208 - FRIEDRICH SCHRÖDER SONNENSTERN

FRIEDRICH SCHRÖDER SONNENSTERN (1892 Kaukehmen (East Prussia) – 1982 Berlin) Bat Demon, 1958 Wax crayon on "Schoellershammer" 4G thick (dry stamp). 51 x 73 cm. Framed under glass. Signed in lead at the lower right with an additional artist’s monogram, dated, and titled on the left “Der Fledermaus-Dämon aller seelischen Umspannungen” (The Bat Demon of All Spiritual Transformations). Signature and artist’s monogram on the reverse. For many years, Friedrich Schröder Sonnenstern was mistakenly regarded as a representative of Art Brut, but today he is classified as part of the so-called Outsider Art movement, which is not entirely easy to define. Almost all of his works are created in wax crayon or colored pencil, in strict symmetry and featuring his own mythological characters, whom he identifies as moral authorities in extensive titles. In 1959, his works were on view at the International Surrealist Exhibition in Paris. This drawing thrives on the contradiction of its medium. Rainbows, clouds, and circles of color belong to the vocabulary of childlike drawing, yet the figure bears horns, snakes, and blood, and at the center of its wheel of the world stands the symbol of death. The demon thus appears less as a terrifying figure than as a coat of arms—the authority that watches over the “psychic transformations” evoked by Schröder Sonnenstern.