Still Life with Jug and African Bowl

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Still Life with Jug and African Bowl

Germany, 1912
Paintings
Oil on canvas
55 x 44 x 2 1/2 in. (139.7 x 111.76 x 6.35 cm)
Gift of Richard Smooke, Michael Smooke, and Barry Smooke in honor of their parents, Marion and Nathan Smooke (M.2003.90)
Modern Art
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Since gallery displays may change often, please contact us before you visit to make certain this item is on view.

Provenance

The artist (1880-1938); [Galerie Ernst Arnold, Dresden]; [sold in 1926 to Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv. no....
The artist (1880-1938); [Galerie Ernst Arnold, Dresden]; [sold in 1926 to Kunsthalle Mannheim (inv. no. 632)]; confiscated August 28,1937 in the action “Entartete Kunst” (“Degenerate Art”) by the Deutsches Reich/Reichsministerium für Volksaufklӓrung und Propaganda, Berlin; stored at Depot Schloss Schӧnhausen, storage of “internationally usable” works of art, from August 1938; [by exchange on March 7, 1940 to Galerie Ferdinand Möller, Cologne]; [sold in1943 to Kunsthändler Ferdinand Mӧller, Berlin, until 1949, registration by Kurt Reutti November 1946]; possibly sold to Baron Philippe Lambert (1930-2011), Brussels]; [sold in 1987 at Christie’s, London, June 29, 1987, Lot 33]; to Nathan (1909-1991) and Marion Smooke (1916-2001), Beverly Hills; Estate of Nathan and Marion Smooke; given in 2003 by their children Richard, Michael, and Barry Smooke to LACMA.
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Label

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner decorated his studio in Berlin with motifs copied from African, Indian, Indonesian, and Pacific Islander art....
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner decorated his studio in Berlin with motifs copied from African, Indian, Indonesian, and Pacific Islander art. Kirchner’s fascination with non-European art was fueled by the founding of German colonies in the South Pacific and Africa in the late nineteenth century. The looting of art and artefacts from these colonies fed the collections at new ethnographic museums throughout Germany, where Kirchner and the other Expressionists encountered them removed from their original context. Still Life with Jug and African Bowl includes depictions of sculptures by Kirchner in the style of African woodcarving— similar to the sculpture displayed nearby, Dancer with Necklace.

Like other artists in this gallery, Kirchner was attacked as “degenerate” by the Nazis. Still Life, originally in the collection of Kunsthalle Mannheim, was confiscated in 1937 after the German Propaganda Ministry announced a “cleansing” of all public museums.

Wall label, 2021.
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Bibliography

  • Gordon, Donald E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.1968. Catalogue raisonné, no. 554, p. 346, illustrated.

  • Benson, Timothy O.  Expressionism in Germany and France: from Van Gogh to Kandinsky.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2014.

  • Gordon, Donald E. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.1968. Catalogue raisonné, no. 554, p. 346, illustrated.

  • Benson, Timothy O.  Expressionism in Germany and France: from Van Gogh to Kandinsky.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2014.
  • Benson, Timothy O.  L'Expressionnisme en Allemagne et en France : De van Gogh à Kandinsky.  Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2014.
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