Oskar Schlemmer

Provenance:

Estate of the artist

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Depositum Schlemmer, Inv. No. GL 1758

Oskar Schlemmer is regarded as one of the most important artists of Classical Modernism. As a painter, sculptor, and stage artist, he developed a distinctive, geometrically rhythmized formal language centered on the human figure within space. Between 1921 and 1929, Schlemmer served as a master at the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, where he played a decisive role in shaping both the stage workshop and teaching, before leaving the school to take up a professorship at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts in Breslau.

The drawing “Sitzendengruppe (Gruppe im Raum mit Lampe)” from 1930 depicts a group of figures rendered in Schlemmer’s characteristic formal language, set within a subtly indicated interior. The bodies of the three seated figures are modeled with flowing, curved lines; the scene has an intimate quality, the figures appearing quiet, concentrated, and absorbed. A single hanging lamp defines the space and draws the viewer’s gaze upward.

Particularly striking is the depiction of the Thonet rocking chair, whose iconic bentwood form Schlemmer captures with a few confidently placed lines. The inclusion of this piece of furniture reflects the modern domestic culture of the period and simultaneously reveals Schlemmer’s interest in dynamic, sweeping forms within a structured spatial composition.

The drawing—executed on the verso of a Bauhaus printed matter—boasts a distinguished provenance: it comes directly from the Schlemmer Deposit at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (Inv. No. GL 1758).