William Wauer
Art in Photography

William Wauer (1866 Oberwisenthal – 1962 Berlin) was an extremely versatile artist part of the Berlin avant-garde in the 1920s. His artistic career began in the art academies of Dresden, Halle and Berlin. He worked and embarked on various creative endeavours as a publisher, editor, illustrator and art critic. In the 1910s, Wauer primarily worked in sculpture, theatre and film. His sculptures in particular characterised by their dramatic rhythm of movement and a smooth surface designed to display material properties represented a significant part of Wauer’s creative undertakings with his abstract, fluid bronzes such as Exstase, 1918 and Lebendiges Eisen, 1918 being some of his most famous works. 

As a close associate of Herwath Walden founder of the gallery and magazine Der Sturm, the movement focused on championing radical modern artists across Europe inspiring Wauer to experiment with several different artistic styles such as Cubism, Surrealism and Futurism. In the 1920s, Wauer worked at the Bauhaus in Weimar where he became known as a sculptor of Cubism, then he founded the artist group ‘Die International Vereinigung der Expressionisten, Kubisten, Futuristen und Konstruktivisten’ in 1924 until the groups eventual ban by the Nazis in 1933. Labelled as ‘degenerative’, the artist was banned from all artistic endeavours in 1941 until 1945, when Wauer continued working as a painter and sculptor in Berlin. 

The collection of silver gelatine print photographs on display was sent in 1948 by Wauer to Walther Oschilewski (1904 - Berlin - 1987), a German author, lyricist and cultural historian. Oschilewski became the chief editor, later deputy editor - in - chief of the West Berlin daily newspaper ‘Telegraf’ and served as a member of the City Council of Greater Berlin from 1947 to 1950. Some of the photographs were taken and developed by Rempor-Studio Berlin - Tempelhof, Rumeyplan 39, active until mid 1950s with some bearing the studio stamps on the verso of the image.