Georg Scholz

Dr. Theodor Kiefer, Kaiserslautern (probably acquired from the artist; until at least 1980)

Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau

Galerie Brockstedt, Hamburg

Galerie Michael Hasenclever, Munich

Marvin & Janet Fishman, Milwaukee (acquired from the above by 1990. Sold: Sotheby's, London, The Marvin & Janet Fishman Collection: German Art from Expressionism to Resistance, 18th October 2000, lot 48)

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Berlin, Novembergruppe, Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung, 1919, no. 1258

Karlsruhe, Galerie des Bezirksverband Bildender Künstler, Realistische Kunst der 20er Jahre in Karlsruhe, 1980, no. 140, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Nächtlicher Schrei)

Waldkirch, Georg-Scholz-Haus, Georg Scholz, Malerei, Zeichnung, Druckgraphik, 1990, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Milwaukee, Art Museum; Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Photographie und Architektur; Frankfurt-am-Main, Schirn Kunsthalle; Emden, Kunsthalle, Stiftung Henri Nannen; New York, The Jewish Museum; Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum & Atlanta, The High Museum, The Marvin and Janet Fishman Collection: Art in Germany 1909-1936. From Expressionism to Resistance, 1990-92, no. 137, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne & Barcelona, Centre de Cultura Contemporània, Visions Urbaines/Visiones Urbanas. Europa 1870-1993, 1994, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

The Hague, Museum Paleis Lange Voorhout; Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts; Gent, Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon; Stockholm, Liljevalchs Konsthall & Helsinki, Helsingin Taidenhalli, Art et Résistance. Les Peintres allemands de l'entre-deux-guerres - La Collection Marvin et Janet Fishman, 1995-96, no. 142, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Venice, Palazzo Grassi, German Expressionism: Art and Society, 1997-98, no. 96, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Munich, Haus der Kunst, Die Nacht, 1998-99, no. 339, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Karlsruhe, Städtische Galerie, Die 20er Jahre in Karlsruhe, 2005-06, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Matthias Politycki, Taifun über Kyoto, Hamburg, 1993, detail illustrated in colour on the cover

Ronald J. Comer, Abnormal Psychology, New York, 1995, illustrated in colour p. 182

Tom Kristensen, Hærværk, Copenhagen, 1998, illustrated in colour on the cover

Dennis Crockett, German Post-Expressionism: The Art of the Great Disorder 1918-1924, Pennsylvania, 1999, fig. 90, illustrated p. 117

Felicia H. Sternfeld, Georg Scholz, Monographie und Werkverzeichnis, Frankfurt, 2004, no. 20, illustrated p. 479

Georg Scholz served in the First World War from the summer of 1915 until 1918,
and was wounded just a few months before its end. Painted in 1919, the present
work reflects the horror and suffering he had witnessed during the war, as well as
the violence and oppression during the years that followed in struggling Weimar
Germany. No doubt inspired by the quintessential Expressionist image, Edvard
Munch’s The Scream (fig. 1), Nächtlicher Lärm employs expressive, contrasted
colours and sharp, violent shapes to convey the depth of human suffering and terror.

Whilst Munch presents a more universal, existentialist image of the human
condition, Scholz’s Nächtlicher Lärm is deeply rooted in the specific historical and
political reality of the period. The night-time setting metaphorically depicts the
artist’s psychological state, its silence violently pierced by the cry that emanates from
the figure’s mouth and spreads out to embrace the entire space of the composition.
Employing sharp edges and dynamic forms influenced by Futurist art, Scholz
transforms his darkest emotions of fear into a powerful and striking composition.