Men with Boat (Fishermen with Boat); Ausfahrende Fischer

Description

Both Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff entered the 1920s allying themselves with the working class though they did so in divergent ways. Schmidt-Rottluff was a committed member of the revolutionary artists’ associations that allied themselves with working class politics. Pechstein witnessed and admired, first-hand, the lives of the working class during frequent visits to Baltic fishing communities in the early twenties. Bringing to this common subject divergent experiences, both artists focused upon what they considered the honest and admirable life of the worker in mid-century.
In 1920, Schmidt-Rottluff turned his attention almost exclusviely representations of figures at work. Earlier abstraction gives way to traditional representation and reveals the artist’s interest in pictorial order and decorative composition. The balance of black and white and elliptical shape of the boats and figures creates a harmonious, ethereal quality.
Text written by Katharine A. Weiss, Exhibitions Assistant, on the occasion of the UMMA exhibition Graphic Visions: German Expressionist Prints and Drawings, January 25–April 6, 2003, West Gallery