Gisevius: Constructivist Abstract Composition German Bauhaus Student

A powerful constructivist composition by Werner Gisevius (1906-1971).

Having studied at the Bauhaus in the pre war years, Werner Gisevius was drafted into the German army during World War 2. He was sent to fight in Normandy, despite having previously been injured on the Russian front. Gisevius became an American prisoner of war, and after the Liberation, decided to remain in France. He exhibited at the Salon des Indpendants from the 1950s onwards. As a German in France in the postwar period, it was not easy for Gisevius to make a living from his art, and he often depended on help from charities even to buy art supplies. It was only in 1972 that he found recognition, with a one man show at the Galerie Denise Ren, historically the most important gallery for geometric abstraction, kinetic and constructivist art in Paris. It s interesting to note that the constructivist composition presented here, dating from 1967, was probably painted in "La Ruche", where Gisevius had his studio from the mid 60s onwards. La Ruche was the Montmartre artists' residence where had lived and worked some of the greatest names in the history of 20th Century art, such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Marc Chagall, Fernand Leger, Alexander Archipenko. Our oil on canvas by Gisevius measures 35 x 27 cm and is signed and dated on the verso. Its overall size including a box frame is 39 x 31 cm/