Expressively Shining South
Franz Heckendorf (Berlin 1888 – Munich 1962). Mediterranean Landscape. Charming little town on the coast with lots of bays on the foot of a mountain ridge. Front right
dominating djami (kullijet)
with pointed , very slender tower
as typical for the Turkish minarets, rising above and into the mountains, along with sherifs running around for the muezzins, as generally
the whole arrangement of the mosque ,
comprising a tower-like further building and ascending over the town,
is grasped pictorially beautifully .
Further boats + faceless figurines, among these mule rider. Watercolor over pencil. Inscribed with the latter lower right: Franz Heckendorf (19)39. 39.7 x 48.7 cm.
Literature
Kestner Museum Hanover, catalogues of the special exhibitions XVII, 1918; Joachim Kirchner, Franz Heckendorf, 1919 + 1924; Franz Heckendorf, catalogue of the special exhibition by the Gallery Hagemeier, Frankfort/Main, 1985; (Symphony in Color, Exhibition Catalog of) Kunstfreunde Bergstraße, 1991; Thieme-Becker XVI (1923), 211 f.; Vollmer II (1955), 400; Cicerone, vols. 1912-1928, here especially XVI (1924), 802 f. (not checked); Feuer II, 1 (1920/21), 195-202.
Marvelously color-fresh work
with the proverbial “strong, shining local colors” from the for Heckendorf that determining group of the mountainous southern landscape, based on the “study stays in … Italy, Dalmatia and Asia Minor … The most mature what Heckendorf has created so far (1923) are his landscapes … especially, however, the landscapes he had the occasion to paint during the World War (I) as combat pilot at the eastern front,
on the Balkans , at the Bosporus and at the Tigris ”
(Vollmer in Thieme-Becker and in Vollmer resp.).
The figuration, as frequently with him, subordinated intentionally-visibly by (non)faces devoid of contours. For
“ ‘to spiritualize everything that is optically visible and translate it into the sphere of the visionary seen’; that meant
the accomplishment of the program of modern expressionism ,
of which H . is one of the most persuasive evangelists … ”
(Vollmer in Thieme-Becker).
And with reference to Kirchner’s street figures Peter Bürger shall speak generations later
of “lineaments simplified like masks”
as expression of “a general irrelativeness”
(“Saunters overstretch the Town … Kirchner and the Mannerism” in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung July 23, 2001). But already Hogarth made use of this stylistic method of in the end Biblical origin by way of “Times I” (1762) in the person of Lord Temple, that is not to make a picture, just as likewise the children of orthodox Mennonites play with faceless puppets.
„ Pupil of the instruction class of the Berlin Museum of Applied Arts and the Academy, but essentially autodidact (just as the contemporaries Heckel + E. L. Kirchner and like these starting from impressionism). One of the most talented exponents of the young generation of German artists … Coping with all techniques and an exceedingly easily producing talent … besides oil painting H. applies himself to pastel, watercolor, and lithography … ”
(Vollmer). With a characteristic shining out of itself. Just as here then, too.
Offer no. 14,776 / price on application
