Franciska Clausen (7 January 1899 – 5 March 1986) was a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

painter who was involved in the abstract art movement of the early twentieth century. Clausen studied at the Die Grossherzogliche sächsische Hochschule für bildende Kunst in Weimar, Germany (1916–17), at the Women's Academy in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(1918–19), at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

, Denmark (1920–21), and under

Hans Hofmann Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17, 1966) was a German-born American painter, renowned as both an artist and teacher. His career spanned two generations and two continents, and is considered to have both preceded and influenced Abstrac ...

at the Hofmann Schule Fur Moderne Kunst in Munich (1921–22). She subsequently sought out private lessons from

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

(Sept. – Dec. 1922), from

Alexander Archipenko Alexander Porfyrovych Archipenko (also referred to as Olexandr, Oleksandr, or Aleksandr; uk, Олександр Порфирович Архипенко, Romanized: Olexandr Porfyrovych Arkhypenko; February 25, 1964) was a Ukrainian and American ...

in 1923, and under

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(1924–25). She was inspired by László Moholy-Nagy's Constructionist collages. From 1924 to 1928 in Paris, a cubist style can be seen in her paintings with a base in Léger's 'machine style art'. Between 1924 and 1928, Clausen worked in Paris. In the paintings from this period such as ''Konstruktiv modellstudie'' (1925), ''Contre-Composition'' (1928), and ''Komposition'' (1927), the influence of Léger's machine style is clearly visible. In 1933, she taught at the

Tegne- og Kunstindustriskolen for Kvinder Tegne- og Kunstindustriskolen for Kvinder (literally Draftsmanship and Industrial Design School for Women but sometimes referred to as the Arts and Crafts School for Women) was a private Danish educational establishment in Copenhagen. From 1875, it ...

(Drawing and applied arts school for women) in Copenhagen. Throughout her career, Clausen passed through most of the stages in the development of modern art, and her paintings show elements of

Neue Sachlichkeit The New Objectivity (in german: Neue Sachlichkeit) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle'' in Mannheim, who ...

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

Neo-plasticism ''De Stijl'' (; ), Dutch for "The Style", also known as Neoplasticism, was a Dutch art movement founded in 1917 in Leiden. De Stijl consisted of artists and architects. In a more narrow sense, the term ''De Stijl'' is used to refer to a body o ...

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and

Purism Purism, referring to the arts, was a movement that took place between 1918 and 1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. Purism was led by Amédée Ozenfant and Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier). Ozenfant and Le Corbusier fo ...

, though her greatest influence was Léger.Grove Art Online
Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

Involvement in ''Cercle et carré''

Cercle et carré Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square) was a group of abstract artists in Paris, founded 1929 by Joaquín Torres García and Michel Seuphor. The group published a journal with the same name. In 1930 they organised an exhibition in Paris showing 130 ...

'' was a short-lived collective of abstract artists founded by

Joaquín Torres-García Joaquín Torres García (28 July 1874 – 8 August 1949) was a Uruguayan-Spanish artist who was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. Torres-García emigrated to Catalunya, Spain as an adolescent, where he began his career as an artist in 1891. For ...

and

Michel Seuphor Fernand Berckelaers (10 March 1901, in Borgerhout – 12 February 1999, in Paris), pseudonym Michel Seuphor ( anagram of Orpheus), was a Belgian painter. Seuphor established a literary magazine, ''Het Overzicht'', in Antwerp in 1921. He moved in ...

in 1929. Clausen likely joined the group through mutual friends or acquaintances. Though she attended the groups meetings, she did not participate in their theoretical discussions. It is possible that Clausen was uncomfortable at these meetings, as she noted later on in her life that the group possessed, in her words, “some latent misogyny: women were not taken seriously.” She exhibited with the group in their only show, in April 1930.

Exhibitions

* ''L’Art d’aujourd’hui,'' 1925 * International ''Societé Anonyme'' exhibition, 1926 * ''Salon des Indépendants,'' late 1920's * ''Stockholm Exhibition'', 1930 * ''Cercle et carré'' exhibition, April 18–30, 1930 * Solo Exhibition, 1932

Bibliography

* H. Hildebrandt: ''Die Frau als Künstlerin'' (Berlin: 1928), p. 148 * Troels Andersen: ''Franciska Clausen'', 1974, . * Finn Terman Frederiksen: ''Franciska Clausen'', 1987–88, . * Eva Bræmer-Jensen: ''Franciska Clausen'', 1996, .

References

1899 births 1986 deaths 20th-century Danish painters Danish women painters Recipients of the Thorvaldsen Medal 20th-century Danish women artists {{Denmark-painter-stub

Involvement in ''Cercle et carré''

Exhibitions

See also

Bibliography

References