Thilo Maatsch (1900-1983) - Zwei abstrakte Kompositionen

The auction includes two abstract compositions by the significant German artist Thilo Maatsch, dating from 1922/1973, in the Constructivist style, sizes: 35 x 46 cm, motif size 19.5 x 14.5 cm or 18.5 x 24 cm. The condition is good to very good with minor edge faults. At the bottom right of the larger motif’s page edge there is a light tinting as well as slight edge flaws. The second sheet is flawless.

The woodcuts on thin Japanese paper are signed beneath the motif on the right. The limited edition of the 1922 woodcut was issued in a small edition of only “10 copies” between 1966 and 1973. The dating of the motifs corresponds to Maatsch’s attribution in another small edition by the Panderma Verlag Carl Laslo of the same sheets (here on handmade paper). Both sheets originate from the same edition (No. 4)!

There are other German Constructivists (KESTING and Bucholz) in a parallel auction.

VITA THILO MAATSCH (Source incl. Wikipedia)

Thilo Friedrich Maatsch (born August 13, 1900 in Braunschweig; died March 20, 1983 in Königslutter) was a German graphic artist, painter and sculptor. He was an artist of abstract and concrete art as well as Constructivism.

In 1918 Maatsch founded the “Society of Friends of Young Art” in Braunschweig with Rudolf Jahns and Johannes Molzahn. Members included, among others, Lyonel Feininger and Paul Klee. Additionally, Wassily Kandinsky, who supported Maatsch and revered Maatsch as well as his own father, designed the society’s emblem. In the same year Maatsch befriended art collector Otto Ralfs. In 1919 and 1921 he visited Heinrich Vogeler in Worpswede.

In 1924 the first purchase of a work by Thilo Maatsch was made by the Braunschweig collector Otto Ralfs. He came to Maatsch’s single-room apartment to select an oil painting together with Nina and Wassily Kandinsky. For Maatsch, it was a great honor to have his painting in a collection beside works by Mondrian, Kandinsky, Klee and other already well-known artists of the time. In 1925 Ralfs organized an exhibition of the “Society of Friends of Young Art”.

At the Bauhaus in Weimar and later Dessau he made acquaintances with Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, László Moholy-Nagy, William Wauer and Lothar Schreyer. Kandinsky, Klee and Moholy-Nagy allowed him to spend time in their studios and study with them. With Kurt Schwitters he was not only friends, but shared a similar formal language, which is why Maatsch is sometimes counted within Schwitters’ circle.

In the same year he joined the November Group and became a member there. He also participated annually up to 1932 in the “Große Berliner Kunstausstellung” (Great Berlin Art Exhibition). In 1927 He was even given by Herwarth Walden at his Der Sturm gallery, as Maatsch himself proudly recalled in 1970, an solo exhibition of “at least 50 graphics and about 10 watercolors and a few paintings.”

Under National Socialism, as for many other avant-garde artists, there was a collapse. In 1933 Maatsch’s artworks were seized for the first time. In 1934 he was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Culture and listed as “degenerate.”

About 20 years after the war, roughly from 1966 onward, he was rediscovered, and from that point on, exhibitions followed one after another in rapid succession. Maatsch’s works were acquired by more renowned private collections, including especially Carl Lazlo, who actively supported him with the publication of several portfolio editions and a book publication, as well as Alfred and Elisabeth Hoh. Highly regarded, Thilo Maatsch passed away in Königslutter in 1983.