Fritz Winter

FRITZ WINTER (Altenbögge, Germany, 1905 – Herrsching am Ammersee, 1976)
Composition, 1975.
Mixed media on paper.
Signed with initials and dated: “FW 75”.
Signed, dated, and inscribed at the bottom.
Provenance: Werner Sumowski Collection (1931–2015). An art historian and professor emeritus at the University of Stuttgart, Werner Sumowski was one of the leading experts on Rembrandt and his circle of disciples. His research on 17th-century Dutch painting and drawing set a benchmark in the study of Rembrandt’s school.

Measurements: 20 x 18 cm.

An abstract composition on paper, structured around organic forms. The work combines the forceful gestural quality of the dark lines with a vivid and concentrated color palette, characteristic of Fritz Winter’s late style, in which abstraction retains an intense rhythmic and expressive dimension. The handwritten dedication at the bottom reinforces the piece’s intimate character.

Fritz Winter was one of the leading figures of 20th-century German abstraction. Trained at the Bauhaus in Dessau, where he came into contact with masters such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Oskar Schlemmer, he developed an abstract style of great constructive and chromatic power. After World War II, he was one of the founders of the ZEN 49 group, which played a pivotal role in the renewal of abstract art in Germany. His work is represented in institutions such as the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.