Thilo Friedrich Maatsch
1900 Braunschweig - 1983 Königslutter
Thilo Maatsch was a German graphic artist, painter and sculptor. He was an artist of abstract and concrete art and constructivism.
Maatsch's interest in art, especially modern art, began early. At the age of 16, he visited an exhibition by Franz Marc at the gallery "Der Sturm": "..through the passionate eagerness with which i explored every art exhibition within my reach, i experienced, more unconsciously, the span of modernism: decisive moment when i was seized by Franz Marc's mandrill and by his pferdchen woodcut (among others) in a Sturm exhibition in 1916."
His enthusiasm for art was not limited to the visual alone; he probably began working as an artist before 1918: "In 1918, the first small watercolor of mine was hanging at friends' houses next to a drawing by Paul Klee under a Signac." Thilo Maatsch, on August 14, 1970
In 1918, Maatsch founded the "Society of Friends of Young Art" in Braunschweig with Rudolf Jahns and Johannes Molzahn. Among its members were Lyonel Feininger and Paul Klee. In addition, Wassily Kandinsky, who supported Maatsch and whom Maatsch revered like his father, designed the group's signet. That same year Maatsch became friends with the art collector Otto Ralfs. In 1919 and 1921 he visited Heinrich Vogeler in Worpswede.
In 1924 the first purchase of a work by Thilo Maatsch was made by the Brunswick collector Otto Ralfs. For this he came with Nina and Wassily Kandinsky to Maatsch's one-room apartment to select an oil painting. For Maatsch it was a great honor to have his painting in a collection alongside works by Mondrian, Kandinsky, Klee and other artists who were already renowned at the time. In 1925 Ralfs initiated an exhibition of the "Society of Friends of Young Art".
Despite his work as a teacher, Maatsch did not succeed in realizing his desire to study at the Bauhaus. This was mainly because he still had to support a small family. However, he managed to study at the Bauhaus in Weimar and later Dessau during the vacation weeks. There he became acquainted with Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, László Moholy-Nagy, William Wauer and Lothar Schreyer. Kandinsky, Klee as well as Moholy-Nagy allowed him to stay in their studios and study with them.
That same year, Maatsch joined the November Group and became a member. This was followed by annual participation in the "Great Berlin Art Exhibition" until 1932. In 1927, Herwarth Walden even gave him a solo exhibition in his gallery Der Sturm with, as Maatsch himself still proudly reported in retrospect in 1970, "at least 50 graphics and about 10 watercolors and some paintings. Now he was exhibiting in the very gallery that had ignited his passion for modernism.
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Watercolour on paper
Verso - signed, dated & inscribed
>> Framing on request: Production approx. 2 weeks | Surcharge €50
Real wood frame - custom made
Acrylic glass, UV 100, glare-free
FSC-certified timber, 100% Made in Germany, 100% Organic
Size 42 x 32 cm
Provenance | Gallery Germany, Private Collection Germany
