| Werner Drewes |
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Information AboutWerner Drewes |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT WERNER DREWES | |
| american painters | |
| drewes, werner | |
| american printmakers | |
| modern painters | |
| german painters | |
| bauhaus | |
| federal art project | |
| 1899 births | |
| 1985 deaths | |
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The son of a conservative Lutheran Minister, Drewes was born in Canig, Germany in 1899. After being drafted into the army and serving two years as a soldier on the Western Front , Drewes was admitted to the Bauhaus ( Weimar ) in 1921 where he studied under Paul Klee , Johannes Itten and Georg Muche . From 1923 to 1927 he traveled extensively throughout Europe , North America and Asia , obtaining the occasional art commission in order to support his journey. Upon his return to Germany in 1927 he was readmitted to the Bauhaus in its new location in Dessau , where he enrolled in classes with the artists László Moholy-Nagy (graphics) and Wassily Kandinsky (painting). By 1930, as political pressure on artists became increasingly intolerable, especially for those artists dedicated to Abstract Art ( Hitler closed the Bauhaus in 1933), Drewes left Germany and emigrated to New York City . Despite the Great Depression , Drewes flourished in his new environment. He taught printmaking at the Brooklyn Museum under the Federal Art Project (Drewes was also Technical Supervisor of the FAP's Graphics Division for the period 1941-42), lectured at Stanley William Hayter 's Atelier 17 and was an instructor in painting, drawing and printmaking at Columbia University . In 1937 he was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group, the first formal organization in the United States devoted to the creation of non-objective art. Drewes's reputation continued to grow, and in 1946 he accepted the position of Professor of Design at Washington University In St. Louis . This tenured post afforded Drewes more financial stability and as result he was able to further explore and fine-tune his unique interpretations of the Bauhaus's aesthetic spirit. It was during this time he met, and became good friends with Max Beckmann who was also on the teaching staff at the university. Drewes retired from Washington University in 1965, eventually settling in Reston, Virginia , where he remained active until his death in 1985. Drewes enjoyed a large amount of recognition for his work in these later years including exhibits at major galleries in Germany and Turkey , and a retrospective devoted entirely to his printmaking held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1984. SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
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