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Simplizissimus David Schneuer (1905-1987) was an important German Expressionist painter and printmaker. Educated in art school in Munich, Schneuer worked in stage and poster design for the Munich Theatre with Brecht and others and lived for a time in Paris. In 1932 he was arrested for his radical associations and imprisoned in Dachau. After his release in 1933, Schneuer emigrated to Palestine. In Israel, he continued to paint while also contributing to the birth of modern advertising design. His murals reside in significant public spaces throughout Israel and his paintings and prints are part of permanent collections in major museums worldwide, such as the Boston Fine Art Museum, Rijksmuseum, Munich State Museum, and the Tel Aviv and Israel Museums. Throughout his later years, Schneuer continued to work in the expressionist mode of his youth, and much of his final work -- sensuous, stylized habitués of cafés and political salons, painted with subdued colors -- reflects back to Europe between the world wars. The title of this work, Simplizissimus, refers to an eponymous avant garde journal published in Munich in 1896, and in general terms, to one of the radical artistic movements of the early 20th century, along with Secessionism and Jugendstil. Graphic art, notably the poster, was an important medium of expression for this movement. |
