Edmund Kesting (1892-1970) - Kreuztragung

The auction features an abstract composition on laid paper by the significant German artist Edmund Kesting from 1919, here from the 1960s/1970s, in the style of Constructivism. The sheet size is 34.5 x 48 cm and the image motif 15 x 13 cm.

The woodcut is signed with the artist’s stamp. The limited edition of the 1919 woodcut—here numbered 87—of 100 copies was issued in the 1960s/70s. The condition is excellent; at the top left edge there is a minor crease (see photo).

There is another Kesting print in a parallel auction as well as other German Constructivists (BUCHHOLZ and MAATSCH).

VITA EDMUND KESTING (Source: excerpts from Wikipedia)

Edmund Kesting (born July 27, 1892 in Dresden; died October 21, 1970 in Birkenwerder) was a German painter, graphic artist, photographer and art educator. He is counted among the representatives of Informal painting.

In 1919 Kesting founded the private art school Der Weg – Schule für Gestaltung. In 1921 he met Herwarth Walden and began to work vigorously.

From 1920 onwards, constructivist works and cut collages emerged. He produced oil paintings, watercolors and gouaches. In 1922 Kesting married his pupil Gerda Müller. He maintained close contacts with avant-garde artists such as Kurt Schwitters, László Moholy-Nagy, El Lissitzky, Alexander Archipenko and others. Schwitters’ works particularly impressed Kesting. From 1923 he participated in exhibitions of the “Sturm” circle.

From about 1925 he became more intensely involved with photography. He experimented with experimental photographic techniques such as multiple exposures, photograms and negative montages; for this he used cameras with large ground-glass formats. In 1926 the Berlin school Der Weg was founded and the Society of Sturm Friends in Dresden was established. Kesting was now internationally successful. He took part in exhibitions in Moscow and New York. The Museum of Modern Art acquired cut collages by him. At the beginning of the early 1930s he joined the German Work Federation (Deutscher Werkbund). In 1931 Edmund Kesting co-founded with Erich Fraaß and Bernhard Kretschmar the Neue Dresdener Sezession.

After the Nazis seized power, he became an obligate member of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts. In 1933 his house faced searches; Kesting subsequently destroyed some of his works. In the following years he worked as a commercial photographer for photo and car companies. He managed to participate in exhibitions up to 1936, but then received a ban on work and exhibitions, which did not affect his photography.

In 1937, twelve of his pictures from public collections were documented to have been confiscated and destroyed as part of the nationwide coordinated action “Entartete Kunst.”

Together with Karl von Appen, Helmut Schmidt-Kirstein, Hans Christoph and others, Kesting founded the artists’ group “der ruf – befreite Kunst” in Dresden after the end of the Nazi dictatorship in 1945. In 1945/46, following the destruction of Dresden, he created a series of experimental photographic works titled Dresdner Totentanz, which alludes to the famous Renaissance relief by name. In 1946 Kesting was appointed to the Academy of Applied Arts in Dresden; he took over the leadership of the workshop for Photography and Film. A year later he was dismissed, after which he moved to Berlin and in 1948 became head of the photography department at the University of Arts in Berlin-Weißensee. In 1953 there was an instant dismissal during the Formalism Dispute. In 1955 he was appointed as a lecturer for the field of camera at the University of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg; he retired in 1960.

Edmund Kesting died in 1970 in Birkenwerder near Berlin, where he had moved in 1948. Between 1949 and 1959 there were no exhibitions of his works in the DDR; only since around 1980 has Kesting’s work gained official recognition.