SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Painter, architect, sculptor, graphic artist and product designer, Erich Buchholz pursued a wide-ranging practice accompanied by a critical reflection on how art history tells the story of the avant-garde. A German artist, he was born in Bydgoszcz on 31 January 1891 and died in Berlin on 29 December 1972.
After training at a teacher-training school in Bydgoszcz in 1908, he worked as a schoolteacher in Czarnków, Greater Poland, from 1911. His move to Berlin in 1915 marked the beginning of his artistic career; there, he also completed a brief apprenticeship with Lovis Corinth. From 1917, he worked as a stage designer under the direction of Karl Voigt in Bamberg, then, from 1920, for the Albert Theatre in Dresden. In 1921, Herwarth Walden’s Der Sturm gallery presented 46 of his works. The following year, Buchholz set up a live-work studio at 15 Herkulesufer, Berlin, while five of his works were included in the First International Art Exhibition in Düsseldorf. In 1923, he exhibited four works as a guest of the Novembergruppe at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, in which he participated regularly until 1931. He moved to Germendorf, Brandenburg, in 1925. According to his daughter, between 1933 and 1945 he was forbidden to paint and was arrested on the accusation of disseminating communist propaganda.
In 1947, William Wauer organised the solo exhibition Werden über 30 Jahre: Erich Buchholz (“Thirty Years of Work. Erich Buchholz”) at the Tempelhof gallery in Berlin. After returning to Berlin in 1951, the artist continued to publish and exhibit. Die große Zäsur appeared in 1953, Die abstrakte Bewegung in 1957, and An meinem Fall scheitert die offizielle Kunstgeschichte in 1969. In his writings, Buchholz opposed what he perceived as the marginalisation of “official art history” after the Second World War and criticised the one-dimensional nature of the written account of the avant-garde. His works were exhibited at the Rose Fried Gallery in New York in 1956, and the Gerd Rosen gallery in Berlin devoted a solo exhibition to him in 1957. The painting Forces, dated 1921, was purchased by Herbert and Nanette Rothschild and then transferred to the Museum of Modern Art; it was presented in the exhibition Recent European Acquisitions in 1956–1957. After his death, a retrospective was presented in 1978 at several institutions, including the Art Museum in Hanover and the Wilhelm Hack Museum in Ludwigshafen.
This profile brings together identity references for Erich Buchholz and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Germann
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Watercolour on paper
Komposition, 1921
aquarelle sur papier
Catalogue period : 2023-06-21
Published result : 2474 CHF
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : CHF 2000–3000
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Gouache on paper
Konstruktive Komposition, um 1920, Ausführung 1960er-Jahre
Gouache auf Papier
Catalogue period : 2020-09-23
Published result : 1823 CHF
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : CHF 1500–2500
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Gouache on paper
Komposition
Gouache auf Papier.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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