Erich Buchholz (1891-1972) - MAPPE I

In the auction there is a single abstract composition by the significant German artist Erich Buchholz from 1920/1973 in the Constructivist style, measuring 34.5 x 48 cm, motif size 25 x 22.5 cm. The condition is excellent.

The woodcut is signed with the artist’s stamp beneath the motif as well as with a estate stamp on the back of the image.

The sheet originally came from an edition of the Werner Kunze Gallery entitled: 10 Jahre Mappe I in a limited edition of 100 numbered copies!

Included were 13 numbered loose original graphics in a case-bound portfolio (49.5 x 35.5 cm).
This contained woodcuts among others by G. Arntz (1931, unemployed on verso stamped), E. Buchholz (signature stamp and verso signed and dated), E. Kesting (1919 and 1925, theater, each with signature stamp) and Chr. Schad (signed and dated 25); linocuts by H. Höch (signed and dated 1912), K. P. Röhl (1922 verso stamped), H. Schmitz (1922, Mother and Child signed), A. Tschinkel (1936, Mother and Child signed), W. Wahlstedt (1922/66 Figure Marine and 1923, 'Er' of the Kommende, each signed and dated) as well as 1 zinc etching by G. Brockmann.

In a parallel auction there are two more sheets from this map.

VITA ERICH BUCHOLZ (Source: Wikipedia)

In painting, the first abstract works began to emerge and the great oil painting The Crucifixion was created. From 1920 constructive tendencies appear in his works: Buchholz designed a stage set in the Dresden Albert Theater with movable color fields for Julius Weismann’s opera Swan White, which was performed in 1923 in the production by Karl Vogt.[2] In 1921 he came into contact with the Dadaists Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann and Richard Hülsenbeck.

His 1922 constructively designed living and working space at Berlin’s Herkulesufer 15 became a meeting place for Dadaist artists and progressive architects. Erich Buchholz studied at the Berlin Building Trades School on Kurfürstenstraße, and in the van Diemen Gallery he befriended El Lissitzky. From this arose a connection to Suprematism.

After 1922 Erich Buchholz gave up painting and from 1923 turned to architecture, advertising graphics and product design. At the same time he also allowed Dadaistic influences to influence his work. In a ten-page text written in 1923 under the title The Great Break, Buchholz described his statements on Neoplasticism, Suprematism and the position of his own works. The author dated the break itself to the year 1919. In 1925 Buchholz took over the workshop leadership at the Dramatic Theater in Berlin under Karl Vogt.

In 1925 Buchholz moved with his family to Germendorf. Here the couple had bought one hectare of land for their own use. From 1928 on part of the property housed a gravel pit.

After the seizure of power, Erich Buchholz was banned from painting in 1933. He was subjected to reprisals during the National Socialist period and was arrested several times. In 1945 Buchholz was able to resume painting and already had a solo exhibition in 1947. In 1950 he returned to Berlin and in 1951 took up an studio in Ludwigkirchstraße in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

Erich Buchholz died at the end of 1972 aged 81 in Berlin.

Source: Wikipedia

VITA WERNER KUNZE
The Berlin gallerist Werner Kunze (1945-84) advocated, among other things, for artists whose work came to a sudden end with the advent of National Socialism in Germany. He had many of their works reprinted in new editions, including numerous works by members of the “Group of Progressive Artists Cologne.”