|
Ray Hartstein Campus, Skokie, A Wing, 2nd floor |
| Otto Neumann (1895-1975)
was a German painter and printmaker whose life and career incorporated
the evolution from German expressionism through biomorphic surrealism and
to the total abstraction of the human form.
Trained by academic portraitists, the artist soon became attracted to the work of Kokoschka and painted dynamic and often extremely colorful portraits. He abandoned both portraits and oil painting to pursue his increasing interests in the human condition, with woodcuts, linoleum prints, and graphite drawings of mythological and literary based subjects. After World War II, his forms became increasingly abstract, though the human figure in an undefined background remained his exclusive subject until the end of a long, active, and prolific career. Despite personal tragedy and ill health, Neumann had managed to continue to evolve as an artist. Rather than living in the past, as so many of his contemporaries of the pre-war generation had done, he had never ceased to experiment as an artist. His subjects, style, and technical processes had changed several times, and we can see Neumann's participation in the evolution of 20th-century art through the representative works in this collection. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Limbo, 1925
Linocut, 19-1/2" x 13-3/4 Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
The
Boat to the Styx, c. 1925
Linocut, 19-3/4" x 27-3/4" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
Charon
and his Boat, c. 1925
Hand painted linocut, 18-1/2" x 25" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
Baboon,
1929
Graphite drawing, 25-1/4" x 19 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Running
Male Nudes, c. 1930's
Watercolor and Pencil 27-1/2" x 21-1/4" |
Seated
Figure, 1930
Watercolor and graphite
25-1/4" x 19" |
Standing
Nude, 1930
Watercolor and graphite 28-3/4" x 20" |
Four Men,
c.
1952
Linocut, 25-1/2" x 19-3/4" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Two Kneeling
Women, 1952
Monotype, 17" x 12-1/4" |
Two Nude
Women, 1952
Monotype, 21-1/4 x 15" |
Horses
and Riders, 1952
Monotype, 15" x 21-1/4" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
Four Male
Nudes, 1959
Monotype, 24-3/4" x 17-3/4" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Abstract Figures,
1962
Monotype, 24-1/2" x 18-1/4" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
Study for Abstract,
1965
Chalk, 19" x 14" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
Abstraction, 1965
Monotype, 17-3/4" x 24-1/2" |
Abstract Form, 1968
Monotype, 24-3/4" x 17-3/4" Gift of Sandra and David Sokol |
|
|