Erich Buchholz

Trained as a teacher, Buchholz left the profession in 1915 to devote himself to art. After the First World War, he settled in Berlin, where from 1918 he developed an increasingly abstract practice that soon incorporated constructivist principles. He exhibited at the Der Sturm gallery and took part in the First Exhibition of Modern Art in Bucharest. His studio at Herkulesufer 15 became an important meeting place for the Berlin avant-garde, and in 1922 he came into contact with El Lissitzky and László Moholy-Nagy at the exhibition Constructivism and Suprematism, while artists including Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Höch, Raoul Hausmann and Richard Huelsenbeck also frequented his studio. Buchholz increasingly explored the relationship between art and architecture, designing his own studio as a constructivist environment and writing texts on architectural and spatial principles. He resumed painting after 1945 and continued to develop his abstract language until his death. In 1964 he conceived the series Konstanten + Variablen, which was subsequently realised as a portfolio of screen prints in 1972.

Kurt Schwitters / Hannah Höch / Richard Hülsenbeck / László Moholy-Nagy / Raoul Hausmann / El Lissitzky (Lazar Markovich Lissitzky)