Winter Solstic, 1979
38 x 26 inches | oil on canvas
Werner Drewes grew up in Canig, a little village in Eastern Germany. Drewes had a natural inclination for the arts and gymnastics while he was attending school in Brandenburg. His art teacher took notice of his talent and gave him his first set of oil paints. Before any professional training, his first experience with woodcutting was at his parents’ anniversary party where he designed the cards.
Werner Drewes was drafted to fight on the Western Front of World War I in France. Happy to leave the army two years later, he continued his studies in Berlin in 1919 where he worked on his first woodcuts and prints. Along with advancing his art, he also studied architecture as his family urged him. He realized later he did not have an interest in architecture because of the great deal of detail connected with construction.
In 1920, Drewes left school in Berlin and went to Technische Hochschule, a school in Stuttgart, Germany, in hopes of finding a more artistic approach to architecture. During that year, he worked on small housing projects, of which he had little interest. He tried his luck with carpentry, where he discovered his interest in working with colors. Drewes then went to school at Stuttgart Kunstgewerbeschule where he experimented with the translucent colors of stained glass and worked on small projects, making glass windows for relatives and friends.
He joined a group formed by architects and artists called, Merz. Merz introduced Drewes to modern movements and theories that developed his way of thinking about crafts and fine arts. During that period, he met a young Frenchman who introduced him to the school, Bauhaus, in Weimar. It was a German school that combined crafts and fine arts. The school had a profound influence over many developments including architecture, art, and typography. The idea of different artists from different fields working together appealed to Drewes and he continued his educational journey at the Bauhaus studying alongside Paul Klee (1879-1940), Georg Muche (1895-1987), and Johannes Itten (1888-1967). Exposed to many modern ideas, he took a new approach to learning and living through the radical ways Bauhaus taught its students. Drewes’ first contact with modern painting was at the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin. He bought a painting by a German artist, William Wauer (1866-1962), that inspired him to inquire what was going on in abstract painting. He later left the Bauhaus to pursue painting.
In 1923, Drewes traveled to Italy and Spain to study the old masters. He made his living from painting portraits. He later traveled throughout Europe, Asia, North and South America with his wife Margarete. He set up a shop in San Francisco where he sold printed editions of his prints from his travels in Spain and South America. Drewes returned to Germany in 1927 and again enrolled in Bauhaus classes and studied with Kandinsky (1866-1944). In 1933, Hitler closed the Bauhaus and Drewes immigrated to New York City.
His first job in the city was as a teacher of printmaking at the Brooklyn Museum under the Federal Art Project. Later, through connections with Wallace Harrison (1895-1981), an architect, Drewes was offered a position at Columbia University’s School of Architecture in 1937. He taught printmaking, lithography, life drawing and paintings. He trained young artists to become teachers using the Bauhaus approach. In 1937, Drewes became one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists group. This group contributed to fostering the public understanding and acceptance of abstract art. In 1946, he accepted another teaching position as Professor of Design at Washington University in St. Louis which offered him a stable form of income.
After retiring in 1965, he moved to Pennsylvania with his wife. The pastoral environment of the Pennsylvania landscape was an ideal place for him to retire and relax. This environment inspired him to paint flowers and landscapes. He realized his turn away from abstract art and decided he was not ready to retire. Drewes moved to Washington in November 1972 where he started the American Indians portfolio project published in 1973. He finally settled in Virginia where he set up a new studio and stayed until his death in 1985.
Werner Drewes brought a fresh perspective to his early artwork. His ability to see new forms and juxtapose colors never left him.
From "Dude" to "Dude" - cultural stereotypes live on in new images. The land of the West is just as captivating as the figures who used to roam it. Where there once cowboys blazing the trail of Manifest Destiny, we now have surfers who keep their gaze fixed on the horizon, waiting for their opportunity to work with the ocean around them.
Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery is presenting “The Search for the Modern West” as its first exhibit for 2023.
The exhibit features paintings, sculptures and prints that address the mythology, history and real life experiences of the American West.
