Cemetery on the island of Malta
Is a woodblock print by Marguerite Fry-Surbeck represented and acquired with the altruistic help from my collecting friend Tom Clemens in Boston. Years later I found this minimalistic etching, puzzling the monogram. Less is more ……. It reminded me of similar works (Dresden scenes) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: only a few lines, yet very powerful images. Involved in her biography it could be understood, Malta was seen on her trip to Tunesia (in the footsteps of her tutor Paul Klee). The small etching could very well be showing Tunesia. But that I learned much later finding other works by her created in or after her visit to Tunesia.
Student of Paul Klee, who encouraged her also to study in Paris, she followed in his footsteps travelling to Kairouan in Tunesie in 1921. Klee and his friends August Macke and Louis Moilliet visited Tunesia and Kairouan in 1914. Their visit would change and shape Modern Art. Although August Macke would fell only a few months later in Flanders Fields Klee went to teach in Weimar Bauhaus school and became one of the most influential modern artists.
Archive
Marguerite Frey-Surback was a well Swiss known painter. Her life and work is well described. Here are shared her known graphic works.
The last example reminded me strongly of Rembrandt seated nude.
gerbrandcaspers@icloud.com
