Auction: 13 days
As of May 28, 2026
WINTER, FRITZ
1905 Altenbögge–1976 Herrsching
Title: "Blüten".
Date: 1959.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 80 x 90 cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower right: FWinter 59. Verso titled, inscribed, signed and dated in the centre: BLÜTEN für W FWinter 59. Also inscribed here by another hand.
Provenance:
- - G. Kellerhals Collection, Frankfurt a. M.
- Private collection Denmark
Literature:
- Lohberg, Gabriele: Fritz Winter - Leben und Werk, mit Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde und einem Anhang der sonstigen Techniken, Munich 1986, cat. rais. no. 2247, ill.
- Winter is regarded as a leading exponent of Informel and post-war abstraction
- In the same year, Winter was represented at the documenta in Kassel
- Highly contrasting composition with an expressive style
Fritz Winter’s artistic development was shaped by encounters with numerous significant artistic figures of the twentieth century. Born as the eldest of eight children to a miner, Winter himself initially worked underground from the age of fourteen before, at the encouragement of his drawing teacher, applying to the Bauhaus in Dessau. There, he studied under Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer and Paul Klee.
In 1929, he met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner for the first time, with whom he subsequently maintained a close friendship. During the early 1930s, museums began acquiring his works. In the late 1930s, however, his works were included in the exhibition Degenerate Art (Entartete Kunst), with some being destroyed. He was prohibited from painting and exhibiting and was eventually conscripted into military service, first deployed in Poland and later in the Soviet Union. Following a serious injury, during his recovery in 1944 he created the cycle of works The Driving Forces of the Earth (Die Triebkräfte der Erde), which today occupies a key position within post-war abstract art.
In the present work Blüten (Blossoms) from 1959, Winter’s cyclical method of working becomes evident. Early on, he distanced himself from the strict formal language of the Bauhaus and began experimenting with different pictorial elements. In doing so, he repeatedly revisited earlier forms, expanding and transforming them. Unlike many of his contemporaries working in abstraction, Winter never completely abandoned representational references. In the present work, the underlying motif of a floral still life can still be discerned
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