2130 - Kampmann, Walter. The Thinker. Oil on wood. Signed and dated "Kampmann 23" in the lower right corner. Panel dimensions: 55 x 47 cm. Framed: 70.5 x 62.5 cm.

Kampmann, Walter. The Thinker. Oil on wood. Signed and dated "Kampmann 23" in the lower right corner. Panel dimensions: 55 x 47 cm. Framed: 70.5 x 62.5 cm. Thematically and stylistically similar to the 1922 painting “Girl with a Mask” (Berlinische Galerie BG-M 3559/84). Active as a painter, sculptor, and graphic artist, Kampmann lived in Berlin from 1919 onward, where he headed the design class at the Higher Technical School for the Textile and Apparel Industry and became a member of the “November Group” in 1921. In 1932, together with Paul Klee, Max Beckmann, Wassily Kandinsky, Oskar Moll, Georg Muche, and Lyonel Feininger, he founded the artists’ group “Selection,” which was banned in 1933. Between 1921 and 1932, Kampmann exhibited his works at the November Group’s exhibitions as well as at the “Great Berlin Art Exhibition.” After the National Socialists came to power, Kampmann was defamed as an artist of “degenerate art” and withdrew with his family to Rangsdorf. A large portion of his works was destroyed during the bombings of Berlin in World War II. - The wooden support is slightly warped, with dry-cracks and, along the edges, some small chips; the likely original profiled frame made of blackened wood, bearing a sticker from the “Große Berliner Kunstausstellung” on the reverse, is slightly bumped and scuffed. - Provenance: Grisebach (Auction 131 in November 2005), since then in a private Berlin collection.