 240)
To flea from the dangerous situation in Germany in the late 1930's. Vordemberge Gildewart and his wife Ilse Leda decided to come to Amsterdam. Earlier plans to move to Italy and Switzerland had failed and the contacts he made in the spring of 1938 when he took part in an exhibition entitled Abstracte Kunst in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, seemed helpful. The start in Amsterdam was not an easy one: there they felt isolated, despite the encouragement of the Stedelijk Museum and his connection with a small number of artists and architects in Amsterdam. Sandberg had been an admirer of Vordemberge-Gildewart and it was he who provided a reference to help the artist find his first home in Amsterdam and offered him to do graphic design work for the museum. Vordemberge-Gildewart was not able to exhibit his free paintings and compositions in the Netherlands during the war, but he did exhibit his typographical work.
About the paintings from 1942 Dietrich Helms writes:
'The use of lines passing across the picture suggests a division which from "composition NO. 134/1942' often takes place by breaking down the background into two or more areas of colour. (..) The division is never parallel to the edges, but always slightly on the diagonal. This creates an exchange of movement between two segments of the picture and juxtaposes them in such a way that the colour of the background forms an area with specific tendency to movement, making possible the poise of the individual forms and thereby coupling these areas of differing from one another. (D. Helms, 1990, op.cit, p. 240)