June 19, 2008
Max Pechstein Stained Glass at the Busch Reisinger
I've posted about expressionism and stained glass before and mentioned that I had seen a window by Max Pechstein but did not have any photos. I finally took some photos and finally got around to posting them.
Max Pechstein (also a wikipedia entry)
at the Busch Reisinger Museum, in Cambridge, Mass., USA.
photos by me, circa 2006
It's called "Woman with Animals" and is dated from 1912. No other background information was given on the wall placard and I could find no other info on the web. Still, I have detail photos and a little context...
[update: June 29, 2008 - I guess this panel will not be on display for awhile since the building housing it, Otto Hall, though only 17 years old, is being demolished, because of structural defects that happened due to an elaborate climate control system that failed. Personally, I never much liked Otto Hall and much preferred it when all the Busch-Reisinger collection was displayed in Adolphus Busch Hall, un-modern and non-climate controlled as it was.]
Almost all of the pieces in the clothing of the figure is acid etched flashed glass, while none of the glass in the background or the glass for the animals is etched.
For some context - in the gallery.
My then 7 year old daughter Gwyneth looking at the panel with her pocket kaleidoscope.
The Flickr search for 'Pechstein stained glass' yielded this panel form the Brucke Museum in Germany.
I wonder if it's the quality iof the photo or is this really much darker and indistinct.
Three Female figures flickr search
Pechstein as Printmaker
Yikes, They never published anything like this in my Sunday school textbook. These rather striking prints are part of a 12 print group illustrating the The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser), from 1921.
Now these images are images I would like to see turned into stained glass, if only as an exercise in translation.
The text for this particular print translates as"Our Father, who art is Heaven".
This text here translates as "The Power and theGlory".
The whole series can be seen on this Flickrset on Max Pechstein Prints and referred to in his Blogpost about seeing the prints at the new German Expressionist Exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.