Hölzel, Adolf

Description:

Olmütz, 1853 - Stuttgart, 1934
22,5 x 18 cm, R.
Composition, c. 1915/1918. Pastel and pencil on paper. Verso with estate stamp.
Galerie Peter Fischinger, Stuttgart.
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 1990.
Like a colourful mosaic, Hölzel’s composition unfolds in interlocking planes, whose luminous quality continually captivates the eye. Bold red, deep blue, and vibrant green collide, overlap, and create zones of tension and calm. The pencil, acting as an invisible metronome, maintains rhythmic balance throughout.
This work belongs to a phase in which Hölzel no longer saw colour as a means of depiction but as an autonomous force. Through the interplay of light and dark, motion and stillness, a spiritual space emerges that transcends visible reality. The composition feels like a condensation of sound and light - painting that does not narrate but acts directly.
Thus, the sheet stands as a prime example of Hölzel’s role as a pioneer of abstraction. His teaching in Stuttgart influenced artists such as Johannes Itten, Oskar Schlemmer, and Willi Baumeister, laying the groundwork for the Bauhaus and modernism. In works like this one, it becomes clear why he is regarded as a pioneer of pure painting: art liberated from imitation, aiming to make the invisible, the spiritual, and the atmospheric perceptible.