Pavel Tchelitchew

 George Platt Lyne, Pavel Tchelitchew, 1948

Pavel Tchelitchew (1898-1957) was born to an aristocratic family and was raised in Moscow until the Revolution in 1918 forced his family to flee to Kiev. While in Kiev, Tchelitchew attended classes at the Kiev Academy under the direction of Alexandra Exter. While the civil war carried on, he made street posters and stage sets for local theaters. 

 Pavel Tchelitchew, Deposition (Feral Benga), 1938

By 1920 he was in Odessa, escaping the advancing Red armies. He went on to Berlin via Istanbul. There he met Allen Tanner, an American pianist, and became his lover. Under the influence of constructivism, Tchelitchew continued designing for small theatre productions. Over the course of the next few years, he reached his theatrical peak with set and costume designs for plays at the Königsgrätzerstrasse Theatre, ballets at the Russian Romantic Theatre, and the opera Le Coq d’Or at the Berlin Staatsopera. Also in Berlin, he met Serge Diaghilev, with whom he continued to collaborate for many years.

Pavel Tchelitchew, Portrait Edalzhi Dinsho, 1940

In 1923, Tchelitchew uprooted himself again, this time moving to Paris where he began his first serious easel paintings. The turning point of his career came in 1925 when he exhibited at the Salon d’Automne. His work aroused the interest of Gertrude Stein and he soon became her intimate and protégé. Tchelitchew's American debut was in a group show of drawings at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1930. In 1934 he moved to New York with his new lover, writer and critic Charles Henri Ford, and exhibited in the Julien Levy Gallery. He and Ford, best known for his editorship of the Surrealist magazine View were at the center of a social world of wealthy homosexuals, such as Lincoln Kirstein, for whom he also designed ballets. 

 Pavel Tchelitchew, Phenomena, 1936 

Phenomena, the first painting of a projected series of three major works, aroused violent reactions because of its lurid color and characterization of persons then still alive (including a self-portrait and images of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas). The most prominent of the nude male figures in this painting is Nicholas Magallanes, a favorite model, who later became a famous dancer. 

 Pavel Tchelitchew, Hide and Seek, 1942

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he continued designing sets for ballets, most notably those in association with George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky. His most noted painting, Hide and Seek (above), a strikingly red painting of an enormous tree composed of human body parts, was completed in 1942 and was immediately acquired by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he also had a large retrospective the same year.

Pavel Tchelitchew, Head, 1950

In 1943 he began his first “interior landscapes”, noted for their display of a body’s interior workings while simultaneously depicting its external features. By 1950 his images were composed completely of rhythmic spiraled lines with all volumes entirely transparent; he felt that they approached the fourth dimension. Throughout his professional career Tchelitchew exhibited frequently in London, Paris, Rome and points all over the United States. Tchelitchew lived mainly in Italy from 1949 and died 1957 in Rome. You can see more of his works in my Flickr set.

Cocain and Biplanes

We are close to waking, when we dream that we're dreaming. - Novalis

 Alexander Deyneka, The knocked down ace, 1943

During the First World War my grandfather served as a fighter pilot in the Richthofen squadron. When I was a young boy, he told me, that many of his comrades took cocain and other drugs to sharpen their minds and to calm down their notorious fears. Still today, I envision the grand reveries of these pilots who envelopped their nerves with the white soft mat of anaesthesia and who, under the delusive shield of an artificial painlessness, infinitely alone with all the thousand images and thoughts surging out of ecstasy, drew their lonely circles high above the clouds. Maybe he fired his shots, if the encounter took place, with a sentiment of unconcern, as if this had to be done. Maybe, while he was lying in a steep curve and the wires were howling, a world of strange insights opened before him and he disposed of an endless time to finish his thoughts before he came in a position to fire again. Yes, and maybe the chain of his imaginations had just run back as the projectile hit him with that enigmatic necessity which marks the intersection of dream, sleep and awakening.

Rudolf Koppitz

 Rudolf Koppitz, The Brothers, 1928

Rudolf Koppitz (1884-1936) was born into a rural Protestant family near Freudenthal, in what is today Bruntál in the Czech Republic. Koppitz began training for his career as a photographer in 1897 under Robert Rotter from Bruntál. He later continued his work in small commercial studios as a contract photographer but in 1912, he left professional life to go back to school to continue his studies at the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, "Institute for Teaching and Research in Graphic Arts" in Vienna. 

Rudolf Koppitz, Composition, 1925

 

Koppitz's early works were marked by the influence of his teacher, the Czech Symbolist photographer Karel Novák, and by the style of the Viennese Secession. While working in Vienna early in his career, Koppitz photographed many of the picturesque aspects of the city - St. Stephen's Cathedral, Karl's Church - and traveled to photograph Hungarian villages, fishing boats near Delft, views of Dresden and alpine landscapes. 

