Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

About the work

This large-format stilllife vividly underscores the consummate artistry achieved by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff during the course of his long and extensive career, particularly in the medium of watercolours. With dazzling contrasts of colour, a spatially compact language of form and highly expressive brush strokes, he crafts an intriguingly detailed composition of this ornamental motif. Vibrant black contours flow around the different forms, enhancing the expressivity of the colour. The cropped towering blue thistle on the left edge of the canvas finds a perfect counterpoint in the light background shadow to the right. Compact colour zones and strident forms alternate with open transparent spaces and delicately nuanced transitions. Further highlights are furnished by the deep blue blossoms of the thistle, whose radiance and eye-like forms draw the gaze of the viewer. In contrast, the bright background intensifies the jagged silhouette of the dark leaves. This accomplished sheet is imbued with a vibrant expressivity, underscoring the undiminished creative powers of the 74-year-old expressionist, whose stilllifes and landscapes still formed the thematic focus of his late-phase output. Frequently and with great assuredness, Schmidt-Rottluff juxtaposes formal and contrasting coloured forms and objects, which defines the enduring appeal of these  compositions.
(Andreas Gabelmann)