1168 - Leo Tilgner, abstracted composition with building, Expressionism, probably 1920s

Leo Tilgner, abstracted composition with building, Expressionism, probably 1920s (1892 Gelsenkirchen – 1971 Wetter an der Ruhr), woodcut/paper, mounted on a backing, signed in pencil lower right “Leo Tilgner”, monogrammed in the block “LT”, inscribed lower left (not deciphered), probably 1920s, strongly abstracted composition, on the left a tall form branching out towards the top, upper right curved band-like forms, in the centre a building with two narrow window openings, in the dark foreground a bundle of curved forms with light ends, condition commensurate with age, browned, edges torn, image 15x11 cm (HxW), behind glass, framed, overall 34.5x25.5 cm (HxW) Leo Tilgner was born in Gelsenkirchen in 1892 and died in Wetter an der Ruhr in 1971. The Westphalian printmaker worked above all in woodcut and linocut; in 1919/1920 his portfolio “Schnitte und Zeichnungen” appeared, later the private print “Jans röhr es” with twenty signed woodcuts and in 1948 the series “Exlibris und Gelegenheitsgrafik”. His prints were represented in the almanacs of the Greifenverlag, the “Schwarzen Greif” for 1925 and the “Greifenkalender 1926”. A woodcut by Tilgner from circa 1924 is held in the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which thereby assigns his work to German Expressionism.