Ornamental Composition XIII

Details

Labelled on the reverse of the canvas by Georg Tappert with the work number “157”, the crossed-out old work number “140”, the year of creation 1912, the designation “Morgner Komp. 13”, measurements and Tappert’s signature abbreviation “Tpt.”.

Weihs-Tappert 153.
With a detailed expert opinion by Walter Weihs, Wilhelm-Morgner-Archiv, Soest, dated 12.

Provenance:
The artist’s estate;
Private property, Rhineland, acquired directly from the artist’s family in the 1950s through the mediation of Dr Hans Lühdorf (Düsseldorf 1910-1983);
Private property, southern Germany, through succession to the current owner.

Descrizione

• Morgner is considered a leading figure of Westphalian Expressionism and a pioneer of abstraction
• The two “Ornamental Compositions” belong to a group of important abstract works from 1912
• Large-format paintings in vibrant colours

Wilhelm Morgner grew up in middle-class circumstances in Soest, Westphalia. His father died young and his mother would have liked to see her son become a pastor. But Morgner had other plans: encouraged by the advocacy of Otto Modersohn, also a native of Soest and co-founder of the Worpswede painters’ colony, he entered the private art school of Georg Tappert (1880-1957) in Worpswede in 1908. Tappert remained his artistic advisor and friend until Morgner’s death. Morgner returned to his home town of Soest in 1909, where he set up studios in the town and the surrounding area and exhibited his works for the first time in the same year. From 1911, he travelled to Berlin more frequently and made contact with the circles of modern artists there, including Arnold Topp and Wilhelm Wulff. Here he also came into contact with Pointillism and became acquainted with works by van Gogh and early Expressionism. All of these new styles had a strong influence on his work • he incorporated the knowledge he gained into his works, which from 1912 onwards increasingly moved away from figurative representation and explored the effect of pure colour.
As a result of his growing reputation, Morgner was able to show his works in important exhibitions. From 1911, at the age of 20, the young artist took part in exhibitions organised by the Neue Sezession in Berlin, the Blaue Reiter in Munich and the Sonderbund in Cologne.

Our two paintings by Morgner belong to a group of important works from 1912, to which Tappert gave the titles “Ornamental” or “Astral” compositions with Arabic or Roman numbers. With these important works, Morgner was one of the first artists to find the path to abstraction in modern art.
Only one year after creating the two “Ornamental Compositions”, in 1913, Morgner had to accept a significant restriction on his artistic work • he was called up for military service and was no longer able to create elaborate oil paintings.
When Morgner was only 26 years old and fell in the Battle of Langemark in West Flanders on 6 August 1917, many of his paintings remained unsigned. Morgner’s typical monogram ligature, reminiscent of a butterfly, was applied by his mother, his sister Mari and also by Georg Tappert. However, the two present paintings are among the few works that bear a monogram and a date in the artist’s hand.

The titles of the two paintings were assigned in 1919/20 when Georg Tappert, Morgner’s former teacher, catalogued the Morgner works in his estate. Walter Weihs writes in his expert opinion: “(…) he (Tappert) always omitted the word ‘Ornamentale’ from the labels on the back of the paintings and only wrote the abbreviation ‘Komp.’ He had recorded his list of Morgner’s works in two stages in 1919/20. (…). Most of the Morgner paintings therefore have two numbers on the back, a first, crossed-out number and a second, definitive one.”

Zon “Ornamental Composition XIV”, Weihs writes: “There was, however, a third listing by Georg Tappert, (…) which he had created solely for his own use. (…) The particularly interesting history of this picture is closely related to this. It is one of the so-called ‘double numbers’ of Morgner’s paintings.
(…) Tappert was officially commissioned by Morgner’s mother to compile a catalogue raisonné of his works after the early death of her son in the First World War. This (…) ‘Morgner Catalogue 1920’, created in 1919/20, contains a total of 235 Morgner paintings, numbered from 1 to 235.
In addition to this ‘official’ catalogue intended for Mrs Morgner, however, there was also the aforementioned ‘private’ list by Tappert with the same number of paintings (…).
This list (…) also contained paintings that did not appear in the ‘official’ list intended for Mrs Morgner. According to current research, in a number of cases Tappert had assigned only one number to two different paintings. In the present case, there are two paintings with the title ‘Ornamental Composition 14’ (Roman XIV in the final catalogue intended for Mrs Morgner). Tappert had listed this composition for Morgner’s mother under the number 154. The ‘official’ Composition XIV is now in the Wilhelm Morgner Museum in the Städtische Kunstsammlungen Soest and is somewhat larger in format.
In order to distinguish it from the present painting, the Städtische Bild has been given the addition A in the author’s new catalogue raisonné, i.e. 154A, while the present work has the number 154 B.”