Rudolf Koppitz, Nude Study, 1927

 

His time at the Institute was interrupted by the First World War in which Koppitz found himself putting his talents to use as an aerial reconnaissance photographer. After the war, Koppitz returned to the Institute to teach photography where in 1923 he took the nude self-portrait, In the Bosom of Nature, in which he framed himself by tree trunks, rocks, snowy mountains, and is posed to convey a dreamlike harmony reminiscent of a symbolist painting.

 Rudolf Koppitz, In the Bosom of Nature, 1923

Koppitz's nude self-portraits fascinated his contemporaries as much as they do viewers today. The photographs were taken out of doors - high in the mountains of the Alps or at the seashore - with the assistance of his wife, Anna. Often symbolic, his images reflected the enthusiasm for nature that Koppitz nurtured throughout his life. This love of nature also influenced his late work, his portrayal of peasant life in Tyrol that culminated in the vast 1936 exhibition of 500 photographs called "Land und Leute" (Country and People). 

Rudolf Koppitz, Heavy Burden, Austria, 1930

In 1925 Koppitz created his masterpiece, Bewegungsstudie, "Motion Study" in which he photographed dancers from the Vienna State Opera. the nude dancer is probably the Russian ballet dancer and choreographer, Tatyana Gsovsky.

 Rudolf Koppitz, Bewegungsstudie (Motion Study), 1925

Koppitz's photographs were shown in no less than fourteen exhibitions in the United States from 1926 through 1930, most importantly the Pittsburgh Salons of 1926, 1927, and 1928. This highly regarded annual exhibition at the Carnegie Museum of Art featured not only prominent American photographers, but also Europeans including Koppitz, Josef Sudek, Jaromir Funke, Frantisek Drtikol, and Madame D'Ora. Koppitz was an elected associate members of this salon, where Bewegungsstudie, along with many other of his works, was exhibited.

Peter August Böckstiegel

 Peter August Böckstiegel,Self-Portrait, 1913

Peter August Böckstiegel (1889-1951) was born in Arrode, a village near Bielefeld in Westphalia, into a family of small farmers. He alreday showed artistic talent at an early age. In 1903 he began an apprenticeship as a painter and glazer passing his examinations in 1907. That same year saw the establishment of a school for crafts and decorative arts in Bielefeld, where Böckstiegel studied under Ludwig Godewols until 1913. In 1913 Böckstiegel began to study at the Royal Saxon Academy of Art in Dresden under Oskar Zwintscher and Otto Gussmann. In Dresden Böckstiegel befriended Conrad Felixmüller, whose portrait he painted twice in 1914.  

 Peter August Böckstiegel, Portrait of Conrad Felixmüller, 1914

At the beginning of 1915, Böckstiegel was drafted for military service and completed the picture Farewell, which shows him and his fiancée Hanna - Conrad Felixmüller's sister - whom he married in July 1919. Between 1916 and 1918 he was employed in Russia, Romania and Ukraine, but did not show any enthusiasm for the war. While serving in the army, Böckstiegel had the possibility to continue his artistic work, and he produced numerous expressive watercolours.

Peter August Böckstiegel, Farewell, 1915

During the war Böckstiegel frequently corresponded with Felixmüller, who by then had become active in numerous art projects with leftist political intentions. His return to Dresden in March 1919 relieved him of the nightmarish burden the war had become for him. Böckstiegel, together with Felixmüller, joined the group of artists known as Dresden Secession, but left it one year later. Politically moderate, Böckstiegel joined the Social Democratic Party whereas most of his painter friends sympathised with the Communists.

Peter August Böckstiegel, Departure of the Youngsters for War, 1914

Böckstiegel lived in Westphalia during the summer and spent the winters in Dresden. His choice of motifs was by now concentrated on his immediate surroundings. In the early 1920s Böckstiegel began to approach the working class with his art. Since there was not yet a museum in Bielefeld, he transported his paintings by handcart to factories, where he explained them to the workers.

Peter August Böckstiegel, The Word, 1920

In 1934 Böckstiegel was forced to become a member of the "Reich Chamber of Fine Art". The National Socialists were first ambivalent in their appraisal of Böckstiegel's work. On the one hand, he was not permitted to exhibit in Berlin, on the other, he received a couple of official commissions. Finally, in 1937, his work was officially declared as "degenerate" and more than hundred of his paintings were either sold abroad or burnt in the coutyard of the Berlin Fire Department. 

