Erich Buchholz (1891-1972) - Composition

Erich Buchholz: Composition from La Lune en Rodage III (1977)

A print from one of the most significant collector's portfolios of the twentieth century — Carl Laszlo's La Lune en Rodage, published in three volumes (1960, 1965, 1977) by Edition Panderma, Basel. The portfolio is a portable museum of the post-war avant-garde, assembled by Laszlo from contributions by Lucio Fontana, Piero Manzoni, Jean Arp, Meret Oppenheim, Otto Piene, Victor Vasarely, Enrico Castellani, Hundertwasser, and others — many of whom contributed pivotal early works specifically for the project.
This Buchholz print returns to one of his foundational compositions of 1920 — the original painting of which is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York (Composition, 1920). The motif belongs to the small, concentrated body of work Buchholz produced in Berlin between 1918 and 1924, when he stood at the centre of European non-objective art alongside El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, László Péri and Ernő Kállai — contacts he established at the Van Diemen Gallery's landmark 1922 exhibition Erste russische Kunstausstellung / Constructivism and Suprematism. After 1925 Buchholz withdrew from artistic activity, and from 1933 he was forbidden to paint by the National Socialist authorities. He resumed work only after 1945. Prints linking directly to his Berlin period of 1918–1924 are therefore scarce on the market.

Printed on Vergé paper, signed and dated. This is an unnumbered copy from the third volume of the series (total edition of 230, of which 65 hors commerce impressions were issued unnumbered). The sheet has been professionally fixed on archival cardboard (32 × 32 cm) and is in mint archival condition.
Provenance: Edition Panderma, Carl Laszlo, Basel.

Erich Buchholz (1891 Bromberg / Bydgoszcz – 1972 Berlin) was a German painter and printmaker, and a central protagonist of the Berlin Constructivist scene of the early 1920s. His first solo exhibition was held at Herwarth Walden's Galerie Der Sturm in 1921. His paintings, painted reliefs, and woodblocks of this period anticipate concerns later developed by the Bauhaus and De Stijl circles. Works are held in the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Berlinische Galerie; the Nationalgalerie Berlin; the Sprengel Museum, Hannover; and other major public collections.