Interesting Constructivist collage from the 1920/30s.
About 15 years ago, by chance, we came to acquire artist estate of recently deceased 90-year-old Viennese architect from his niece. This estate consisted of various architectural Art Deco projects from the 1930s. Among these projects we discovered two small folios housing works of entirely different content and executed by another person. The latter - a friend of the late architect, whom he met in the 1930s - was a Jewish artist from Berlin, Aaron Chaimowicz (his pseudonyms: "Josef Brauner" or "Jo Braun"). One of his small folios contained also a number of documents (partially photocopied) that were evidently added by the late architect. We are referring to biographical material concerning Aaron Chaimowicz, namely his short autobiography, copies of various photographs, etc.
These collages were apparently made by Aaron Chaimowicz ("Josef Brauner") in the 1920s in Berlin or somewhat later in Vienna (the artist lived there for several years, before he moved to Spain, in order to support Republicans in the Civil War). While (as we remember) we sold one folio rather promptly to a Belgian art dealer, we deposited the second one into our enormous storage and came across it just several weeks ago, in summer of 2010.
In the last years, the value of these collages has risen. Hence, at this time, we prefer (having framed these works) to sell them one by one and not as a single item, as we did incautiously 15 years ago.

Aaron Chaimowicz was born in 1890 in Berlin into a Jewish family. His father, also Aaron, was of the Austrian descent. He was a scrap dealer (textile, clothes, furniture, metals). His mother Miriam, nee Aschkenes, was born in Galicia (Austro-Hungary; present day West Ukraine); she met her husband in Vienna.
In 1918, Aaron Chaimowicz became a member of "Arbeitsrat für Kunst" in Berlin. Among his friends of that time were Otto Bartning, Philipp Hansen, Oskar Shepp, etc. He also had many friends from "Staatliches Bauhaus". Chaimowicz attended painting and graphic classes of Vasili Kandinsky, Oskar Schlemmer and Herbert Bayer. This period marked the development of his passion for small totems and objects, especially for collages, many of which (according to his autobiography) vanished during the fire in his Berlin studio. A passionate anti-fascist, Chaimowicz took part in the Spanish Civil War, served in XI International Brigade and participated in the defense of Madrid; he also fought in Quinto, Teruel, Belchite, and was awarded Republican Order "El Distintivo del Valor".
After Republicans' defeat he moved to France but was interned there. Soon, however, he was able to flee from internment camp and cross the border to Germany, which was by then already fully governed by the Nazis. Up until the end of WWII Chaimowicz fought Nazi regime from the anti-fascist underground (he was risking his life both as a Jew and Communist). In the late 1940s the artist went to the USA, in order to find the only surviving member of his family - his sister Ruth, who lived in the US since 1939. He was only able to locate her (already married) in 1950 in Boston. From that point on, he lived close to his sister in this city, where he died in 1973.

The piece we offer here is one from Chaimowicz' cycle of Constructivist collages. While made under the strong influence of famous German pre-war Constructivist Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948; see images nr.6-8), this work presents nonetheless special interest as homage to this time.

mijul28ap10

Condition: good

Creation Year: 1920/30s

Measurements:UNFRAMED:12,1x11,6cm/4,8x4,6in FRAMED: 35,4x34,0cm/13,9x13,4in

Object Type:Framed collage

Style: Modern Art

Technique: indian ink, color chalks, watercolor and collage on card; matted and framed

Inscription:signed with pseudonym: JOS. BRAUNER

Creator: Aaron Chaimowicz
To see other works by this artist click on the name above!