Mattia Jona, Master Drawings and Prints, Japanese Prints - Piazzetta Guastalla 5, 20122 Milan, Italy, tel (+39) 02 8053315

GERHARD MARCKS (Berlin 1889 - Cologne 1981) SELF-PORTRAIT
Woodcut, 1965, from 'Europaische Graphik IV', published by Galerie Ketterer, Munich, in an edition of 65 with arabic numerals on Rives paper and XXXV with roman letters on Japanese paper. Signed in pencil 'G Marcks' and numbered '28/65'. On Rives. With the Ketterer blind stamp. In good condition. The image 478 x 338 mm, the entire sheet measuring 655 x 503 mm.

A German sculptor, printmaker and designer, Marcks was educated in the atelier of the sculptor Richard Scheibe. His achievements as an artist led to a teaching position at the Bauhaus school in Weimar from 1919-1925 and the Giebichenstein School in Halle from 1925-1933. During the rise of the Nazi government in the 1930s, Marcks' works were judged unacceptable to officials. Marcks remained in Germany despite the harassment which included dismissal from his teaching position and confiscation of 24 of his sculptures in 1937. Most of his life's work was destroyed when his Berlin studio was bombed in 1943 and works he had hidden were plundered and mutilated. Following the war, Marcks taught four years in Hamburg and then moved to Cologne where he worked as a freelance sculptor. While principally known for his many sculptures, his works also include a large number of woodcuts, drawings and lithographs.