Daily life: Radishes

Details

Puttkamer 247.Exhibitions: Kollektivausstellung MOPP. CXXXIX. Ausstellung der Vereinigung bildender Künstler, Wiener Secession, Vienna 1935/36, cat. no.9.Provenance:Austria, presumably private ownership (painted exported from Austria before April 1938, see stamp on the reverse on the stretcher: “Zentralstelle für Denkmalschutz im Bundesmin. f. Unterricht”); Kerry Burt, Los Angeles, until 1988; collection of/estate of Serge Sabarsky, New York, acquired from the aforementioned in 1988; collection of/Foundation Vally Sabarsky, New York.

Description

• From the “Daily life” group of small-format still lifes showing domestic scenes
• Exhibited in Vienna in 1935/36 in the last large solo exhibition of works by Oppenheimer
• The still life genre played an important role in Oppenheimer’s oeuvre Born in Vienna in 1885, Max Oppenheimer was considered a great connoisseur of music and was also one of the first Expressionists in Austria. He exhibited early on in his home country and in German-speaking countries and celebrated his first successes. Alongside Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, he was one of the most important representatives of Austrian modernism. Max Oppenheimer returned from Berlin to Vienna in March 1932, as the consequences of the global economic crisis and the unstable political situation, which would lead to Adolf Hitler’s seizure of power in 1933, made it impossible for him to earn a living as a painter in Germany. 50 years later, in the winter of 1935/36, the Vienna Secession honoured him with an exhibition comprising 56 works, 36 of which were paintings. It was to be his last major solo exhibition ever, followed only by a smaller one in exile in New York and Chicago. One focus of the exhibition is a group of works from 1934/35, which is being shown here for the first time, entitled “Daily Life” – small-format still lifes with themes from the domestic environment. The present painting “Radishes” from 1935, which was shown under no. 9, also belongs to this group of works, in which Oppenheimer intensified his exploration of the still life genre, which had already played a major role in his oeuvre during the 1920s. Stylistically, however, he had turned to a late Impressionist style of painting in 1929.