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Karl Waldmann
Probably born in the penultimate decade of the 19th century in Dresden
and died in 1958 in the USSR (in a working camp).
Karl Waldmann was one
of constructivism's last discoveries and surely a very important one.
It is only after the fall of the Berlin Wall that people rediscovered
him through 50 of his works.
After extensive research, his works were traced in Italy, Belgium, France,
Ukraine and the US.
There were 800 works dating from 1915 to the 50's, most of which are
collages or photomontages.
Formally Waldman's art is very heteroclite, as it has never confounded
itself with a unique movement.
His early pieces are abstract but soon after, his other works turn to
echo constructivism, dadaism and even surrealism.
The forms derived from constructivism, with a destruction of the classical
image, in a dynamic vision.
But the state of mind of the photomontages is close to the dadaists by
the will of integration of the social facts of his time in an acid and
politic vision.
Inclined towards the absurd and the unbearable policies of such people
as Hitler or Stalin, his art gave his epoque a dressing-down with his
exacerbating sensibility and the ironic glance he had on his time.
For that, he was compared to other artists such as Schwitters, Heartfield,
Haussmann, but also Rodchenko and Maiakowski or even the dadaists.
Unfortunately, we do not know any information about his life or his
personality, and we cannot trace him in the art revues from his time.
It is possible he may have refused to exhibit for mental reasons (but
also for his own security during the years when Nazis were governing
under the stalinized censorship).
Another hypothesis is that he was not a "pure" artist but had a job as
his principal activity, as an architect for example, and spared his free
time to his artistic creations.
The May 2005 issue of Le Monde Diplomatique has just published a huge
file on the Second World War, which has been fully illustrated by works
of the German constructivist artist Karl Waldmann.
This altogether with a box dedicated to him and the mystery of his
disappearing.
Karl Waldmann & the Constructivism
12 November 2005 untill 28 January 2006
Galerie Pascal Polar
108 ch de charleroi
1060 Bruxelles
tel: 32/2/5378136
fax: 32/2/5378161
gsm: 32/477/252692
email: ppolar@skynet.be
http://www.pascalpolar.be
(We are included the Waldmann's work in our website by the graciously of the
Galery Polar of Bruxelles, Belgium. Thanks for your collaboration).
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