331 - Otto Mueller

Otto Mueller 1874 Liebau, Silesia – 1930 Breslau – "Three Girls in Profile (Three Girls' Heads)" – (1921) Lithograph on paper. 29 x 39 cm, 33.5 x 45.2 cm. Signed lower right: Otto Mueller. The sheet is loose. Slight light discoloration around the edges. Slightly trimmed. Minimal crease on the lower edge. - Lit.: Karsch 111. Otto Mueller was an important representative of German Expressionism and a member of the “Brücke” artists’ group. After training as a lithographer, he continued his education largely as a self-taught artist. From 1908 onward, he lived in Berlin and developed his characteristic style featuring slender figures and subdued colors. Beginning in 1919, he taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Breslau. His works primarily explore the unity of humanity and nature, as well as the life of the Roma. In 1927, he created his significant “Gypsy Portfolio,” consisting of ten color lithographs. Mueller died of pulmonary tuberculosis in 1930. In 1937, the Nazis confiscated many of his works, labeling them “degenerate art.”