OTTO MUELLER

Provenance:
- Galerie Thomas, Munich.
- Purchased from the above in 2005 by the present owner, since then private collection Europe.

Catalogue raisonné: Karsch, no. 156 a.

In the tradition of Expressionism and “Die Brücke”, Otto Mueller uses a very clearly defined technical process of creation for the colour lithograph “Fünf gelbe Akte am Wasser”, which results in wonderful, harmonious complementary colouring. Most of the artist’s prints are usually made without the use of colour, making the present lithograph one of the artist’s rare works.

Three distinct colour stones can be seen in this composition. He first lays a black colour stone for the contour lines of the delicate figures, for the wind-ruffled surface of the water and the beach bushes of the North Sea; then he adds a stone for the surface colouring of the nude’s bodies, where the silhouettes are coloured in evenly with an earthy yellow. Although the three figures are closer in perspective than the two bathers, the artist does not distinguish his yellow brushwork, so that the five persons weigh equally and harmoniously upon the viewer, as if on a forestage; and finally, the background stone in cobalt blue for the sea, which with wavelike and fast movement, gives the dark colour a decorative note in the overall composition. Otto Mueller is born in 1874 in Liebau in Silesia. In the years 1890-1894 he trains as a lithographer in Görlitz and begins his studies in art in Dresden and Munich. In 1908 he moves to Berlin, where he keeps company with many artists. He actively takes part in the founding of the New Secession and in 1910 becomes a member of the artist group “Die Brücke”. Despite his faithful allegiance to “Die Brücke”, Otto Mueller’s oeuvre remains independent; he paints unmistakably harmonious forms with very clear structure and a calm colour balance. In the true sense of Expressionism, driven by a longing for paradisiacal well-being and happiness, his main theme of the graceful and melancholy female nudes and portraits, on warm summer days in natural green landscapes, runs through his lifework.