28 - Hans Purrmann

Hans Purrmann Selbstbildnis 1953 Oil on canvas. 87.4 x 73.5 cm. Framed. Signed 'H. Purrmann' in blue lower right. - In very fine condition. Minimal frame-related abrasion at the very edge. Lenz/Billeter 1953/23 The painting is registered in the Hans Purrmann Archive under no. 26. Provenance Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft; on loan to the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, Inv. Nr. GK 925 (labels and engraved metal plaque verso) Exhibitions Frankfurt a. M. 1954 (Haus des deutschen Kunsthandwerks), 4. Ausstellung Deutscher Künstlerbund, no. 163 (frame label verso); Bamberg 1954 (Neue Residenz), Ankäufe, Stiftungen, Stipendien: Kulturkreis im Bundesverband der deutschen Industrie e.V., n. no.; Recklinghausen 1955 (Städtische Kunsthalle), Das Bild des Menschen in Meisterwerken europäischer Kunst, no. 133; Rio de Janeiro 1960 (Museo de Arte Moderna), Arte alemâ desde 1945, no. 183 (frame label verso); Cologne 1961 (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum), Ars viva '61, cat. no. 60; Munich 1962 (Haus der Kunst), Hans Purrmann, cat. no. 81, with ill. no. 39 (label on strtcher verso); Baden-Baden 1962 (Staatliche Kunsthalle), Hans Purrmann, cat. no. 81, with ill. no. 39; Kaiserslautern 1965 (Pfalzgalerie), Hans Purrmann zum 85. Geburtstag am 10. April 1965, Bildnisse aus sechs Jahrzehnten, no. 30; Darmstadt 1974 (Hessisches Landesmuseum), no. 17; Mainz 1980 (Mittelrheinisches Landesmuseum), Hans Purrmann zum 100. Geburtstag, no. 67, with colour ill. (frame label verso); Bonn 1987/88 (Bundeskanzleramt), Der Maler Hans Purrmann. Speyer 1880-1966 Basel, p. 5, with colour ill. (label verso on frame backing); Mainz 1988 (Landesmuseum), Der Maler Hans Purrmann. Speyer 1880-1966 Basel, p. 5, with colour ill.; Luxemburg 1988 (Cercle Municipal), Der Maler Hans Purrmann. Speyer 1880-1966 Basel, p. 5, with colour ill.; Bremen 1995/96 (Gerhard-Marcks-Haus), Im Licht der Farbe. Hans Purrmann. Stilleben, Akte, Interieurs, p. 131, with colour ill. (label verso on frame backing) Literature Jahresring. Ein Schnitt durch Literatur und Kunst der Gegenwart, Nr. 1 (hrsg. u.a. von Erhard Göpel), S. 184b; Hans Purrmann, Landschaft und Stilleben, Baden-Baden 1960, S. 2; Ars viva '61, Köln 1961, Katalog-Nr. 60 (gem. Etikett verso auf dem originalen Rahmen); Gotthard Jedlicka, Hans Purrmann. Festrede anläßlich der Eröffnung der Münchener Ausstellung (1962), Mainz 1964, S. 20. We interpret this work, created in 1953 (following 15 self-portraits since 1950), as the artistic culmination of the self-portrait series. While Christian Lenz viewed them as psychograms (see: Lenz, Hans Purrmann, "Im Kräftespiel der Farben", Munich 2006, p. 38f.), we do not read this particular painting psychologically. All self-portraits present a bust-length image of the painter, always with his left shoulder turned forward in such a way that viewers see his left arm and that his head, which is turned to the left, gazes out from the picture while his right shoulder disappears from view. What makes our painting special is the way that Purrmann “plays” with the primary colours red, yellow and blue as well as the secondary colours green and orange. A rather large passage on the left made up of yellow and red stripes responds to his dark-blue suit. In turn, the passage of green stripes on the right as well as the orange on the left and right in the lower portion of the painting respond to this group of primary colours. The vertical stripes frame the painter’s face. In addition to the chromatic composition, which is far removed from any realistic setting, Purrmann alludes to the process of painting also by showing himself for the first time explicitly as a painter, with a palette in his right hand. His free left arm is, if you imagine him painting his mirror image, in reality the right arm of the presumably right-handed artist. The painting is thus to be seen more as Purrmann’s reflection on himself as a painter composing and painting himself rather than as a psychogram.