Heinrich Hoerle

Heinrich Hoerle Trees 1931 Wax crayon on strong paper. 30.5 x 22.8 cm. Framed under glass. Monogrammed and dated 'h 1931' in the center of the right side margin. - At the lower right side margin slight superficial rubbing. Verbally confirmed by Dirk Backes, Aachen. The work is included in the new version of the catalog raisonné Backes/Hanstein. Provenance Private property Rhineland; Lempertz Cologne, Auction 788, Modern Art, June 6/7, 2000, Lot 205; Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia Around 1924, the two painters Heinrich Hoerle and Franz W. Seiwert, who were active in Cologne, broke away from the Dada movement to pursue the path of socially oriented art. As a "group of progressive artists," Hoerle and Seiwert were "adherents of Marxist ideology in its simplest and most original sense, that is, in the elimination of inequality and violence, unification of people of all classes and nations, and abolition of property." (Evelyn Weiss, Von Dadamax zu A - Z - Die Kölner Progressiven der Zwanziger Jahre, in: Ausst. Cat. Kunstverein Frechen 1970, o. p.) Out of socialist impulses, Hoerle wanted an art for people of all classes and saw himself, as he wrote, as a "worker in the service of the exploited." After artistic beginnings in the spirit of New Objectivity, Hoerle arrived at a style that combined constructivist with realistic elements. This connection can also be seen in the offered wax crayon drawing "Trees", in which the strongly abstracted trees that look like chimneys were associated with a red barn. The drawing was made in 1931 at a turning point in Hoerle's work: Apart from the fact that Hoerle had a number of notable successes to his credit, he also made a groundbreaking decision in terms of painting technique. Thus, in that year, he decided to abandon oil painting and instead to paint exclusively with wax crayons. "He used the wax crayons primarily cold. By rubbing them on, they give off a little color. The work is laborious and does not give a quick effect, especially when several layers are to be superimposed so that the other shines through. [...] Hoerle, however, brought the possibilities slumbering in the medium to unheard-of effects through intensive toil." (Hans Schmitt-Rost, Heinrich Hoerle, Recklinghausen 1965, p. 20.). When the biographer writes of "unheard-of effects", this can also be understood in the work "Trees". With the highest precision, the finest lines, and a pronounced sense of color, he created motifs that were in part flat and in part deep, and combined them into a harmonious whole.