WERNER DREWES

Paintings and Works on Paper


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WERNER DREWES
Paintings and Works on Paper
September 16 through October 28, 2006
Opening Reception: Saturday, September 16, 3 to 6pm

TOBEY C. MOSS GALLERY
7321 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 933-5523, fax (323) 933-7618
E-mail, tobeymoss@earthlink.net
Web site, http://artscenecal.com/TMoss.html

WERNER DREWES’ strong modernist roots evolved at the Bauhaus under the tutelage of modern masters Lyonel Feininger, Johannes Itten, Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee.  Drewes emigrated to the United States in 1930.  In 1936, he became a founding member (along with Josef Albers, Burgoyne Diller, David Smith, Vaclav Vytlacil and others) of the American Abstract Artists group, the revolutionary group of artists that played a pivotal role in the evolution and acceptance of non-objective art in the United States.

Drewes creativity is revealed in his work over next fifty five years - and through his teaching at the New Bauhaus, Chicago in the 1930s/40s and at Washington University in St.Louis from the 1940s until retirement in l965. As can be seen in this exhibition, retirement did not stop the flow of his art! 

Regardless of medium or technique, Drewes was inspired by his heritage - expressionism, Bauhaus discipline, aesthetic inventiveness and personal intuition. From his beginnings, bold figuration, dramatic geometric forms, rhythmic abstractions and brilliant palettes combine to give evidence of a personal vocabulary in his woodcuts, oils and other techniques. Drawings recorded ideas throughout his career but he also, frequently, made wonderful collages as 'studies'.  Many of these inventive compositions can be traced to subsquent works.

Drewes was working until the month he died.  Watercolors, drawings, collages, prints and paintings in this exhibition span an illustrious career.  We begin with works from the early 1930s, including the watercolor Abstract I  and the woodcut Composition X: Dynamic Rhythm (among the first abstract prints created by Drewes).  Also included are works from the 1970s and 1980s, such as the paintings Winter Solstice and Iceage - both of which are exhibited alongside related works on paper.

Werner Drewes’ works in all media are in museums and private collections throughout the world.

Digital images available upon request.

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