Johannes Molzahn: "Konstellation um Vier"

Johannes Molzahn: "Konstellation um Vier"
MOLZAHN, JOHANNES
1892 Duisburg - 1965 Munich

Title: "Konstellation um Vier".
Date: 1935.
Technique: Oil on burlap.
Measurement: 112.5 x 144.5cm.
Notation: Dated, signed and titled verso lower left: 1935 - Berlin Johannes Molzahn "Konstellation um Vier". Here addionally inscribed twice with the work no. 102 as well as artist's stamp and work details.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.

The work is listed in Loretto Molzahn's fragmentary painting inventory under number 0102/203.

Provenance:
- Molzahn estate
- Loretto Molzahn (the artist's second wife), Munich
- Private collection, Hesse

Exhibitions:
- Galerie F+F (Dr Kurt Feldhäusser and Marie Johanne Fritze), Berlin, 1936
- Kunstkabinett Klihm, Munich, 1963
- Verein für Kunst, Literatur und Kunsthandwerk Bamberg e.V., 1964
- Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg 1964
- Galerie nächst St. Stephan, Vienna 1973
- Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz 1973
- Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, 1974

Literature:
- Gries, Christian: Johannes Molzahn (1892-1965) and the "Struggle for Art" in Germany during the Weimar Republic (Appendix: Catalogue raisonné of paintings by Johannes
Molzahn), Diss. University of Augsburg 1996, cat. rais. no. 226 A
- Exhib. catalogue Paintings by Johannes Molzahn, New Works 1935/36, Galerie F+F (Dr Kurt Feldhäusser and Marie Johanne Fritze), Berlin 1936, cat. no. 3
- Exhib. catalogue Johannes Molzahn. Paintings - Prints from the period before emigration 1916/1935, Kunstkabinett Klihm, Munich 1963, cat. no. 18, ill. (here incorrectly as 'Konstellation um IV')
- Exhib. catalogue Johannes Molzahn, Verein für Kunst, Literatur und Kunsthandwerk Bamberg e.V. 1964, cat. no. 18
- Exhib. catalogue Johannes Molzahn, Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum, Duisburg 1964, cat. no. 37
- Exhib. catalogue Johannes Molzahn - Paintings and Prints, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz 1973, cat. no. 21
- Exhib. catalogue Johannes Molzahn, Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, 1974, cat. no. 39
- Reuter, Marianne: 'Rule and Measure'. The construction as a symbol of myth - The late work of painter Johannes Molzahn, in: Das Münster 3, 39th year, 1986, pp. 210-216

- Characteristic figure painting from the period before Molzahn emigrated to the USA
- Uncompromising, technically visionary depiction of human beings
- The painting marks a high point in the artist's oeuvre


An artist's life between avant-garde and exile
Johannes Molzahn occupies a distinctive position within modern art. The painter, commercial artist, art theorist and teacher is considered one of the most important representatives of the artistic avant-garde between the two world wars. His work combines elements of expressionism, constructivism and futurism to create a virtuoso visual language in which technique, movement and structure play a central role.
Molzahn had close ties to the leading avant-garde movements and influential personalities of his time. Early on, he met Otto Meyer-Amden in Switzerland and encountered Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer and Willi Baumeister. After the First World War, he belonged to Herwarth Walden's Sturm Gallery circle, was involved in the founding of the Weimar Bauhaus, and maintained close contacts with the Berlin November Group and the Workers' Council for Art. In 1923, Bruno Taut appointed him as a teacher at the School of Arts and Crafts in Magdeburg, followed in 1928 by a professorship in graphic design at the State Academy of Art and Design in Breslau.
When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Molzahn was removed from office and defamed in the 1937 exhibition "Degenerate Art". The following year, the artist was forced to emigrate to the United States, where he worked as an artist and teacher in Seattle, New York and Chicago before returning to Germany in 1959.



Man and machine in the tension field of modernity
During this difficult period of personal and political upheaval, current events inspired the artist to create monumental figurative paintings. These include "Konstellation um Vier" (Constellation at Four), created in 1935 – a large-format oil painting that is not easily readable in its dynamic complexity.
Multiple layers and structured surfaces and lines in powerful red and cool shades of grey, green and blue create a multifaceted network of visual signs that convey a vague feeling of energy, progress and mechanisation.
The figures depicted appear as technoid shapes in a structure of different postures – standing with their upper bodies leaning forward, crouching with their legs drawn up, or lying in various positions. The powerful, voluminous bodies are constructed from cylindrical, tube-like elements reminiscent of joints, pistons or industrial components, while at the same time, sketchily depicted hands, feet and faces lend the figures a subtle human presence.
The "Constellation at Four" can be understood as Molzahn's contribution to a constructivist representation of humanity. It contrasts the antique, heroically exaggerated figuration of National Socialist art with a visionary, intellectually and technically influenced conception of humanity.
Doris Hansmann


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Explanations to the Catalogue

Johannes Molzahn
Germany
Abstraction
Modern Art
1930s
Framed
Figure / Figures
Painting
Oil