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German Expressionism

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  • Max Pechstein. Cover (Titelholzschnitt ) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    Cover (Titelholzschnitt ) from The...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. Cover (Titelholzschnitt ) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. Title Page (Titelblatt) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    Title Page (Titelblatt) from The...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. Title Page (Titelblatt) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. Our Father / which art / in heaven (Vaterunser / Der Du bist / im Himmel) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    Our Father / which art / in heaven...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. Our Father / which art / in heaven (Vaterunser / Der Du bist / im Himmel) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. Hallowed be / Thy name (Geheiliget werde / Dein Name) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    Hallowed be / Thy name (Geheiliget werde...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. Hallowed be / Thy name (Geheiliget werde / Dein Name) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. Thy kingdom come / Thy will be done / on earth as it is in heaven (Dein Reich komme / Dein Wille geschehe / Wie im Himmel also auch auf Erden) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    Thy kingdom come / Thy will be done / on...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. Thy kingdom come / Thy will be done / on earth as it is in heaven (Dein Reich komme / Dein Wille geschehe / Wie im Himmel also auch auf Erden) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. Give us this day / our daily bread (Unser täglich Brot / gieb uns heute) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    Give us this day / our daily bread (Unser...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. Give us this day / our daily bread (Unser täglich Brot / gieb uns heute) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. And forgive / us / our debts (und vergieb / uns / Unsre Schuld) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    And forgive / us / our debts (und vergieb...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. And forgive / us / our debts (und vergieb / uns / Unsre Schuld) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. As we forgive / our / debtors (Wie wir vergeben / unsern / Schuldigern) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    As we forgive / our / debtors (Wie wir...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. As we forgive / our / debtors (Wie wir vergeben / unsern / Schuldigern) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. And / lead / us not / into temptation (und führe / uns nicht / in Versuchung) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    And / lead / us not / into temptation...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. And / lead / us not / into temptation (und führe / uns nicht / in Versuchung) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. But deliver us from evil (Sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    But deliver us from evil (Sondern...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. But deliver us from evil (Sondern erlöse uns von dem Übel) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. For Thine / is the kingdom (Denn Dein / ist das Reich) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    For Thine / is the kingdom (Denn Dein /...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. For Thine / is the kingdom (Denn Dein / ist das Reich) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. And the power / and / the glory (Und die Kraft / und / die Herrlichkeit) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    And the power / and / the glory (Und die...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. And the power / and / the glory (Und die Kraft / und / die Herrlichkeit) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
  • Max Pechstein. For ever / and ever / Amen (Von Ewigkeit / zu Ewigkeit / Amen) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921
    For ever / and ever / Amen (Von Ewigkeit...
    1921
    Max Pechstein. For ever / and ever / Amen (Von Ewigkeit / zu Ewigkeit / Amen) from The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser). 1921

About the portfolio

Heather Hess, German Expressionist Digital Archive Project, German Expressionism: Works from the Collection. 2011.

Promising forgiveness and deliverance from evil, the Lord's Prayer resonated powerfully in postwar German society, which was saddled with war guilt and reparations, beset by hunger, and racked by civil unrest and political violence. Pechstein illustrated a single verse of the Lord's Prayer on each of this portfolio's twelve sheets, following the German translation from Martin Luther's Small Catechism, which emphasizes the power of individual prayer. Pechstein's woodcuts contrast God's grandeur and omnipotence with his humble followers' modest lives. The artist clothed the faithful in the simple garb of Baltic fishermen, familiar to him from his repeated stays in Nidden on Prussia's easternmost border. Their masklike faces and blocky, angular bodies combine the styles of medieval German woodcuts and forms sourced from the South Pacific, which Pechstein had visited before World War I, and from Africa.

Pechstein created the portfolio during a time of intense personal and social upheaval. Only two years earlier, he had been an instrumental figure in revolutionary artists' organizations that had agitated for social reform in Germany's newly established democracy. But like many others he quickly grew disillusioned, and, it seems, he began looking for change not through politics but through heavenly intervention.

Max Pechstein (German, 1881–1955)

The Portfolio

The Lord's Prayer (Das Vater Unser)

Date:
1921
Medium:
Portfolio of twelve woodcuts and one woodcut cover
Dimensions:
composition (each approx.): 15 5/8 x 11 5/8" (39.7 x 29.6 cm); sheet (each approx.): 21 7/16 x 16 1/4" (54.5 x 41.3 cm)
Paper:
Cream, slightly textured, wove.
Publisher:
Propyläen-Verlag, Berlin
Printer:
Fritz Voigt, Berlin
Edition:
Portfolio: 250 in two editions: A) 50 numbered 1-50 on the colophon page and housed in a leather portfolio cover, each print signed, and hand-colored under the artist's supervision; b) 200 numbered 51-250 on the colophon page and housed in a quarter linen portfolio cover, each print signed [this ex. never signed or numbered]
Credit Line:
Transferred from the Museum Library
Copyright:
© 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Reference:
K. (H)256-268. Not in F. Rifkind 2258 1-12.
MoMA Number:
598.1949.1-13
Themes:
Primitivism, Religion
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