The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913-1915 through November 30, 2014. This is the first focused look and the first solo exhibition on the West Coast in almost 10 years of this American-born artist’s German paintings in the United States. From 1912 to 1915, Hartley lived in Europe – first in Paris and then in Berlin. There he developed a singular style that reflected his modern surroundings and the tumultuous time before and during World War I. Berlin’s exciting urban environment, prominent gay community and military spectacle had a profound impact upon him. Marsden Hartley features approximately 25 paintings from this critical moment in Hartley’s career that reveal dynamic shifts in style and subject matter comprised of musical and spiritual abstractions, city portraits, military symbols and Native American motifs. Throughout his career, Hartley moved between modes of abstraction and representation and experimented with portraiture, landscape and symbolism. The paintings in the exhibition reveal the effects of the war and demonstrate his adoption of military symbols and Native American motifs in two major series: The War Motif and Amerika paintings – characterized by the bold use of color and complex abstract compositions. In 1912, Hartley met Prussian officer Carl Von Freyburg and soon developed a deep infatuation for him. Von Freyburg was killed in the first few months of World War I, and Hartley’s sorrow over his death greatly affected the direction of his paintings, resulting in the War Motif series. Hartley incorporated his interest in the German military and its regalia, often in reference to Von Freyburg, into a coded approach to portraiture. For example, the Iron Cross, which Von Freyburg was awarded, and the number four, his regiment number, often appear interwoven with boldly colored flags and monochrome backgrounds. Though the series began as a memorial to his lost friend and love, over time the paintings transformed into rich explorations of abstraction, color and military motifs. In his Amerika paintings, Hartley explores Native American imagery with geometric configurations of arrows, bows and tipis comprising geometric compositions. During his time abroad, Hartley developed an admiration for Native American spirituality and visited ethnographic museums in Paris and Berlin to explore the art and traditions of these peoples. Hartley’s paintings reflect a long history in Germany of interest in Native American cultures and aligned him with other German modernists such as the Blaue Reiter artist August Macke, who painted similar subject matter. Hartley’s Amerika series also reveals affinities with the work of other modernist peers including Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who explored in their work elements of what they considered “primitive” art. In addition, Hartley’s paintings expressed the growing contempt for the way the United States government treated indigenous communities. His use of symmetrical geometric compositions incorporated both abstraction and figuration with various Native American motifs and vivid colors. Hartley’s other paintings from this period similarly combine representational objects and abstract designs, resulting in vibrant studies of spirituality and mysticism. Accompanying Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913-1915 is a companion show of works from LACMA’s permanent collection that offer examples of the artistic movements and historical events Hartley experienced firsthand during this important period of his career. Including works by Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Curtis, Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, as well as rare World War I art periodicals, the selections demonstrate Hartley’s unique exposure to both American and European influences.
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