 Peter August Böckstiegel, Hanna [the artist's wife], 1927

Böckstiegel's studio was destroyed during the bombing of Dresden in February 1945. After the destruction of the city, Böckstiegel moved permanently to Arrode, where he became the first chairman of the "Westphalian Secession 1945". The first comprehensive retrospective of his work was shown between June and August 1950 at the Dresden State Art Collections. Peter August Böckstiegel died at his family home in Arrode on March 22nd, 1951. There is an excellent webpage by the "Friends of Peter August Böckstiegel" where you can see many more of his works.

Zygmunt Waliszewski

 Zygmunt Waliszewski, Self-Portrait, 1929

Zygmunt Waliszewski (1897-1936) was born in Saint Petersburg to the Polish family of an engineer. In 1907 his parents moved to Tbilisi, Georgia, where Waliszewski spent his childhood. In Tbilisi he began his artistic education in the School of Drawing and Painting. The work Waliszewski did while in Tbilisi (1917-1921) was influenced by French painting of the time - significant amounts of which he saw in various private collections - and by the art of the Russian avant-garde. 

 Zygmunt Waliszewski, Hamak, 1917

During World War I Waliszewski fought in the ranks of the Russian Army, returning to Tbilisi in 1917. He visited Moscow several times and became acquainted with the art of the Mir Isskustva (The World of Art Movement). In the early 1920s, Waliszewski departed for Poland, and settled in Kraków. Between 1921 and 1924 he studied at Krakow's Academy of Fine Arts in the studios of Wojciech Weiss and Jozef Pankiewicz. 

Zygmunt Waliszewski, Pejzaż zimowy z chatą, 1924

Waliszewski went to Paris in 1924 where he continued his studies in painting under the guidance of Pankiewicz. During his stay in Paris Waliszewski contracted the non-curable Buerger's disease and lost both his legs. 

Zygmunt Waliszewski, Wyspa miłości, 1935

In 1931 he returned to Poland, residing in Warsaw and Kraków. During this time Waliszewski designed scenery and posters, created book illustrations, drew and painted caricatures. He also composed fantastic, Comedia dell'arte inspired scenes and numerous variations on the motif of Don Quixote. Despite his deadly illness, he died in 1936, Waliszewski filled his paintings with humor, comic situations and irony. You can see more of his works here.

Madame d'Ora

Madame d'Ora, Self-Portrait, c. 1925

Dora Philippine Kallmus (1881-1963) was born to a Jewish family in Vienna. Though her mother, Malvine (née Sonnenberg), died when she was young, her family remained an important source of emotional and financial support in her career. She became interested in the field while assisting painter Hans Makart and in 1905 became the first woman accepted by the Association of Austrian photographers. At that time she was also the first woman allowed to study theory at the Graphischen Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt, which only in 1908 granted women access to other courses in photography. 

 Madame d'Ora, Josephine Baker, c. 1925

In 1907 she completed an apprenticeship with portrait photographer Nicola Perscheid in Berlin. After returning to Vienna she established her own studio with the help of her family. Its name - Atelier d’Ora - reflected her love of French culture.  Her studio achieved rapid popularity among the Viennese elite. In 1908 she portrayed Gustav Klimt, and in 1916 d’Ora was asked to photograph the coronation of Kaiser Karl. The prominent position of her father, Dr. Philipp Kalmus, as a government lawyer brought people from high levels of the civil service, banking and business to her studio. In 1919, d’Ora converted to Roman Catholicism. She never married. 

 Madame d'Ora, Rhythmic Pose, c. 1930 

D’Ora was one of the first photographers to focus on the emerging areas of modern, expressive dance and fashion, particularly after 1920, when fashion photographs started to replace drawings in magazines. While her photographic technique was not radical, her avant-garde subject matter was a risky choice for a commercial studio. However, d’Ora’s photographs, which captured her clients’ individuality with new, natural positions in contrast to stiff, old-fashioned poses, quickly became popular. 

 Madame d'Ora, Anonymous photograph of a dancer, Vienna, 1923

From 1921 to1926 d’Ora spent the summers in Karlsbad seeking international clientele and in 1925 opened a studio in Paris. In Paris d’Ora gained access to the international fashion industry and also received long-term contracts from the fashion magazines Die Dame and Officiel de la Couture et de la Mode. Her Paris photographs reflect the glamorous style of her clients there, including Coco Chanel, Tamara de Lempicka, Colette and Maurice Chevalier. In addition, d’Ora often published her own short essays to accompany her photos. 