A FEAST FOR ART LOVERS and one of “Sullivan Goss’s most important exhibitions,” according to exhibition curator Jeremy Tessmer, Drewes/Fischinger/Gordin: The Invention of American Abstract Art has been extended to January 4th. This will give locals and visitors time to discover its sophisticated ensemble of pieces during our long winter holiday.
Comprised of work by three influential, though not universally known artists, the exhibition is the inaugural Sullivan Goss sampling from the Estates of Werner Drewes (1899-1985) and Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967) in context with work from the Estate of Sidney Gordin (1918-1996).
Sullivan Goss’ current exhibition The Invention of American Abstract Art, curated by Jeremy Tessmer, explores how abstract art materialized and evolved within the works of Werner Drewes (1899-1985), Oskar Fischinger (1900-1967), and Sidney Gordin (1918-1996) after they moved to the United States. During the twentieth century, discoveries in quantum theory, relativity, and cosmic evolution largely shaped artistic attempts to conceptualize the human condition. Although it is widely attributed to its European inception, abstract art sustained formal developments when it spread to the United States in the later half of the twentieth century.
Sullivan Goss gets lots of shout-outs in this column, and why not? They have a major show nearly every other month, and one of our top for-profit galleries in Santa Barbara, which is an achievement in itself, just existing for so long, promoting the best of our living artists and representing our past as well.
AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK
“When one goes studying it’s not so much the subject you study or with whom you come together as teacher and student, but the influence of other students and other human beings you meet which helps you to develop.” – Werner Drewes
Throughout Werner Drewes’ artistic career, he worked with all kinds of media from woodcuts, etchings, textiles, sculpture, glass to paintings. Woodcuts, however, most satisfied the artist. During his lifetime, he created over four hundred woodcuts, more than one thousand oil paintings and hundreds of watercolors, drawings, and collages.
At an early age he developed an appreciation for nature from the influence of his parents and his involvement with an outdoor German youth group. This appreciation of nature is reflected in his early woodcuts. Much of his works reveal the influence of the Bauhaus school he learned while studying in Germany, shaping and developing his style from fellow contemporaries. Interlacing his own observed experience with formal design, his particular style can be revealed through his use of color. He explores different color relationships in his paintings and prints.
Drewes’ travels around the globe were the beginnings of his artistic development. He left Germany to pursue painting but much of his work has clarity of form and obvious architectural influences as well. While he was in Spain, he began to copy the portrait style of the artist Diego Velazquez (1599-1660), giving much detail to the faces while vigorous and simple brushstrokes throughout the rest of the paintings.
Although he gained thousands of different perspectives from his travels abroad, his studies at the Bauhaus were the real driving force behind his artistic development. Having taken classes with renowned architects and artists, it was the fusing of different ideas that led him to find a radical approach to art and his growing interest and development with the abstract. These diverse personal experiences revealed through his art made him a success when he immigrated to the United States.
In Drewes’ oil color, he uses a little wax to create an even surface with a soft quality. The wax allows for small areas of different color rather color mixing. He uses Shiva oil color ink for all his work. With his late woodcuts, he used fewer colors because he believed that the fewer colors one uses, the closer one is to his material. For his woodcuts, he preferred mostly redwood blocks, oriental papers, and oil color links. Redwood is a softer type of wood that allows for bolder lines.
Drewes brought with him to the New York art scene the rigorous teachings and conduct of the Bauhaus school in Germany as well as the various experiences he encountered with connoisseurs at the school and from his various contacts around the world. As a professor, he trained an entire generation of emerging American artists. His most notable student is Peter Saul (1934-present).
AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS
1932 Best Print of the Year, The Weyhe Gallery, New York
1933 Purchase Award, Oil, Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Philadelphia
1939 Third Prize, Plexiglas Competition, sponsored by Museum of Modern Art, New York
1941 First and Second Prize, Textile Design Competition, sponsored by Museum of Costume Design, New York
1946 Honorable Mention, Print Club of Philadelphia
1947 First Prize, watercolor, Young Men’s Hebrew Association, St. Louis
1948 Friends of Art Award, Second Annual Exhibition of Oil Painting. Mulvane Art Museum, Topeka, Kansas
1950 First Prize, watercolor, St. Louis Artists Guild
1952 Purchase Award, print, Annual Exhibition of Art, Springfield Art Museum, Missouri
1952 Purchase Award, print, Mid-America Annual Exhibition, Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum, Kansas City
1953 First Prize, oil portrait, St. Louis Artists Guild
1953 First Prize, print, St. Louis Artists Guild
1955 Purchase Award, print, St. Louis Artists Guild
1955 Purchase Award, print, Springfield Art Museum, Missouri
1957 Purchase Award, print, Wichita Art Association, Kansas
1959 Purchase Award, Twenty-fifth Anniversary National Fine Prints
1959 Competition, Associated American Artists, New York
1959 Cash Award, oil, Seventeenth Missouri Exhibition, City Art Museum of St. Louis
1960 Bader Art Prize, oil, St. Louis Artists Guild
1960 Purchase Award, print, Joselyn Art Museum, Omaha
American Abstract Artists
Bauhaus School
Federal Art Project
The Print Club
Woodstock Group
COLLECTIONS
Brooklyn Museum (Composition X-Dynamic, 1934, Composition VII-Two Large Fighting Forms and a Row of Small Forms, 1934, Composition III- Arrows into Different Directions, 1934, Untitled, 1937, Untitled, 1937, San Francisco, 1926, Figure Study II, Back View, Male Model, 1926, San Francisco, Fern Trees II, Golden Gate Park, 1926, Hunting the Sea Monster, 1938, Composition I- Plant Forms, 1934, Composition IX- Crescents, 1934, Composition V-Large and Small Circle, 1934, Composition II-Window, Construction on Window, 1934, Composition IV-Ornamental, 1934, Composition VI-Curve and Diagonals, 1934, Composition VIII-The Two Fighters Fight, 1934, Czech Refugee, 1941, At the Beach, 1941, The Orange Figure, 1940, Prisoner, 1934
Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu, Hawaii
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Number 10 Angelized, 1941, Forest, 1958, Red on Red, 1934)
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Modern Art, New York (Tilting Power, 1981, Fight, 1934, Mississippi Bluffs, 1954, Untitled, 1937, Untitled, 1937
National Gallery of Art, Washington
New York Public Library
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington (Complete collection of all of Drewes' prints)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (Untitled, 1937, Hunting the Sea Monster, 1938, Wild Emotion, 1934, Action and Repose, 1940, In the Blue Space, 1944, Composition VIII/The Two Fighters Fight, 1934
CHRONOLOGY
1899 Born July 27, 1899 in Canig (Brandenburg), Germany; son of Pastor Georg Drewes and Martha Schaefer Drewes
1909-1917 Attends Saldria Gymnasium, Brandenburg an der Havel
1917-1918 Becomes soldier in German army; serves in France
1919 Attends Charlottenburg (Berlin) Technische Hochschule; studies architecture
1920 Attends Stuttgart Technische Hochschule; studies architecture
1921 Attends Stuttgart Kunstgewerbeschule; studies stained glass
1921-1923 Attends Weimar Staatliches Bauhaus; studies with Johannes Itten and Paul Klee
1923-1924 Travels and works in Italy and Spain. Studies paintings by old masters, particularly Tintoretto, El Greco, and Velasquez
1924 Marries Margarete Schrobsdorff in Madrid (deceased 1959)
1924-1927 Works as portrait painter and printmaker to finance world travels and returns to Germany
1927 Birth of son, Harald D., November 22
1927-1928 Attends Dessau Staatliches Bauhaus; studies with Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Schlemmer
1928-1929 Works in Frankfurt am Main
1929 Birth of son, Wolfram U., January 9
1930 Emigrates to the United States; lives in New York City. Attends Art Students League, New York City
1931 Birth of son, Bernard W., February 19
1935-1936 Teaches drawing and printmaking at Brooklyn Museum School, New York, for Federal Art Project
1936 Becomes a United States citizen
1937 Is founding member of American Abstract Artists, New York City Lectures on form and color at offices of architects Wallace Harrison and Fouillhoux
1937-1940 Teaches painting, drawing, and printmaking at Columbia University, Architecture Divison, New York City
1940-1941 Teaches at Master Institute in Riverside Museum, New York City and works as technical supervisor, Graphic Art Division of Works Progress Administration, Federal Art Project, New York City
1944-1945 Works at Atelier 17, New York City; improves intaglio techniques in collaboration with Stanley William Hayter
1945 Teaches design, printmaking, and photography at Brooklyn College, New York
1946 Teaches design, Institute of Design, Chicago. Is appointed professor of design and director of first-year program with tenure, at School of Fine Arts, Washington University, Saint Louis, Missouri
1960 Marries Mary Louise Lischer Terhune
1965 Retires from Washington University. Moves to Point Pleasant, Bucks County, Pennsylvania
1972 Moves to Reston, Virginia
1985 Dies in Reston, Virginia
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Falk, Peter H. Record of the Carnegie Institute's International Exhibitions 1896-1996 (Exhibition Record Series). New York: Sound View, 1998.
