A great German Expressionist lithograph dated 1920 and signed Vemen????. It is numbered 5/45 and titled “hie Bibel nes teufels.” I only recognize two of the words, Bible and devil. It is clearly a dark work which is consistent with the movement. 1920 saw the The first Expressionist films, The Golem (1920), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Destiny (1921), Nosferatu (1922), Phantom (1922), Schatten (1923), and The Last Laugh (1924),which were highly symbolic and deliberately surrealistic portrayals of filmed stories. The Lithograph is done on silver leafed paper, a technique consistent with the age of the piece. The framre is mch newer probably dating to the 1960′s. A brief history from Wikipedia follows about the German Expressionist movement;
German Expressionism (also referred to as Expressionism in filmmaking) developed in Germany, especially Berlin, during the 1920s. The Expressionism movement started earlier, in about 1905 with the Die Brücke (The Bridge) group, but arose in the filming industry afterward. During the period of recovery following World War I, the German film industry was booming, but because of the hard economic times filmmakers found it difficult to create movies that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German UFA studio developed their own style by using symbolism and mise en scène to add mood and deeper meaning to a movie. Expressionism as a movement spanned across media to include theater, architecture, music, painting, and sculpture, as well. Architecture, in particular, serves as an iconic way to bring the inner emotions of the individual into the public sphere, and therefore is most closely tied to the concepts of German Expressionism, but film extends the visual strengths of architecture into a more compelling, natural format.[original research?] Many critics see a direct tie between cinema and architecture of the time, in the sense that the sets and scene artwork of expressionist films often reveal buildings of sharp angles, great heights, and crowded environments, such as the frequently shown Tower of Babel in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.
price: Contact dealer
reference: 265
h x 33"w x 24" d x 1"









