Gabriele Münter

Gabriele Münter-und Johannes Eichner-Stiftung, Munich
Private Collection, Dusseldorf (acquired in the 1980s)
Thence by descent to the present owners in 2004

The board is stable. There do not appear to be any signs of retouching visible under UV light. There are a few fine surface scratches with associated spots of paint loss in the lower right corner, with scattered further small spots of paint loss in places. There are two specks of foxing at the centre of the right edge. This work is in overall good original condition.
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“Münter’s still lifes assault the commonality of objects. They grant significance to the mundane, and exalt their reality from the commonplace to poetic prominence.” Reinhold Heller, Gabriele Münter. The Years of Expressionism 1903-1920, Munich, 1997, p. 99

Gabriele Münter’s striking Topfpflanze shows a Pelargonium plant on the artist’s window sill set against a bright blue sky, with clouds in different shades of purple and white visible beyond the window pane. A single bloom adds a burst of bright red colour to the composition. With its strong colours, delicate application of paint and bold outlined forms, the present work draws on the stylistic repertoire Münter developed in Murnau, where she worked alongside Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky and Marianne Werefkin.

At a time when female artists were forbidden from entry to art academies and the social role of women was largely confined to house and home, the genre of still life was regarded as a lesser genre and quintessentially female. Despite these preconceptions, Münter made the depiction of seemingly mundane everyday objects a focus within her œuvre. What at first glance might seem like a confirmation of stereotypes must be read as a powerful artistic statement: “Münter’s consistent presentation of still-life paintings in the fora of public exhibitions from 1909 onwards placed her in danger of being dismissed as an amateur artist by confirming common preconceptions regarding the sex of still-life painters. But it was also a bold move in an attempt to counter precisely such dismissals of still lifes as insignificant ‘women’s work’. Her still lifes were in direct competition with the ambitious art of progressive male artists. Possibly inspired by the great role still life played in the contemporary French avant-garde, in which the leading Fauve and the early Cubist painters consistently employed still-life motifs, Münter’s rhopographic images were not separated, isolated or diminished, but rather demanded recognition as being equal to her male counterparts’ overtly ambitious, non-still-life exhibition entries” (Reinhold Heller, Gabriele Münter. The Years of Expressionism 1903-1920, Munich, 1997, p. 102).

Topfpflanze beautifully illustrates what was important to Münter. The flatness of composition, the absence of shadows as well as the heavy outlines delineating each object, lift the image out of the realm of naturalistic representation, where formal or abstract values prevail over motifs and subject matter and make it an impressive synopsis of contemporary ideas.