German Max Thalmann (1890-1944) was a figurative artist who produced black and white woodblock prints for a short period of time between the two World Wars. For the rest of his life, he mostly worked as a graphic designer and a bookbinder, having been trained as such under Henry Van De Velde at Weimar. His artistic production consists mainly of three bodies of work: The Passion, The Cathedral (Der Dom), and America in Woodcuts (Amerika im Holzschnitt) each with a distinctive character.
The third one is inspired by his experience in the United States in 1922/23, just after teaching briefly at the Bauhaus. Thalmann’s works are extremely sharp and originally composed, featuring a stylized representation which often reduces his subjects to geometrical sequences. Windows and building volumes in “America in Woodcuts” participate in the same rhythmic composition as the buzzing street on the bottom of the woodcuts.
An expressionist sensibility lies behind most of the works.
Right: By the Canal
Right: Factories
Right: Skyscraper under construction
Further reading:
Max Thalmann at Steven Fine Arts
Thanks for your post, especially the images of Thalmann’s Dom with his signatures. Therefore, I was able to confidently buy a Dom portfolio that he signed with initials below each image. I’ll soon be doing a blog post on the recent spate of portfolio purchases. The blog ART I SEE is part of my website.