TEFAF Maastricht
March 7 – 15, 2020,
Booth 444
At TEFAF Maastricht this year Galerie Thomas is again showing a selection of important works by German Expressionist artists. Among them is a boldly coloured portrait of a woman by Alexej von Jawlensky, which shows his later wife Helene and was painted in 1911 on the Baltic Sea. This intense painting belongs to a group of works that Jawlensky himself repeatedly considered to be one of his strongest. Galerie Thomas is also showing Jawlensky's comrade-in-arms in the Blauer Reiter, August Macke, with "Couple by the Water under a Full Moon", a sensual-romantic masterpiece by the painter from the same year. Emil Nolde, on the other hand, is represented with two later, characteristic works, a landscape around Utenwarf with a dramatic cloudy sky and pastose application of paint from 1924, and a still life of flowers in glowing colours entitled "Glowing Sunflowers" from 1950. Masterpieces VII
Accompanying this presentation is another opulent volume in our publication series "Masterpieces", which, in addition to the art works mentioned above, shows further works by important artists from the gallery's program, including rare major works by artists who are still to be rediscovered to an even greater extent, such as Wladimir von Bechtejeff. In addition to works of Classical Modernism by Max Ernst, Fernand Léger or Marc Chagall, works of Modern Art from the second half of the 20th Century and the present are also prominently represented. From Alexander Calder and Lucio Fontana to Günther Uecker and Peter Halley, a top-class spectrum of impressive works unfolds. Outstanding exhibition stand
In addition, Galerie Thomas will be presenting itself this year with a special exhibition stand, which will enable our visitors to experience the outstanding works of Classical Modern and Contemporary Art on two floors.
The story behind the picture: Max Ernst
La Horde was painted in 1927, a year in Ernst's work that was particularly rich in outstanding paintings. The Horde pictures are closely related to the forest pictures Ernst created during the same period. The composition, formal characteristics and iconography of La Horde are very similar to these forest pictures, except that the structures of the technique of ‘Grattage’, which Ernst reinvented, are not interpreted here as a forest, but much more figuratively. The uncanny group of demon-like figures appears here against a light blue background, on whose horizon a green sky with a yellow sun-like semicircular or ring shape appears. The irritating scenery resembles a dream image, which can easily be read as the visualization of an inner state of mind. Werner Spies praised these pictures with these words:
"The dramatic power of the pictures, the richness of the sparkling colours - all this leads to highlights of the imaginative in surrealist art in the late twenties. Imaginary-ecstatic is this world of images."
