Background
Fleischmann was born in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany, on March 18, 1892. He was the third child of Wilhelm Adolf Fleischmann, who was a businessman, and his wife Paulina Maria.
Am Weißenhof 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany
In 1911 Fleischmann became a student of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, where he visited, among others, the classes of Adolf Hoelzel and Robert Poetzelberger.
Portrait of Adolf Fleischmann.
Adolf Fleischmann.
Fleischmann was born in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany, on March 18, 1892. He was the third child of Wilhelm Adolf Fleischmann, who was a businessman, and his wife Paulina Maria.
Adolf Fleischmann studied at the School of arts and crafts or school of applied arts from 1908 until 1911, and in 1911 he moved to the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, where he visited, among others, the classes of Adolf Hoelzel and Robert Poetzelberger.
Fleischmann worked for a short period of time as a staff illustrator and painter in the Municipal Office of Health Care Exhibition, Stuttgart, and also at the workshop on graphic art under Paul Hahn Fleischmann. Then he took up a job at the studio for graphic arts in Stuttgart. In 1914 Fleischmann entered his military service. The following year he was on the Eastern Front and was badly wounded. As a result, he was discharged from military service.
In 1917 he was employed at the Canton hospital in Zurich where he worked as a scientific illustrator. Many of the products manufactured by him in plaster casts are still preserved and displayed at the University Hospital of Zurich. During this period Fleischmann continued to paint in his habitual academic style. But in the 1920s, he increasingly tended towards abstraction.
Adolf Fleischmann took part in the exhibition of the New Munich Secession in 1921. Here he was greatly inspired by Franz Marc and several other Expressionists. Eventually, he started to draw expressionist paintings. He made a number of trips, visiting Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Paris, and also Germany (Berlin and Hamburg). In 1925 Fleischmann's oeuvre was influenced by Cubism. He took part in the "Juryfreien" [without jury] exhibitions in Stuttgart and Berlin, and again participated in the "New Secession", Munich, in 1928.
From this moment on Fleischmann lived during the following five years alternately in Hamburg, Berlin, Ascona, Paris and the Tessin. Between 1933 and 1936 he spent a long time in Mallorca and Paris. Although he still created a series of constructive-geometrical collages in 1936, Adolf Fleischmann abandoned the strict geometry and increasingly devoted himself to abstract painting that was more strongly marked by organic forms. From 1936 to 1938, he traveled with Bertha Loof, through Italy and stayed mainly on Ischia.
Insofar as Adolf Fleischmann began producing abstract paintings, he avoided a potential confrontation with the National Socialist regime by leaving for France. While in Paris, he joined the "Équipe" group in 1948, where he met influential artists, including Robert Delaunay and Albert Gleizes. He found a completely devastated studio in the city, with only remnants of his paintings, the work of many years.
Fleischmann had a difficult period in his life during the 1940s-1950s and even experienced a nervous breakdown. But with the help of his French friends, he could soon revive his artistic work and participated in exhibitions in Paris. His first solo exhibition took place in the Parisian gallery Creuze in 1948. Under the pressure of a violent anti-German feeling, in the early postwar period Adolf Fleischmann signed his artworks with the pseudonym Richard, his middle name. He ceased to use the pseudonym of Richard once he moved to the United States.
In 1950 Adolf Fleischmann worked again to the geometric shape, less in terms of concrete art, but rather in the context of serial painting. Thus, he became an early forerunner of Op Art. At the age of nearly 60 years, he managed to develop his own distinctive style, characterized by rhythmic grouped narrow strips that are integrated into narrow-angle. In 1951 the artist exhibited his latest artworks at the Galerie Colette Allendy.
In 1952 the artist was offered better job opportunities in the United States, so he left Europe and moved to New York, where he lived for more than 10 years. Here he worked both as a staff artist, at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University (now Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons), as well as a freelance painter.
Fleischmann went on visits back to Europe for almost three months in 1958. In 1962 the artist became seriously ill. Between 1963 and 1964 he spent 16 months in Stuttgart. He returned to New York in late 1964, where he suffered a severe stroke in 1965. Due to improved medical treatment, Adolf Fleischmann moved back to Stuttgart where he spent the final years of his life.
The Adolf Fleischmann-anniversary exhibition was held at the Württemberg Art Association in 1966, which made him famous overnight and marked his breakthrough in Germany. In the next two years, he was able to create twenty relief-like collages, despite a partial paralysis.
Untitled
Nr. 39a
Untitled
Esslingen am Neckar
Endless Column I
#100
Quadrate diagonal
#99
#137
#180
Composition
Untitled
Sill life with fruits, mussels and a bottle
Untitled
Untitled
Harbour
Spitzwinklige Komposition auf Dunklem Grund
Hommage à Delaunay et Gleizes
Composition #72
Untitled
Relief painting #19x
Untitled
#156
Composition # 12
C 11
Composition # 89
Untitled
Composition #41
Untitled
Composition #138x
Untitled
Study for a Mural #492
Abstrahierte Tiere
Circle in blue
Ohne Titel
Untitled (Abstract Composition)
Paris Street Scene
Fleischmann became a member of the "Équipe" group in 1948. Besides, he was also a member of American Abstract Artists and Réalités nouvelles.
Adolf Fleischmann had an affair with a woman named Bertha Loof. In July 1938 their son, Dieter Loof, was born, who died at the age of about four. In 1948 Fleischmann married Elly Abendstern.