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Lot Essay
This group of fourteen includes the following works, among others:
Florist's shop, Leipzig, 1930
Road workers, Rostock, 1931
Beach-roamer, Baltic, 1933
Intoxication, Hamburg, 1933
Arabesque with three lemons, Leipzig, 1934
Ischia / Sant Angelo, 1934
Shadow of David, Florence, 1934
Revealing his classical education and Surrealist influences, Herbert List's output comprises of sensitive, lyrical and at times eccentric imagery. The fourteen vintage, mounted prints in this grouping were made in the early 1930s, before the artist fled an increasingly oppressive Germany in 1936. At this time, List was an artist exploring poetry, drawing, painting and photography in Hamburg, with a particular literary interest in German Romantic poetry and ancient Greek mythology. The various props and effects used by List to create these Surrealist still-life compositions and fantastical views include masks, dolls, glass objects and the double-exposure technique.
The worlds created by List in these images, however, go beyond fashionable tableaux; the repeated use of open seaside views, and incorporations of classical statues—either real or implied—refer to the open-air theater of ancient Greece and Rome. Many times the poses and placements of List's figures and surrogate figures illicit theatrical performances. In other examples, figures or objects appear to be captured in the process of transitioning from one state to another, referring to transformation or magic; shadows of human forms intersect static sculptures and mutating facial expressions blur together in layered exposures that mingle with indistinct and inanimate forms. When List arrives in Paris in 1936, he is primed to partake in creative exchange with artists including Jean Cocteau and George Hoyningen-Huene, to fully absorb and respond to the Surrealist works being created and exhibited there at the time. The early 1930s, when the images offered here were created, was a time of great openness, experimentation and exploration for List as later, beginning in 1936 when his travels abroad begin, he narrows his focus to photography and works towards becoming a professional artist more seriously.
In his Hamburg studio, List kept a library of his photographs mounted on card-stock, just as these prints are. The name 'Gil' found on the reverse of many of these prints was a pseudonym the artist used for a short time around 1936/1937.
Florist's shop, Leipzig, 1930
Road workers, Rostock, 1931
Beach-roamer, Baltic, 1933
Intoxication, Hamburg, 1933
Arabesque with three lemons, Leipzig, 1934
Ischia / Sant Angelo, 1934
Shadow of David, Florence, 1934
Revealing his classical education and Surrealist influences, Herbert List's output comprises of sensitive, lyrical and at times eccentric imagery. The fourteen vintage, mounted prints in this grouping were made in the early 1930s, before the artist fled an increasingly oppressive Germany in 1936. At this time, List was an artist exploring poetry, drawing, painting and photography in Hamburg, with a particular literary interest in German Romantic poetry and ancient Greek mythology. The various props and effects used by List to create these Surrealist still-life compositions and fantastical views include masks, dolls, glass objects and the double-exposure technique.
The worlds created by List in these images, however, go beyond fashionable tableaux; the repeated use of open seaside views, and incorporations of classical statues—either real or implied—refer to the open-air theater of ancient Greece and Rome. Many times the poses and placements of List's figures and surrogate figures illicit theatrical performances. In other examples, figures or objects appear to be captured in the process of transitioning from one state to another, referring to transformation or magic; shadows of human forms intersect static sculptures and mutating facial expressions blur together in layered exposures that mingle with indistinct and inanimate forms. When List arrives in Paris in 1936, he is primed to partake in creative exchange with artists including Jean Cocteau and George Hoyningen-Huene, to fully absorb and respond to the Surrealist works being created and exhibited there at the time. The early 1930s, when the images offered here were created, was a time of great openness, experimentation and exploration for List as later, beginning in 1936 when his travels abroad begin, he narrows his focus to photography and works towards becoming a professional artist more seriously.
In his Hamburg studio, List kept a library of his photographs mounted on card-stock, just as these prints are. The name 'Gil' found on the reverse of many of these prints was a pseudonym the artist used for a short time around 1936/1937.