Harvard Art Museums

Small Picture VI: Blue Man, Diagonally

Oskar Schlemmer

Date

1932

Medium

Oil over graphite on translucent paper, mounted to board

Culture

German

Department

Busch-Reisinger Museum

Institution

Harvard Art Museums

Made in the years following Schlemmer’s departure from the Bauhaus in 1929, Small Picture VI reveals his ongoing exploration of the human form in all its functions, motions, and gestures. With its bold coloration and diagonal organization, it may reference Schlemmer’s 1927 Form Dance, in which a blue dancer performs slow and heavy movements before resting on a bench, one arm supporting his body so that it forms an obtuse angle. In the 1930s, Schlemmer had begun to use a type of smooth, translucent paper that allowed him to work the pigment in newly expressive ways. Here, he employs visible brushstrokes, his fingertips, and the handle of his brush to describe the figures against the paper’s warm-toned surface.

The authoritative record is held by Harvard Art Museums. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.