Alexander Kanoldt

Alexander Kanoldt, an important painter of classical modernism and professor of art, is recognised as an important representative of the "Neue Sachlichkeit" movement. He began his studies at the Baden Academy of Fine Arts in Ernst Schurth's drawing class, where he learnt the basics of drawing and became friends with fellow student Adolf Erbslöh. In 1904, Kanoldt continued his studies as a master student in Friedrich Fehr's painting class and then moved from Karlsruhe to Munich, where he joined the circle of artists around Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej Jawlensky, among others. One year later, the "Neue Künstlervereinigung München" emerged from this group of artists.
Kanoldt's career as an artist was interrupted by the outbreak of war. After the war, he took a long trip to Italy, which resulted in significant works that led to a new beginning in his work. He painted multi-perspective architectural landscapes and spatial depictions in a cool colour palette. Influenced by Munich Expressionism and early French Cubism, he developed a figurative pictorial language with formal rigour. Kanoldt's sober style of depiction with a nonetheless pronounced plasticity made him the leading representative of post-Expressionist painting in Germany. In 1925, he was appointed to teach at the Breslau Academy of Art, which he left after a few years. Instead, he founded a private painting school in Garmisch-Patenkirchen and joined the Munich artists' group "The Seven". During this time, he mainly created precisely composed still lifes and his Italian landscapes, which significantly influenced his New Objectivity art movement. Kanoldt died in 1939 as a result of a heart attack.