Untitled (ceremony in cathedral), from "Der Dom" portfolio

 

Max Thalmann

  1890 - 1944 (biography)

1923  

woodcut 

19 5/8 x 14 11/16" image size 

each initialed in pencil, lower right; monogram in block, lower right image 

unnumbered, from an edition of 250 

 

Henkel 2011, no. 16.1-10 

antique-white wove 

published 

Verlag Eugen Diederichs 

22422 

SOLD

"Der Dom" (The Cathedral) was a portfolio of abstracted cathedral interiors and ceremonies, created by Thalmann in 1923 and published in 1924. These works remain among Max Thalmann's most well-recognized, and are a strong example of the post-World War Expressionist style with the influence of Japanese Notan, replete with the hallmarks of modern spirituality that dominated much of the Eastern European art world at the time. Thalmann relied on repetition of shapes to draw the viewer inward. Black veiled nuns, heads bowed in prayer or song, fill the cathedral and their shapes ascend until they mesh with structural elements. Offsetting their bowed heads are semi-circles, which spire upward to meld with the vault of the cathedral. Max Thalmann was born in Rudolstadt, Germany on August 13, 1890. After a bookbinding apprenticeship in Halle in 1909, Thalmann attended the Kunstgewerbeschule Weimar (School of Applied Arts in Weimar), studying under Belgian painter and architect, Henry van de Velde, and master bookbinder and cover designer, Otto Dorfner. Thalmann was the first student to head the local bookbinding department, creating artistic book bindings, and, in 1911, he passed the master’s examination. He continued his studies at the Royal Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Industry in Leipzig between 1911 and 1913. Declared unfit to serve by the Army due to poor health, Thalmann continued his studies in Weimar, enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts, studying under printmaker and painter Walther Klemm. In 1919 he spent a semester as a “Jungmeister” (Young Master) at the Bauhaus Weimar, and then launched his career as a fine artist and designer. Though Thalmann worked primarily as a bookbinder and illustrator, in between he created three portfolios that used the stark geometric lines and angles, symmetry and simplicity that was taught at the Bauhaus. His images also embraced the Japanese concept of "Notan" involving the interplay of dark versus light harmony, using the simple concept of contrasting light and dark shapes, or, black versus white. The portfolio "Der Dom" was done in an edition of 300, of which 50 were fully pencil signed and editioned. The remaining 250 were pencil initialed by Thalmann, such as this impression, number 61.