(Basel 1904–1979 Locarno)
SP 220 A-Tangenzial, 1973, signed, dated and titled on the reverse Schawinsky SP 220 A, ‘73, oil on burlap, 97 x 97 cm, framed

Provenance:
Galleria Vittoria, Rome (label on the reverse)
Private Collection, Italy

Alexander “Xanti” Schawinsky was born in Basel in 1904 to a family of musicians, painters and actors. After his studies in design and painting in Basel, Cologne and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, in 1924 he joined the Bauhaus in Weimar. Here he was appointed to set up their theatre department and he would be responsible for various productions alongside Oskar Schlemmer.
In 1926 he held the first exhibition of his paintings at the Kunsthalle in Dessau, followed by numerous public commissions. In 1931, attacked in the Nazi press as a “Cultural Bolshevist” and having been arrested several times, he sought refuge in Switzerland and then in Milan, where he worked with the artists who revolved around the legendary Galleria del Milione. In Milan, on behalf of Boggeri Studio, he created revolutionary advertising images for Olivetti, Cinzano and Motta by using the technique of photomontage, which was still unknown in the context of advertising. On the invitation of Walter Gropius, in 1938 he left for the USA where he would teach art at North Carolina College.

He took part in the “Bauhaus 1919-1928” exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.