Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913-1915

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) presents Marsden Hartley: The German Paintings 1913–1915 (August 3–November 30, 2014), the first focused look and the first solo exhibition on the West Coast in almost 10 years of the American-born artist’s German paintings in the United States. From 1912 to 1915, Hartley lived in Europe—first in Paris and then in Berlin. There he developed a singular style that reflected his modern surroundings and the tumultuous time before and during World War I. Berlin’s exciting urban environment, prominent gay community, and military spectacle had a profound impact upon him. Marsden Hartley features approximately 25 paintings from this critical moment in Hartley’s career that reveal dynamic shifts in style and subject matter comprised of musical and spiritual abstractions, city portraits, military symbols, and Native American motifs.

Image credits: 

Marsden Hartley, American Indian Symbols, 1914, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Marsden Hartley, The Iron Cross, 1915, Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis. University Purchase, Bixby Fund,1952

Marsden Hartley, Woman’s Kimono with Large Dewdrops, Japan, early Showa period, c. 1935, Purchased with funds provided by Grace Tsao, Photo © 2014 Museum Associates/LACMA

Marsden Hartley, Indian Composition, 1914, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY, gift of Paul Rosenfeld