Madame D'Ora, Tamara de Lempicka, 1929

D’Ora sold her Paris studio soon after the invasion of the Germans in 1940. Despite her conversion, she remained in danger because of her Jewish background. During the war she hid in a cloister in La Lanvese, in the southern province of Ardèche, and later on a farm. Many of her family were killed in the Holocaust, including her sister Anna. 

 Madame d'Ora, Colette, 1953

Both the subject and style of d’Ora’s photographs changed radically after the war. Already in 1945 she documented the plight of refugees at a camp in Austria and in 1956, at the age of seventy-five, completed a series vividly depicting the brutality of Paris slaughterhouses. After she was hit by a motorcycle in 1959, d’Ora lost much of her memory and was unable to work. She spent her remaining years in Frohnleiten, Austria, in the family house that had been forcibly sold under the Nazis but later returned to her. She died there on October 28, 1963.

Gustav Klimt's Obsessions

 Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt in blue smock, 1913

In June 1902, Auguste Rodin was passing through Vienna, en route from Prague. While in town, he accepted an invitation to visit the current exhibition of the Vienna Secession movement, and to meet the artist whose monumental work, the Beethoven Frieze, was at the heart of the display: Gustav Klimt. The two artists - Rodin 62, and at the peak of his fame, Klimt just about to turn 40 - went to a café in the Prater garden. According to the art critic Berta Zuckerkandl, they sat down beside two remarkably beautiful young women at whom Rodin gazed enchantedly.

 Gustav Klimt, Two Girlfriends, 1916

"That afternoon, slim and lovely vamps came buzzing around Klimt and Rodin, those two fiery lovers," Zuckerkandl recalled. "Rodin leaned over and to Klimt and said, 'I have never before experienced such an atmosphere - your tragic and magnificent Beethoven fresco, your unforgettable, temple-like exhibition, and now this garden, these women, this music. What is the reason for it all?' And Klimt slowly nodded his beautiful head, and answered only one word: 'Austria.'" 

Gustav Klimt - Beethove Frieze, The Hostile Powers, 1902

In Klimt's Beethoven Frieze, it seems, that hostile powers - naked temptresses and a huge snarling ape - above all symbolised the disease syphilis of which he was terrified - and understandably, since he had contracted it at an early age. Thus, his frieze brought together the themes of music, death, love and sex - so fundamentally fascinating to the Vienna of Sigmund Freud and Arthur Schnitzler. That was perhaps what Klimt meant by his laconic answer to Rodin's question. 

Madame d'Ora, Portrait of Gustav Klimt, 1908

A young woman named Frederike Beer-Monti rang on Klimt's doorbell in 1915, hoping he would paint her portrait (she had already posed for his younger rival, Schiele). She found him both taciturn and formidable. Klimt took her hand, looked at it, turned it over and for a long time,  but said not a single word. Beer-Monti was finally allowed to enter. But, "it took a lot of talking to make him a little friendlier." Klimt eventually agreed to paint her. Though the result was a magnificent picture, Beer-Monti was ambivalent about the artist. "Klimt was exceptionally animal-like. His body exuded a peculiar odour. As a woman, one was really afraid of him." 

 Gustav Klimt, Friedericke Maria Beer-Monti, 1916.

Three models inhabited Klimt's studio, rather like his pet cats. When he was painting Frederike Beer-Monti, he took a break every hour and went into an adjacent room to relax and chat for a while with the models who were always there. Alma Schindler reported that he "would take them to the theatre or races, always slipped them a banknote." Alma Schindler herself - later Alma Mahler, and subsequently the lover of Oskar Kokoschka was one of Klimt's failed conquests. He pursued her to Italy in 1899, where she was on holiday with her family. He kissed her in a Genoese hotel room, but she, though wildly in love, was firm ("not without a ring on my finger"). 

 Gustav Klimt, Lady with Hat and feather Boa, 1909

About the same time, Klimt fathered three sons by two other women, and began a long-lasting, though apparently open, relationship with a talented proprietor of a Viennese fashion salon, Emilie Flöge. The names of the models and other women in his life do not always survive, partly because Flöge burnt much of Klimt's correspondence after his death from a stroke in 1918. One who has been identified by chance recently was Hilde Roth, a beautiful Bohemian redhead from Budapest whose face can be seen in Lady with Hat and feather Boa (above).

 Gustav Klimt, The Bride, 1918

When Klimt died, an unfinished painting entitled The Bride was left in his studio. The right half was dominated by a semi-naked female figure. The knees were bent and the legs splayed out to expose a carefully detailed pubic area on which the artist had leisurely begun to paint an overlay 'dress' of suggestive and symbolic ornamental shapes. Thus Klimt's own death revealed the sexual obsession that lay beneath his shimmering surfaces.