Woodcut - Signed - 230 - without frame - 1924

Walter Dexel (1890-1973) „Composition“ from La Lune en Rodage III

Medium: Woodcut
Material: Paper
Dimensions: 17 x 13.8 cm
Editor: Edition Panderma, Basel
Year: Cut in 1924 / published 1977
Edition: This is an unnumbered copy of 230 editions (65 hors commerce were unnumbered)
Signature: Signed and dated/titled „24 II“ in pencil

Provenance:
Edition Panderma, Carl Laszlo, Basel
Galerie von Bartha, Basel
Private Collection, Basel

Condition / Restauration:
mint archival condition

Further Information:
A rare limited edition of the portable collection of post-war and contemporary art La Lune en Rodage III. This is an unnumbered copy of 230 editions (65 hors commerce were unnumbered) and part of the third serie of the La Lune en Rodage books. La Lune en Rodage was published in three volumes in 1960, 1965 and 1977 containing a total of approximately 180 art pieces which provide an account of the artistic avant-garde scene between the 1950s and 1970s. The art works were gathered by Carl Laslzo and included the greatest artists of the time who contributed with important pieces, often marking a turning point in their production and carriers: Enrico Castellani’s work for example is his first documented graphic work and Piero Manzoni's multiple Achrome is the only one produced by the artist.

Biography:
Walter Dexel, born in 1890 in Munich and died in 1973 in Braunschweig, was a German art historian, exhibition maker, theorist, writer, and, above all, one of the proponents of Constructivism in painting and graphic design. Between 1910 and 1914, Dexel studied archeology and art history at the University of Munich, with Heinrich Wölfflin and Botho Graef among his teachers. Interested not only in theory, but also in practice of fine arts, Dexel conducted numerous study trips to Italy and Paris, which would have greatly influenced his early work with the spirit of post-impressionism and cubism. After the First World War, Dexel worked as an exhibition commissioner at the Kunstverein in Jena. Then, curating the group show on Constructivism, he immersed himself in the movement also as an artist. After 1933, in the time he had lectured at the School of Arts and Crafts in Magdeburg, his work was defined as "degenerate" by the Third Reich regime, thus the artist was forbidden from teaching, exhibiting, and creating. Later on, he abandoned painting for several years (until 1961), remaining active as a writer and publisher. Throughout the years, his body of work has been included in a flurry of individual and collective exhibitions, such as "Word and Image" (1968) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, "Revolution and Realism" (1978) at the Altes Museum in Berlin, and "Expressionist Utopias" (1993) at the LACMA in Los Angeles, all of which solidified his place among the most significant artists of his time.