Picture 21 | Harvard Art Museums

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
Accession Year: 1955
Object Number: BR55.334
Division: Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact: am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions: The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

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

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BR55.334: Picture 21