1926 Untitled Painting

Estate stamped verso
Provenance: Barry Friedman Ltd., NYC
Modernism Fine Art, NYC

Thilo Maatsch has an epiphany at age 16 when, having been taken to Berlin’s prestigious Avant Garde art gallery Der Sturm, he’s mesmerized by the work of Franz Marc, and determines to be an artist. Eleven years later, he’ll one day recall with pride, his work exhibits there.

Born and raised in 1900 Braunschweig, Germany, Maatsch by age 18 forms “Gesellschaft der Freunde junger Kunst” (Society of Friends of New Art) with Rudolf Jahns and Johannes Molzahn. Its members include soon-to-be-famous Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, who promotes Maatsch and becomes something of a father figure. Introductions to collector Otto Ralfs in Braunschweig and the esteemed painter Heinrich Vogeler in Worpswede over the next two years influence his expanding body of work.

By 1922 Maatsch has a growing family to support, and as his art fails to provide this he begins training to be a teacher, a vocation he’ll fall back on repeatedly throughout his life. His first assignment is that of primary school teaching in Holzminden.

1924 sees Ralfs purchasing a Maatsch work and hanging it alongside the now well-known names of Mondrian, Kandinsky and Klee. The following year Ralfs launches an entire exhibition of the Society of Friends of New Art.

Because of his day job, Maatsch is unable to realize his wish to study at the Bauhaus, the avant garde epicenter in Weimar and later, Dessau. But thanks to Kandinsky, Klee and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, he’s allowed to occupy their studios and study with them during school holidays. His befriending of Kurt Schwitters during this time explains why Maatsch is often included in the so-called Schwitters Group.

In 1925 he joins the Novembergruppe (November Group) and exhibits annually in the renowned Große Berliner Kunstausstellung (Great Berlin Art Exhibition) through 1932. When the following year Adolf Hitler comes to power, the entire Expressionist movement is declared degenerate and illegal. While some German artists flee and others go underground with their work, Thilo Maatsch simply lays down his brush.

He continues teaching well into WWII, but in 1943 is drafted and assigned to the eastern front as a medic. Captured by the Soviets, he remains a POW until war’s end, when he returns to Königslutter to teach and with time, become Headmaster. Friend Ernst Jünger describes the post-war Thilo Maatsch as, “A teacher, a painter, a translator, writer, bibliophile, archaeologist and all-around center of the community.”

The 1950s find Maatsch visiting Paris several times on behalf of UNESCO. As Germany rebuilds through this period it begins to reconsider its pre-war past, and by 1966 the artist’s reputation is resurrected, along with others from that period. A succession of exhibitions/retrospectives follow. Maatsch works are acquired by the Deutsche Bank Collection, Stephan Hupertz, Carl Lazlo and Alfred and Elisabeth Hoh.

In 1973 respected Basel art publisher Carl Laszlo chooses Maatsch to number among his select gathering of noteworthy artists to feature in Edition Panderma folios of six retrospective reprints by each. In Maatsch’s case, the works cover the years 1922-1926. The edition numbers 100.

The artist continues to paint until his death in Königslutter in 1983.