id:			161433
accession number:	2000.120
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2000.120
updated:		2023-08-23 23:50:05.702000

Play with Heads, 1923. Oskar Schlemmer (German, 1888–1943). Lithograph; overall: 49 x 33.6 x 7 cm (19 5/16 x 13 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2000.120

title:				Play with Heads
title in original language:	
series:				
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creation date:			1923
creation date earliest:		1923
creation date latest:		1923
current location:		
creditline:			John L. Severance Fund
copyright:			

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culture:	Germany, 20th century
technique:	lithograph
department:	Prints
collection:	PR - Lithograph
type:		Portfolio
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Oskar Schlemmer (German, 1888–1943)  - artist

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measurements: Overall: 49 x 33.6 x 7 cm (19 5/16 x 13 1/4 x 2 3/4 in.)
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

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PROVENANCE

	Private Collection, East Germany; [Jürgen Holstein, Berlin]; [Kornfield sale, 1993, Bern, Switzerland]; [Alice Adam, Chicago]
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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wall description:
Variations on a theme, this rare set of prints explores diverse arrangements of three heads. Each image uses a single color and was printed in a spatter technique first used in the 19th century by French lithographers like Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. By drawing a blade across a toothbrush saturated with lithographic ink, the ink is spattered onto the lithographic stone in a random pattern of variously sized dots. By controlling the fine spray of droplets, transparent forms and a wide tonal range can be obtained. Unlike his contemporaries, El Lissitzky, Lázló Moholy-Nagy, and Kurt Schwitters, whose work focused only on abstraction, Schlemmer was intensely interested in the human form. He once said, however, that he was "interested in creating human types, not portraits." Thus he did not portray specific individuals, but prototypes for a purified, timeless image of humanity.
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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” December 12, 2000, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 2
	url:		https://archive.org/details/cmapr4361

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IMAGES