South Sea Islander (Südsee-Insulaner II)
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Object Label
Like many Expressionist artists, Emil Nolde had an interest in the art and people of what many European modernists referred to at the time as “primitive” cultures. In 1913 Nolde and his wife enthusiastically accepted an invitation from the German government to join an ethnographic and demographic expedition to New Guinea, Germany’s main colonial territory in the Pacific. He spent a year there and made numerous drawings and watercolors of the people he encountered. This vivid lithograph of a young man is based on studies he made in New Guinea.
Decades later, Nolde had more works confiscated and denounced by the Nazis as “degenerate” than any other artist. This caused him particular dismay because he was himself an ardent anti-Semite and remained a member of the Nazi Party through 1945. He downplayed this part of his biography, as did much of the literature surrounding him, and it has only recently been openly examined.
Caption
Emil Nolde German, 1867–1956. South Sea Islander (Südsee-Insulaner II), 1915. Color lithograph on wove paper, image: 16 15/16 × 13 1/8 in. (43 × 33.3 cm) sheet: 22 7/8 x 16 15/16 in. (58.1 x 43 cm). Brooklyn Museum, A. Augustus Healy Fund, 53.254.3. No known copyright restrictions
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
South Sea Islander (Südsee-Insulaner II)
Date
1915
Geography
Place made: Germany
Medium
Color lithograph on wove paper
Classification
Dimensions
image: 16 15/16 × 13 1/8 in. (43 × 33.3 cm) sheet: 22 7/8 x 16 15/16 in. (58.1 x 43 cm)
Inscriptions
Upper left in graphite: "Probedruck"; lower left in graphite: "unserem lieben Sauerland im Krieg--Feb. 1916); lower right in graphite: "Emil Nolde"
Credit Line
A. Augustus Healy Fund
Accession Number
53.254.3
Rights
No known copyright restrictions
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