Curt Ehrhardt
1895 - 1972
Mord-Maschine. 1921.
Oil and collage on cardboard.
Signed in the lower right. Signed, dated, and titled on the reverse, indicating the exact dates and the place of creation. 61.8 x 74.4 cm (24.3 x 29.2 in). [AH].

• Drastic and provocative: Ehrhardt’s powerful, socially critical exploration of the painful destruction of humanity.
• In the year the painting was created, the artist participated in the Munich Expressionists exhibition in Chicago.
• Ehrhardt was a member of the “November Group,” an artists’ association founded in 1918 with Max Pechstein among its co-founders.
• Works by the artist are held in the Berlinische Galerie, the German Expressionist Collection of the City of Leicester, England, and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam.

PROVENANCE: The artist’s estate.
Galerie Hebecker, Weimar.
Private collection, Rhineland.
Private collection, Germany.
Swiss collection (acquired in 2017 from the above, Ketterer Kunst, Munich).

EXHIBITION: Internationale Kunstausstellung in Düsseldorf, May 28–July 3, 1922, cat. no. 80 (no illustration).
Probably Kunstverein Hamburg (with a label on the reverse).
Curt Ehrhardt, Gemäldegalerie Städtisches Museum Wiesbaden, September 14–November 3, 1968.

LITERATURE: Peter Arlt, Das Lebens dunkle Tänze. Der Maler Curt Erhardt 1895–1972, Lauenförde 2002 (with illu., p. 76).
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Ketterer Kunst, Munich, 459th Auction, Modern Art, Dec. 9, 2017, lot 663 (with illustration).
Lempertz, Cologne, 1090th Auction, Modern Art, May 31, 2017, lot 331 (with illustration).

The colors are beautifully preserved. Small nail holes along the edges. Isolated areas of minimal wear. Slightly more noticeable along the outer edges and corners of the image. There are a few tiny areas of material loss in those spots, but mostly outside the image itself.
Features small, expertly executed retouches. In the upper left corner, there is a superficial, faint crease. Overall in good condition. The condition report was compiled in daylight with the aid of a UV light source, and to the best of our knowledge and belief.
For information concerning the condition, please view the high resolution image / backside image.