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WERNER DREWES   1899-1985   American Abstract Master   March 18 - April 29, 2000 WERNER DREWES Curves Shapes Color woodcut 1943 11 x 18" (295x457mm)  

WERNER DREWES - CHRONOLOGY

1899  1919/21  1921/22  1923/27  1927/28  1930  1937  1937/40  1941/42  1946/65  1961  1962  1966  1968  1969  1974/45  1978  1979  1982  1983  1984  1985  1986, '90, '92, '94, '97

Born, Canig, Germany  Studied architecture in Berlin and Stuttgart  Studied with Johannes Itten and Paul Klee at the Bauhaus, Weimar  Traveled in Italy and Spain, studying Old Masters. Continued around the world as portrait painter and printmaker.  Returned to the Bauhaus under Wassily Kandinsky and Lyonel Feininger  Emigrated to the United States  Was founding member of American Abstract Artists in New York  Instructor at Columbia University, New York  Technical Supervisor, Graphics Division, Federal Arts Project, New York  Professor of Design and Director of First Year Program, School of Fine Arts, Washington University, St. Louis  One man show, Cleveland Museum of Art  One man show, Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Museum of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco  One man show, Everhart Museum, Scrantonn  One man show, Trenton State College  One man show, National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC  One man traveling State Department show to Turkey and Latin America  One man traveling show to nine cities in West Germany  One man show, Washington University, St. Louis  One man shows in Bonn, West Germany and Washington, DC  One man show, Associated American Artists, New York  Retrospective, National Museum of American Arts, Washington, DC  Died, Reston, Virginia  One man shows at Tobey C. Moss Gallery, Los Angeles

 
Bibliography:
Martina R. Norelli WERNER DREWES, Sixty Five Years of Printmaking
                National Museum of American Art 1984
Franz Geierhaas & Brigitte Hellgoth The Creative Act
                International Print Society 1984
Ingrid Rose WERNER DREWES A Catalogue Raisonne of his Prints
            Verlag Kunstgalerie Esslingen, Munich-New York 1984
 
In the 1930s, WERNER DREWES became an artist of American interest initially through his printmaking. In his woodcuts was traced the influence of German Expressionism ... bold, forceful, immediate. His Bauhaus training drew out his intuitive powers of structure, abstraction and space which defines his basic aesthetic vocabulary. His art captures rhythms, architecture and the simple drama of abstract elements. Vigorous color vies with black and white in watercolors, etchings, paintings,collages and celoprints and, most importantly, the woodcuts.
 
We present an overview spanning more than fifty years of work in all media. DREWES's imagery ranges from geometric abstraction to abstracted subjects inspired by his love of world travel - especially throughout the United States, by his respect for nature and by his interest in all peoples he encountered. In his woodcuts we include Elevated, New York 1931, Black Curve on Yellow 1938, Descent into the Mojave 1962 and Twin Formation in Gray 1982 to illustrate that range. The etchings, the paintings and the watercolors cover the same fifty years. We conclude with his brilliant and intriguing collages of the 1970s and '80s.
 
Explore the work of the American Abstract Artists, the group recognized as presenting the unique language of the century in the United States. WERNER DREWES was a founding member and driving force within this movement.