SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
Born and died in Hanover, Carl Buchheister (1890–1964) developed an oeuvre whose documented trajectory runs from realistic portraits to abstraction oriented towards Constructivism. After obtaining his school-leaving certificate in 1910, he attended municipal evening classes at the School of Applied Arts in Bremen. During the First World War, he made hundreds of pencil sketches devoted to soldiers’ lives; the biographical source locates the discovery of his vocation in this practice. After the armistice, he returned to Hanover and sought to earn a living from his painting, which at the time consisted mainly of realistically rendered portraits.
His meeting with Kurt Schwitters transformed his aesthetic intentions, and in 1923 he turned to abstraction with a Constructivist orientation. Abstract works were shown in Berlin by Herwarth Walden; the following year, Buchheister presented a larger group of Constructivist compositions at the spring exhibition of the Hanover Museum. Following the opening of an international exhibition of abstract art in Paris in April 1930, he became a member of Abstraction-Création, a group to which he belonged until 1936. In 1938, three of his paintings were selected for the so-called “degenerate” art exhibition in Hamburg.
A work from 1959, Komposition Kamadem, also testifies to the diversity of materials used: oil, tempera, Caparol and collage on cardboard mounted on wood. It is signed, dated and titled on the reverse. Uwe Haupenthal’s monograph, Carl Buchheister 1890-1964. Konstruktive Malerei und malerische Abstraktion, was published in 2005.
This profile brings together identity references for Carl Buchheister and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
4 references are documented at Germann, Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer, Lempertz. Each record links to its source; the amounts are not a general valuation of the artist’s work.
Gouache, Tinte und Bleistift auf Papier
Catalogue period : 2023-06-21
Published result : 6803 CHF
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : CHF 3000–5000
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Mischtechnik und Collage auf Papier
Auction date : 2020-06-20
Published result : 2868 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 3000
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Aquarell, Lack, Bleistift, Buntstift auf Papier
Auction date : 2019-11-30
Published result : 4836 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 5000
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Oil, tempera, Caparol and collage on cardboard mounted on wood.
Komposition Kamadem, 1959
Öl, Tempera, Caparol und Collage auf Karton auf Holz.
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.
Documentation updated : 2026-10-19
