- 38
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart)
Description
- Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart
- K. No.109
- oil on canvas
- 80 by 60 cm.
- Painted in 1938.
Provenance
Annely Juda Fine Art, London
Stanford Rothschild jr. Collection, Baltimore
Exhibited
The Hague, Koninklijke Kunstzaal Kleykamp, Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1938
St. Gallen, Galerie im Erker, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1970
Mannheim, Stadtische Kunsthalle, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1970
New York, La Boetie Gallery, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1971
Milan, Galleria Milano, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1972
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, Vordemberge-Gildewart. Retrospective 1924-1962, 1972
Basel, Galerie Liatowitsch, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1973
Paris, Galerie Jean Chauvelin, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1974
Zurich, Galerie Rene Ziegler, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart. Bilder und Collagen. Werke 1924-1962, 1974-1975
Geneva, Galerie Ziegler SA, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1975
Ulm, Ulmer Museum, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1975
Münster, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, 1975
Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Réalites Nouvelles 2e Exposition, 1939
Cologne, Galerie Reckermann, Friedrich Vordemberge -Gildewart -Adolf Fleischmann, 1975-1976
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, The Non- Objective World, Twenty -Five Years 1914-1939, 1978
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, Line and Movement, 1979
Literature
W. Rotzler (text), Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, Annely Juda Fine Art, London 1972, illustrated
Galerie Jean Chauvelin, Paris 1974, illustrated
Lucia Moholy (text), Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, Galerie René Ziegler, Zurich 1974-75, Geneva 1975
Line and Movement, Annely Juda Fine Art, London 1979, illustrated
Dietrich Helms, Vordemberge-Gildewart, The complete works, Munich 1990, no. K109, p. 288, illustrated
Catalogue Note
Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart studied in Hanover and worked from the beginning as an abstract artist. His first real abstract work dates from 1922. In the early 1920s Germany was a centre of avant-garde. In 1929 Vordemberge-Gildewart formed the “Gruppe K” and at a later stage on instigation of Kurt Schwitters he became member of the “Äbstraction Hanover”, with César Domela as a corresponding member in Berlin.
The idea about concrete art that Theo van Doesburg formulated in his manifesto in 1930 seems similar with Vordemberge- Gildewart’s idea about the absolute. In 1937, after his work has been exhibited in the Degenarate Art exhibition in Berlin he left Germany for Switzeland.
In 1938 Vordemberge-Gildewart moves to Amsterdam. Introduced by Theo and especially Nelly van Doeburg he gets in contact with Willem Sandberg, curator of the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum. In a letter dated 15th December 1937 Nelly van Doesburg breaks a lance for the younger artists: 'Ik ben er zeer voor dat vooral de jongeren erbij hooren, om het publiek tel laten zien, dat het werkelijk nog niet afgelopen is met de abstracte kunst'. In the same letter she mentions especially the British artists Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore but also the artists of the younger generation as Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, Max Bill and Alexannder Calder and this would eventually result in the exhibition Abstracte Kunst of April 1938 (see illustration).
K.No.109 dates from 1938 and one tendency that can be seen in the work is the emphasis on using the background as an integral part of the composition by reducing the size of the large, heavy forms, linear divisions and directional references. The painting is typical for the works he made in “his early Dutch period” in which he uses a scheme of various triangles different in weight, strength, delicacy and effect and a line to create a light, freely suspended equilibrium within the space of the picture.