Franz Roh - Frauenakt vor dem Spiegel (1928-1934)
artworks by the artist and art theorist, Franz Roh. The rich spectrum of collages, which were created within a period of
four decades, lends a deeper understanding to the work of the
imaginative, Franz Roh, who felt particularly connected to the artwork
of his artist colleague and friend, Max Ernst. His early works were designed with collaged elements from wood
engravings, in which an intuitive process found a new context, and
through which the lyrical-surrealistic, almost psychoanalytical titles
were perfected. It is here we find rhinoceroses that hover in Rococo
interiors, athletes fleeing erupting volcanoes and tipsy gentlemen
dwelling on bodiless women’s legs. The collages - showing an
irrepressible, subtle humor – are proof that Franz Roh's work is not
merely concerned with artistic experimentation or the critic's point
of view but also reflect current events. Banned from teaching and
writing during the Nazi years, he produced an enormous body of work.
Later during this period, he began incorporating photographic
reproductions from illustrated magazines and advertising brochures
into his work, until the end of the 1950s when he abandoned working
with wood engravings altogether. The collages in this exhibition will be supplemented with fifteen
early photographs (vintage gelatin silver prints) by Franz Roh,
examples of his engagement with “new vision” photography. In 1929,
together with Jan Tschichold, Roh dedicated the photographically
historical and legendary photobook “foto-auge” to this movement. Kunsthandel Jörg Maaß
Rankestraße 24, 10789 Berlin
http://www.kunsthandel-maass.de
