Ernst Leyden (1892 -1969) - Zonder titel

This colorful lithograph from 1967 nicely shows how Ernst van Leyden in his later work linked graphic abstraction with the visual culture of his time. As a ground he uses a page from the Los Angeles Free Press, on which he has applied a large oval shape in soft pink and light blue. The radial lines and circular motifs evoke a face, a mask, or a mechanical construction, while words and newspaper images remain visible throughout the composition. This creates a layered whole in which typography, current events, and abstract forms interweave. In 1966 and 1967 Van Leyden made at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles an extensive series of lithographs featuring similar geometric patterns, eyes, rays, and bright color fields.

Ernst van Leyden (Rotterdam, 1892 – Versailles, 1969) was a Dutch painter and graphic artist who later worked in America, with a distinctly international life. Together with his wife, artist Karin Kluth, he traveled and lived in Portugal, London, Paris, and the United States. The couple moved in international artistic and cultural circles and had contacts with, among others, Salvador Dalí, Marc Chagall, Bertolt Brecht, and Diego Rivera. Metzemakers Kunstmakelaardij After Van Leyden had moved to the United States in 1940, his work increasingly developed toward abstract compositions and collages. His experimental lithographs from the sixties, including the Tamarind series, show his interest in geometry, repetition, color, and contemporary printed media. His graphics are currently in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the National Gallery of Art.

Dimensions: 73 x 53 cm
Dimensions with frame: 98 x 77 cm

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