Philipp Bauknechtartist • painter • watercolourist • draughtsmanBarcelona (Spanje) 1884-1933 Davos (Zwitserland)

The painter Philip Bauknecht, who died young, is one of the first German expressionists. Self-taught, he was training as an interior designer in Stuttgart when he was attacked by tuberculosis and left for Davos, Switzerland. There he started to paint, especially landscapes and the life of the peasants. Against the taste of the times, he quickly opts for bright colors and deviating shapes, so that his work is not to the taste of buyers. In 1919 he met the expressionist painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who sees in him a kindred spirit. Thanks to Kirchner's contacts in Germany, he is invited to participate in various exhibitions and in 1924 he breaks through in the world of modern art. His work varies from compositions made up of evenly applied, contrasting areas of color to representations set up in a wild, boisterous brushwork. He died in Switzerland in 1933. His small body of work includes paintings, watercolors and woodcuts.