MOLZAHN, JOHANNES
1892 Duisburg–1965 Munich

Title: "Somersault".
Date: 1942.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 101 x 86.5 cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower right: Johs. Molzahn 42. Inscribed and titled verso lower left: JOHANNES MOLZAHN 1942, NEW YORK "SOMERSAULT". Above this, numbered: 19. On the stretcher with the stamp of Johannes Molzahn Centrum.



Provenance:
- - Estate Johannes Molzahn

- Private collection Kassel

- Estate Johannes Molzahn Centrum, Kassel


Exhibition:
- School of Design, Chicago 1943

- Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna 1973

- Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz 1973, cat. no. 29

- Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, 1974, cat. no. 49

- Obere Galerie - Haus am Lützowpark, Berlin 1984

- Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg 1988


Literature:
- Gries, Christian: Johannes Molzahn (1892-1965) und der ‘Kampf um die Kunst’ in Deutschland der Weimarer Republik (Anhang: Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde von Johannes Molzahn), Diss. Universität Augsburg 1996, cat. rais. no. 253 A, ill.

- Schade, Herbert: Johannes Molzahn, Munich/Zürich 1972, p. 8

- Exhib. cat. Johannes Molzahn - Gemälde und Grafik, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz 1973, cat. no. 29

- Exhib. cat. Johannes Molzahn, Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg 1974, cat. no. 49

- Schwarzwaelder, Rose-Marie: Johannes Molzahn, in: Schlesien. Eine Vierteljahresschrift für Kunst, Wissenschaft und Volkstum, vol. 19, 1974, no. 1 (here incorrectly dated)

- Exhib. cat. Johannes Molzahn, Obere Galerie - Haus am Lützowpark, Berlin 1984, p. 13

- Exhib. cat. Johannes Molzahn. Das malerische Werk, Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg 1988, cat. no. 58, p. 97, 138



- Late work with a dynamic, seemingly infinite illusion of space

- From the artist's estate and offered on the art market for the first time

- The element of movement is skillfully staged in the painting by consciously cancelling gravity



Johannes Molzahn’s painting, with the unusual title “Somersault”, fits seamlessly into his body of work. Thematically, the work is linked to depictions of performers, such as jugglers and contortionists, in which themes of physical acrobatics, vitality and balance are evident.

The work refers to his early creative phase, which was characterised by a pronounced interest in futuristic themes such as speed, mechanical locomotion and, in particular, flight and aeroplane motifs, which reappear in abstract form in this painting.

The three figures depicted oscillate between technological and mythological connotations: their triangularly constructed limbs appear simultaneously as mechanical rotor structures and as organic-looking, wing-like beings. Here, Molzahn condenses the sequence of movements in the somersault into a simultaneous representation of kinetic energy.

The sense of lightness inherent in the physical experience of the somersault is rendered pictorially through the deliberate suspension of gravity. The grid-like background creates a vibrating shimmer across the picture plane and contributes to the partial dissolution of a stable spatial orientation, without negating it entirely.

The remaining spatial order is marked in particular by the shadows cast by the figures, which define an implicit ground plane above which the bodies appear to float. Only in isolated instances do individual body parts overlap, contributing to the further layering of the pictorial space.

The painter Johannes Molzahn breaks down the classical illusion of depth and expands the pictorial space through fragmented overlays of pictorial planes.



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#Johannes Molzahn #Expressionism #Abstraction #Germany #Modern Art #Oil #1940s #Post War.







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