Max Olderock (1895-1972) - Houses (Constructivism)

Max Olderock: Houses (1953/1966)
A hand-coloured woodcut: watercolour applied by hand over the printed block on laid paper, resulting in a unique sheet in which the graphic armature of the cut is overlaid and individualised in colour. Published by Edition Panderma, Basel — the imprint of the collector and publisher Carl Laszlo. As each impression was coloured by hand, no two sheets are alike; this is a unique work rather than a uniform edition print.
The dual dating 1953/1966 reflects the woodblock cut in 1953 and this hand-coloured impression realised in 1966.
Sheet 27 × 19 cm, on laid paper. In good archival condition. Hand-signed and dated in pencil.

Ludwig Bernhard Max Olderock (1895 Hamburg – 1972) belonged to the German avant-garde that formed around Expressionism after the First World War. He first showed his work in 1925 and 1927 at Herwarth Walden's gallery Der Sturm in Berlin — the gallery through which Robert Delaunay, Marc Chagall and Alexander Archipenko had reached the German public. Olderock was a member of the Deutscher Werkbund and stood in close contact with the Bauhaus master Lothar Schreyer. Under National Socialism he was subject to a painting ban, and his works in public collections were destroyed. After 1945 he resumed exhibiting, including a solo exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle in 1957, the Der Sturm memorial exhibition in Berlin in 1961, and the 1971 Cologne survey "Deutsche Avantgarde 1915–1935 – Konstruktivisten".

The publication context is itself significant. Edition Panderma was the Basel imprint of Carl Laszlo (1923–2013), the Hungarian-Swiss art dealer, collector, psychoanalyst, author and publisher, who issued the journal Panderma from 1957 to 1977. Through his work as editor and publisher, Laszlo collaborated with figures including Hans Arp, Christian Schad, Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern, Dieter Roth and Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Olderock's presence in this programme situates his post-war graphic work within a deliberate effort to recover and re-present the suppressed German avant-garde of the 1910s and 1920s.

Provenance:
Edition Panderma / Carl Laszlo, Basel
Galerie von Bartha, Basel
Private collection, Basel

Selected exhibitions:
1957 Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (GER) — solo exhibition
1961 Der Sturm memorial exhibition, Berlin (GER)
1971 "Deutsche Avantgarde 1915–1935 – Konstruktivisten", Cologne (GER)