Glass Bowl of Fruit (Primary Title)
Konrad Cramer, American, born Germany, 1888 - 1963 (Artist)
This modern work is inspired by a 19th-century form of folk painting known as a “theorem”—astill life made using stencils to paint on velvet. Countless early modernists, like Konrad Cramer, were fascinated with the potent form and emotional content of American folk art, particularly its dialogue between abstraction and representation. Emigrating from Germany at age twenty-three, Cramer spent his career experimenting with modernist painting and photography in the progressive artist colony of Woodstock, New York. According to his wife, Florence, he “took up photography to clarify aesthetic issues in painting,” such as representation, space, and symbol—all evident in this dynamic still life.
lower right: "KONRAD CRAMER 1928"
John Barton Payne Fund
"Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties" Brooklyn Museum of Art (28 October, 2011 - 29 January, 2012); Dallas Museum of Art (24 February - 27 May, 2012); Cleveland Museum of Ar (1 July - 16 September 2012).
Look Here: FEAST, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (15 March - 25 June, 2006).
Look Here: FEAST, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (15 March - 25 June, 2006).
©artist or artist’s estate
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