Composition #45

Paul KelpeWW-1933-125416

1933·Watercolor, with pen and black ink, over graphite on cream wove paper·22.9 × 16.2 cm (9 1/16 × 6 7/16 in.)

<p>Paul Kelpe studied art in Hanover, Germany, before moving to the United States in 1925. By then he had already established a personal style of geometric abstraction, distinguished by smooth surfaces and areas of glowing color. He was a founding member of American Abstract Artists in New York. In the 1930s, Kelpe worked in a social realist style for the Federal Art Project, but he remained committed to abstraction, which he practiced in three-dimensional constructions as well as in watercolors such as this one. The artist settled in Chicago for a time, earning a doctoral degree in art history.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1933
Medium: Watercolor, with pen and black ink, over graphite on cream wove paper
Dimensions: 22.9 × 16.2 cm (9 1/16 × 6 7/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Paul Kelpe

Artist

Paul Kelpe

Painting

Paul Kelpe was an American painter and printmaker whose abstract compositions combined geometric forms with subtle chromatic modulation. Active from the 1920s through the 1980s, he worked across oil, watercolor, and lithography, developing a formal vocabulary rooted in constructivist principles and color theory. His work navigated between pure abstraction and lyrical restraint, avoiding both geometric dogmatism and expressive excess.

Minden, Germany

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