Page 73 - Studio Interantional - May 1967

Left
Zahlenmystik mit 51919
Pen and ink on light brown paper
12 ½ x 6 ¾ in.

Below
Vier vor Schatten 1936
Crayon on paper
6 ¾ x 5 ½ in.

drawings, monotypes, posters, etc.).* centre of the man's varying activities. His every the past, creative enough to seek new forms and
In his graphic work we can see Schlemmer impulse, every ambition, at some point seems to idioms through which to express a sense of man's
working towards this clarification : he clearly loved have passed through his pencil. place in the world that seems timeless, powerful
line for its precision. It may be that his talents This makes the publication of a complete oeuvre enough to affect the art and understanding of
show best in his graphics, though one hesitates to catalogue of his graphic work a very special event. others. Ten years before the Bauhaus arrived at it
say that, not having seen his ballets and knowing Professor Grohmann introduces a selection of large he was opposing his language of clarity and con-
how much of his sculpture is lost. His paintings, at reproductions, followed by a complete set of small cision to the emotionalism that was the avant-garde
any rate, look oddly incomplete when seen reproductions of about 1,400 items. The variety is cliche of his generation. He was also, one feels, a
by themselves. Looking at his drawings, prints, greater than one expects. wise man, humorous and self-critical, unpom-
posters, etc., we feel close to the man and to his He was not a great artist if we reserve such words pous. I should very much like to have known him.
art. More than that: just as with a great Renais- for the Matisses, the Klees, the Mondrian of our *OskarSchlemmer: Zeichnungen und Graphik (Oeuvrekatalog),
sance artist, but as with very few artists after 1700, world. He was certainly a fine artist, detached text by Will Grohmann, 350 pages, illus. throughout,
we can through his drawings stand at the very enough from the convulsions of his time to value published by Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart.