Hans Purrmann

A pocket-size introduction to the great twentieth-century German painter.

Hans Purrmann (1880–1966) is among the most important painters in the history of twentieth-century art. His use of vibrant color drew on the works of Henri Matisse, with whom he was friends, and Paul Cézanne, but he achieved independent international acclaim over the course of an eventful life lived in Munich, Paris, Berlin, Florence, and Switzerland. With irrepressible curiosity, attentiveness, and an unerring eye for the beauty of the primal and essential, he produced works that pushed the bounds of representational painting. In 1955 Purrmann was included in the first documenta exhibit in Kassel, established to reconnect West Germany to the international art scene after World War II and to showcase art that had been deemed “degenerate” by the Nazi regime. In 1962 he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and was hailed by the press as a sensation. Based on new sources, this book presents the life and work of Hans Purrmann and situates the painter as a prominent protagonist in twentieth-century art history.

 

The painter Hans Purrmann (1880–1966) ranks among the most important colourists of twentieth- entury art. Drawing on Henri Matisse and the expressionists, he developed a distinct and acclaimed artistic practice over the course of a life lived in places from Munich to Paris to Berlin to Florence to Switzerland. Part of the secret of Hans Purrmann’s art is that in his work he translated the visible in a very specific and vibrant manner. With irrepressible curiosity, attentiveness and an unerring eye for beauty and the primal and essential, he produced works whose classification as “representational painting” falls short. In fact, his place in art history is one which continues to offer points of departure for modernism [“einen für die Moderne bis heute anschlussfähigen Rang”: in der Kunst ist die Moderne eine abgeschlossene Epoche]: in 1955 Purrmann was included in documenta I in Kassel, and in 1962 he was the subject of a major retrospective at the Haus der Kunst in Munich which was hailed by the press as a sensation. Based on new sources, Christoph Wagner presents the life and work of Hans Purrmann and places the painter as a prominent protagonist within the coordinates of twentieth-century art history.