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Dimensions: 100.6 by 98.2cm., 39 5/8 by 38 5/8 in.
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Provenance: Galerie Arnold, Dresden
Gallery Lilienfeld, New York
Galerie Grosshennig, Dusseldorf
Achim Möller Fine Art, New York
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Exhibited: Dresden, Galerie Arnold, Max Pechstein, 1919, illustrated in the catalogue (incorrectly dated 1917)
New York, Lilienfeld Galleries, Max Pechstein, 1938
Dusseldorf, Galerie Grosshennig, Max Pechstein, 1970-71, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Kunstsalon Franke, Historien-und Landschaftsbilder aus fünf Jahrhunderten, 2002, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
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Notes: Painted in 1914, the present work belongs to a series of still-lives Pechstein executed from 1912 onwards. The use of Cézannian space and the acknowledgement of Cubism are as much elements in Stilleben mit Tulpen und Kopfskulptur as the artist's admiration of tribal sculptures, especially in the light of his preparations for his trip to the Palau Islands in April 1914.
The sculpture Kopf, depicted in the present work, can be identified as a wood carving which Pechstein executed in 1913 (fig.1). He was evidently captured by the exotic Oceanic culture and art as much as his contemporaries, such as Gauguin and Picasso. The present work is therefore a testimony of the artist's anticipation of his first-hand discovery of the exotic as well as of his developed individual artistic language as a leading figure of German Expressionism.
FIG. I, Hermann Max Pechstein, Kopf, 1913 (featuring in the present painting)