Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Emil Schumacher Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Dr Ulrich Schumacher.
Blue, black and red paint is applied to the canvas, in layers, and then scratched and carved, masking through its deceptive simplicity and looseness the labours of its creation. Never reliant on the safety-net of preliminary drawings or even with a mental image of the finished painting to guide him, Schumacher lets colour and line, guided by an understanding of balance, create these landscapes of the subconscious:
"I rarely know what I want to paint, but that is not important; if and how I accomplish what I began is of significance. I believe no imbalance is good, whether towards the rational or towards the emotional. I consciously avoid being hemmed in by a preconceived attitude. I know three states my pictures can be in: the deceptive state of the seemingly finished painting, that of the destroyed painting, and the state which has reached the limits of my possibilities, the latter can be the finished painting. It often confirms the accuracy of my point of departure. It is the picture that was lying in waiting within me, the landscape inside me, the figure. And the quality of the painting is the power of the shape, the figure. To paint is to realise." (Emil Schumacher, 1962, in: Jürgen Schilling, Emil Schumacher, Wolfsburg 1990, p. 32).
The incised lines meander across the paint surface like a memory of successive decisions, marking the final stages of the painting's completion. The incisions stand on an equal footing to the signature, it too carved from the still soft, thick paint.
Schumacher rejected commercial paint as too soft and liquid, not suitable for his specific use, and instead insisted on manufacturing his own paint, mixing pigment with binder and liquid himself. Paint for Schumacher is not simply the medium, but is itself that which carries meaning:
"Painting also means the transformation of materials into another state. Colour itself is not everything. It is in the differentiation of the colours where the transformation takes place. That is what I see as the task of painting." (Ibid., pp. 12-13).
This almost alchemical process of transformation took Schumacher to warm and sun drenched Libya, Tunisia and Anguillara by the Lago di Bracciano, close to Rome, in the year the present painting was executed. Undoubtedly these experiences contributed to the earthy richness of this painting's texture. However, despite an inscription on the stretcher reading "Roma", it has been established by Dr. Ulrich Schumacher that Alf I was in fact painted in Emil Schumacher's home town of Hagen.
The father of the present owners was so taken in by this painting when it was shown to him by the art dealer Hans Brockstedt, that he decided to do something he had never done before to acquire it: for the first time he was prepared to sell one of his prized possessions, a Karl Schmidt-Rottluff pastel, as a first installment the Schumacher. At DM5000, Alf I was to remain his most expensive acquisition.
Blue, black and red paint is applied to the canvas, in layers, and then scratched and carved, masking through its deceptive simplicity and looseness the labours of its creation. Never reliant on the safety-net of preliminary drawings or even with a mental image of the finished painting to guide him, Schumacher lets colour and line, guided by an understanding of balance, create these landscapes of the subconscious:
"I rarely know what I want to paint, but that is not important; if and how I accomplish what I began is of significance. I believe no imbalance is good, whether towards the rational or towards the emotional. I consciously avoid being hemmed in by a preconceived attitude. I know three states my pictures can be in: the deceptive state of the seemingly finished painting, that of the destroyed painting, and the state which has reached the limits of my possibilities, the latter can be the finished painting. It often confirms the accuracy of my point of departure. It is the picture that was lying in waiting within me, the landscape inside me, the figure. And the quality of the painting is the power of the shape, the figure. To paint is to realise." (Emil Schumacher, 1962, in: Jürgen Schilling, Emil Schumacher, Wolfsburg 1990, p. 32).
The incised lines meander across the paint surface like a memory of successive decisions, marking the final stages of the painting's completion. The incisions stand on an equal footing to the signature, it too carved from the still soft, thick paint.
Schumacher rejected commercial paint as too soft and liquid, not suitable for his specific use, and instead insisted on manufacturing his own paint, mixing pigment with binder and liquid himself. Paint for Schumacher is not simply the medium, but is itself that which carries meaning:
"Painting also means the transformation of materials into another state. Colour itself is not everything. It is in the differentiation of the colours where the transformation takes place. That is what I see as the task of painting." (Ibid., pp. 12-13).
This almost alchemical process of transformation took Schumacher to warm and sun drenched Libya, Tunisia and Anguillara by the Lago di Bracciano, close to Rome, in the year the present painting was executed. Undoubtedly these experiences contributed to the earthy richness of this painting's texture. However, despite an inscription on the stretcher reading "Roma", it has been established by Dr. Ulrich Schumacher that Alf I was in fact painted in Emil Schumacher's home town of Hagen.
The father of the present owners was so taken in by this painting when it was shown to him by the art dealer Hans Brockstedt, that he decided to do something he had never done before to acquire it: for the first time he was prepared to sell one of his prized possessions, a Karl Schmidt-Rottluff pastel, as a first installment the Schumacher. At DM5000, Alf I was to remain his most expensive acquisition.