Windows into Advent - Day Twenty One

Reflection

I questioned whether to share this story of artist Oskar Schlemmer. It is a very sad story set in difficult times. Yet it is a story that speaks of the longing for life in the midst of trouble. When I learned of the theme for this Advent’s reflections, I thought of the Fensterbilden ( Window pictures) that were the very last artworks the artist made. In the summer of 1942, Schlemmer began small works on cardboard or oiled paper . The subtle colors, which are variously applied with a brush, colored pencil or oil, show interior scenes from neighbouring windows seen from the artist’s apartment.

Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the workshop of sculpture. His most famous work is Triadisches Ballett (Triadic Ballet), which saw costumed actors transformed into geometrical representations of the human body in what he described as a "party of form and colour". ( Wiki )

Adolf Hitler's rise to power at the beginning of 1933 heralded the last decade of Schlemmer's life; for him a period of spiritual and existential darkness. The political radicalization by the NSDAP increasingly led to the defamation of modern art and artists. The Bauhaus School was forced to close in 1933.

Schlemmer along with a number of artists was gradually eliminated from the public art scene and banned from making art.  Many artists as a result of persecution fled Germany, others like Schlemmer entered an ‘Interior Exile.’ in which he sought to live quietly out of the radar of the regime.

Despite the difficulty of buying art materials Schlemmer found a way to continue his art practice. These Window pictures  may be at once an act of resistance and solace.  With our lives slowly coming out from under pandemic, these pictures speak of the loneliness of isolation. Are these pictures hopeful, or a means to keep breathing, like a straw supplying air from the surface to a person submerged. 

Advent is a time of waiting and preparation for  for hope, peace, joy and love to bring light to the world. In these pictures I see the artist’s attention to the every day hope of ordinary lives in the midst of a disruptive and dangerous time. From each window comes a light illuminating a man’s troubled mind and failing body. I see the warmth in the softness and simplicity of these pictures. By not giving up on his art, by finding beauty in the lives of others when his own was so limited, I believe Oskar Schlemmer said ‘yes’ to life and chose to love it.

Scripture

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

2 Corinthians Chapter 4 verses 16-18

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Image Credits: Main Picture Oskar Schlemmer Costumes from the Triadic Ballet

Through post, in order - Fensterbilden 1,2. & 4