Alexander Kanoldt was one of the most important representatives of the movement known as Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity), characterized by a departure from expressionism and abstraction. It was a form of realism that saw a renewal of art in the simplicity of formal means and a return to classical representations in both form and content. Hailing from Karlsruhe, Kanoldt gained fame as a creator of still lifes, landscapes, and portraits. In 1925, a major exhibition of this new artistic direction took place in Mannheim, where Kanoldt, alongside Max Beckmann, contributed many canvases. In the same year, Kanoldt assumed the position of a professor at the State Academy of Art and Crafts in Breslau.
One year after arriving in the capital of Lower Silesia in 1926, the painting “Still Life with Guitar” was created, depicting a group of arranged objects in a typical, easily readable manner characteristic of Neue Sachlichkeit. Objects of everyday use, delineated with clear contours, do not possess any additional representative or symbolic functions; they form a pure composition of colors and forms.
The painting was exhibited at the Autumn Exhibition of the Berlin Secession in 1926 and later became part of Ismar Littmann’s collection. In 1929, the canvas was on display at an exhibition in Munich. After the collector’s suicide, the artwork was acquired in 1935 by the Galerienverein in Stuttgart and was exhibited at the Staatsgalerie there until 2008. In 2008, the painting was returned to the community of Littmann’s heirs, and five years later, in November 2013, it was auctioned at the VAN HAM gallery. The Friends of the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart successfully won the bid, and the painting returned to the museum’s collection.
Painting Information:
oil on canvas, dimensions: 75 x 88 cm, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
Literature: Alexander Kanoldt (1881-1931) – Gemälde Zeichnungen Lithographien, Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg i. Br./Von der Heydt-Museum der Stadt Wuppertal 1987, nr kat. 52, s. 44, 179.