Adolph Jentsch; German/Namibian 1888-1977; Extensive Landscape, Swa
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Anmerkung : Wolfgang Biederlack (b. Windhoek, 1933) had a lifelong passion for Namibian art. Seeking out fine examples, privately or through local dealers, he built a beautiful and balanced survey collection of pictures that spanned nearly a century, and included works by the likes of Axel Eriksson, Heinz Pulon, Otto Schröder, Fritz Krampe, Otto Klar, Johannes and Arnfried Blatt, Keith Alexander, Nico Roos and, of course, Adolph Jentsch. Adolph Jentsch trained at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts alongside such firebrands as Max Pechstein, George Grosz and Kurt Schwitters. He witnessed first-hand the tradition-jolting formation of Die Brücke, a group of artists then experimenting with clashing colours and angsty themes. Despite his proximity to this group, which became one of the founding pillars of German Expressionism, Jentsch's own painting style remained peculiarly unaffected. In fact, as his serene and tenderly-painted view of Moritzburg proves, his natural inclination was for peaceful colour harmonies and only a very gently distorted naturalism. Dispirited and professionally stifled by the looming threat of National Socialism in Germany, Jentsch immigrated to the then South West Africa in 1938. Enlivened by his new surroundings - the mirages, the endless horizons, the blazing light, the shifting desert - his approach to landscape painting took on more mystic and expressive characteristics. Major oil paintings of dramatic vistas, of which few survive, were executed with darting brushstrokes - calligraphic and Oriental in nature - and mesmerizing gradations of ochre, gold, grey and indigo.
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