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An abstract painting of soft forms and sharply defined geometric shapes.

The painting is composed of round edged forms and sharply defined squares and rectangles. Large squares and rectangles in dark tones of green, gray and purple surround a center shape made of planes of yellow, bright red, off white and white squares, rounded forms, and angled areas of green and light red.

Gallery Text

An exhibition assistant to Herwarth Walden, an early supporter of expressionism in his Berlin gallery Der Sturm (The Storm), Muche was exposed as a young man to the work of cubist painters and expressionists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and Alexei von Jawlensky. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Muche thus began his career working in an abstract idiom. By 1915, his paintings featured hard-edged outlines with shaded, bright colors reminiscent of architectural elements. The artist later understood these techniques as necessary to his effort to free himself from established compositional strictures; they formed the basis of his later work as a painter and self-made architect.

The year following its completion, this painting was exhibited alongside twenty-one other Muche works in a joint show with Max Ernst at the Der Sturm gallery. Muche was appointed a teacher at Walden’s art school shortly thereafter, and left Berlin in 1920 for the newly founded Bauhaus, where he taught until 1927.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
BR55.334
People
Georg Muche, German (Querfurt, Germany 1895 - 1987 Lindau, Germany)
Title
Picture 21
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Bild 21
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1915
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/223782

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas, mounted to wood
Dimensions
74.6 x 74.9 cm (29 3/8 x 29 1/2 in.)
framed: 79.5 x 79.7 x 3.2 cm (31 5/16 x 31 3/8 x 1 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: inscribed at l.r.: GMuche / 15
  • inscription: In charcoal on back of canvas: G Muche Bild/21

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Private collection, Germany, sold; [E. Weyhe Gallery, New York], sold; to Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1955.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, G. David Thompson Fund and unrestricted income
Copyright
© Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin
Accession Year
1955
Object Number
BR55.334
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Exhibition History

  • Color and Form 1909-1914, Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego, San Diego, 11/19/1971 - 06/30/1972; Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 11/19/1971 - 06/30/1972; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, 11/19/1971 - 06/30/1972; University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 11/19/1971 - 06/30/1972
  • 19th- and 20th-Century Paintings and Sculpture from the Museum's Collection, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/11/1980 - 08/31/1980
  • Art of the Weimar Era, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 04/05/1982 - 05/22/1982
  • German Painting 1760-1960: A New Installation, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 12/20/1983 - 02/19/1984
  • 32Q: 1500 Art in Germany Between the Wars (Expressionism-Interwar), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 03/13/2023

Subjects and Contexts

  • The Bauhaus

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu