Painting on Glass II or Blue Disc, 1928

Dimensions: 46.5 x 39.6 cm

Physical Description: Reverse painting on glass in artist frame

Inventory Number: 2454

Acquisition: Acquired in 2015 with means provided by the Werner Wirthle bequest

Status: On display, 1st upper level, Modern Art, room 13

Texts

About the Work

In addition to his profession as a free artist, Walter Dexel also worked in typography and advertising. During the interwar years, his works combined ideas derived from Constructivism with a keen interest in industrial design. ‘Painting on Glass II’ is characterised by its geometric formal repertoire and its nuanced palette: red bars, a light blue semicircle and black and white hooks jointly create a complex pictorial architecture. The technique of reverse glass painting dates back to the Gothic period. It is with such abstract images that Dexel translated this traditional genre into a radically modernist form of expression.