WALTER DEXEL (1890-1973)

Created in 1923, Komposition 1923 XI/Stadt dates from a key period of experimentation and exploration in Walter Dexel’s artistic career, as he began to embrace the formal language of Constructivism in his painting. In his role as the artistic director of the Kunstverein in Jena (1916-28), Dexel came into contact with many leading figures of the European avant-garde during the early 1920s, including Jean Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Kurt Schwitters, Paul Klee, El Lissitzky, László Moholy-Nagy, and Theo van Doesburg, with whom the artist developed a close friendship from 1921 onwards. Immersed in this dynamic milieu, Dexel’s absorbed and responded to the many diverse styles and theories that were sweeping through Europe at this time, translating them through his own idiosyncratic vision.

This important double-sided canvas illustrates the evolving nature of Dexel’s art during these years, as he explored the full possibilities of complete abstraction. On the recto, he reduces the composition to a carefully balanced configuration of pure, geometric rectangles, differentiated from one another by subtle variations in colour, weight, and orientation. Focusing on the relationships between these elements and the manner in which their characters change as they interact, the image is infused with a palpable internal tension. The reverse, meanwhile, is filled with a colourful multitude of forms overlapping and abutting one another in a dense array, distilling the built environment of the city down to its essential geometric shapes, while still remaining rooted in the figurative.