2. Fielding, Mantle. Mantle Fielding's dictionary of American painters, sculptors & engravers. Poughkeepsie, NY: Apollo, 1986.
3. Norelli, Martina R. Werner Drewes: Sixty-five years of Printmaking. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1984.
4. Tobey C. Moss. Werner Drewes: Bauhaus Roots Nurtured in America, A Birthday Celebration Exhibit. Los Angeles: Tobey C. Moss, 1984.
5. Tobey C. Moss. Werner Drewes: A Retrospective Exhibition 1930s to 1980s. Los Angeles: Tobey C. Moss, 1990.
EXHIBITIONS
1961 The Cleveland Museum of Art (Prints and Drawings by Werner Drewes, November 7-December 31)
1961 Paducah, Kentucky, Art Alliance, Carnegie Library (watercolors)
1960 Clayton, Missouri, Art Mart Gallery (oils, watercolors, and prints)
1959 Boston, Gaga Galerie (oils and prints)
1958 Boston, Commonwealth School (oils, watercolors, and prints)
1958 Springfield, Missouri, Springfield Art Museum (woodcuts)
1958 Clayton, Missouri, Art Mart Gallery (oils and prints)
1958 Columbia, Missouri, Stephens College (prints)
1957 St. Luis, Cassell and Paul Gallery (woodcuts)
1957 Memphis, Tennessee, Brooks Memorial Art Gallery (prints)
1956 Los Angeles County Museum (woodcuts)
1956 San Francisco, Locke Gallery (prints)
1956 St. Louis, Martin Schweig Gallery (oils and prints)
1956 Hamburg, Germany, Commeter Galerie (prints)
1954 Beloit, Wisconsin, Beloit College (prints)
1953 St. Louis Artists Guild (oils, watercolors, and prints)
1952 Linz, Austria, Neue Galerie Gurlitt (watercolors, drawings, and prints)
1951 New York, Argent Gallery (oils)
1951 Stuttgart, Germany, Gallery Lutz and Meyer (watercolors, drawings, and prints)
1949 New York, Kleemann Galleries (oils and drawings)
1949 St. Louis, Pen and Palette Gallery (oils and watercolors)
1948 Washington, D.C., Smithsonian Institution (prints)
1947 New York, Kleeman Galleries (watercolors)
1946 New York, Kleeman Galleries (oils, drawings, and prints)
1945 Bloomington, University of Indiana (prints)
1945 New York, Lilienfeld Gallery (oils)
1941 New York, The Artists Gallery (oils)
1939 New York, The Artists Gallery (oils)
1935 New York, New School for Social Research (prints)
1933 New York, Morton Galleries (oils and watercolors)
1932 New York, Morton Galleries (Recent Landscapes from Pennsylvania, oils)
1929 Leipzig, Germany, Galerie del Vecchio (oils)
1928 Frankfurt, Germany, Galerie Flechtheim & Kahnweiler (oils, watercolors, and prints)
1926 San Francisco, California, Gump’s (etchings)
1925 St. Louis, Missouri, Central Public Library (oils and etchings)
1925 Buenos Aires, Argentina (art dealer) (oils and etchings)
1924 Montevideo, Uruguay, Salon Maverof (etchings)
1923 Madrid, Spain (art dealer) (etchings)
