Konrad Cramer (1988 - 1963)

Zinnias #2, 1928, oil on board, 23 ¼ x 19 ¼, signed and dated lower right, titled verso, verso: 1) inscription verso: “Painted by My Father, Konrad Cramer, c. 1930 (indistinct signature)”, 2) “Dudensing Gallery, 5 E57, Modern American Painting, 553”; 3) label from unknown source “Painting Number ___, Bin 31, Price $350.00”; exhibited Dudensing Gallery (NY)/Ulrich-Dudensing (Minneapolis)/Walden-Dudensing (Chicago) 1930 (three separate labels verso) (in connection with the Minneapolis show, see Sherman, John K., Art – Flower Pieces by Konrad Cramer at Ulrich’s, The Minneapolis Star, p. 4, September 11, 1930) for a positive review which mentions paintings of zinnias); literature: Archives of American Art – Konrad and Florence Ballin Cramer Papers 1897 – 1968 – Series 6 – Personal Business Records – Box 5 – Folder 46 – 1930 – 1960 – frames 4 and 5 show a pencil sketch of the painting with the following notations:  “Zinnias # II, Not Shown, priced @ $300, light silver frame narrow, 8 – 1928, L.A Zinnias $325.” Box 5 – Folder 44 – 1929 – 1936 – frame 16 shows a copy of a receipt from Dudensing to Cramer, dated July 1930 listing “553 – Zinnias – 20 x 24 - $350”; provenance:  Dudensing Gallery (as noted above) and Gerald Peters Gallery (New Mexico) (label verso), presented in a newer frame

$15,000

Zinnias #2 comes from a series of innovative still life compositions Konrad Cramer completed in 1928. The catalog for Cramer's 1981-82 retrospective put these works into context:

"In 1928 he also painted as series of still lifes, usually centered around a bowl of fruit or a vase of flowers ... these focal objects were painted realistically and three-dimensionally ... and then surrounded by decorative areas of flatter, more Cubist planes. This style, which respects the visual wholeness of the central object but fragments its surroundings into abstract and decorative forms, represents one of Cramer's more individual contributions to modern American art. Typically, it is individual primarily in its fusion of a variety of sources: traditional still-life painting, Cezanne Cubism, and American folk art. Also characteristic is Cramer's use of diversified techniques, such as the stenciling of the lace doily on which the vase stands."

Konrad Cramer was one of America's earliest modernists. Born and raised in Wurtzburg, Germany, he studied art at the Karlsruhe Academy under Ludwig Schmidt-Reutte and Ernest Schurth. He was influenced by German avant-garde styles including the art of Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, as well as Paul Cézanne’s Cubist landscapes. In Munich, Cramer met and later married the American artist Florence Ballin and the young couple moved to Woodstock, New York, where they were instrumental in forming the Woodstock Art Association. Cramer created a series of abstract improvisations which were exhibited at the MacDowell Club in 1913. Throughout the 1920s, he developed a highly personal style that combined the lessons of modernism with American subject matter and vernacular traditions. He won a Rockefeller grant in 1920 and in 1922 he took a teaching position at the Woodstock School of Painting.

Cramer exhibited widely, including multiple times at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Carnegie Institute, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art among many other venues. He briefly worked for the Federal Art Project of the Works Program as an administrator for the Woodstock area. In addition to painting, drawing and printmaking, Cramer designed textiles and engaged seriously with photography as a fine art medium, a subject he taught at Bard College from 1940 to 1946. Commercially, he was represented by Dudensing Gallery. Cramer's works are in the permanent collections of the Whitney, National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Woodstock Art Association and Museum and many others. He is listed in Who Was Who in American Art and all other standard references.