Saxophone

Albert Urban

Albert Urban was born in Frankfurt, Germany on 22 July 1909. He studied at the Kunstschule in Frankfurt, Germany with Max Beckmann and Willi Baumeister. With Hitler's rise to power, Urban was one of many artists whose work was condemned by the Nazis. His work was confiscated and included in the 'Degenerate Art' exhibition in Munich in 1937. After he was forbidden to paint and exiled, he fled to London before moving permanently to New York in 1940.

With the idea of making his work affordable to the general public, Urban began working with the medium of serigraphy in 1942. He produced a number of small four and five color screenprints and he and his wife, artist Rita "Reva" Rosenbaum Urban, opened the Urban Gallery, featuring serigraphy, from 1954 to 1956.

"Saxophone" was done in 1945 in a small, unstated edition. An abstracted saxophonist plays a baritone sax while other elements of the band subtly form the surround of the composition.