front
oil on wood, back
front, signature
TITLE: still life
MEDIUM: oil on wood
CREATED: 1940
SIGNED: yes
SIZE: 11″ x 23″
front
front, signature
TITLE: none
MEDIUM: gouache on paper
CREATED: 1940
SIGNED: yes
SIZE: 14.5″ x 19.5″
front
TITLE: none
MEDIUM: pencil on paper
CREATED: 1946
SIGNED: yes
SIZE: 15″ x 10″
front
front, signature
TITLE: garden of eden
MEDIUM: ink on paper
CREATED:
SIGNED: yes
SIZE: 6.5″ x 8.25″
Josef Scharl (1896 – 1954)
Josef Scharl was born in Munich and began an education as a decoration painter in 1910 at
the Malerschule in Munich. He entered the war service in 1915 and could only continue his
artistic education after the war was over. He went to the academy in Munich and studied
under Heinrich von Zügel und Angelo Jank but left the academy early again. He was a member
of the Munich Secession from 1925 to 1928. A scholarship enabled him a longer stay in
Paris where he got to know late Impressionism.
Back in Germany, he was confronted with the National Socialists’ culture politics; his financial situation worsened and finally he was forbidden to paint. Nonetheless, the gallery Neumann-Nierendorf held a solo exhibition of his works in 1933 and another one in 1935 – while in the same year some of his paintings were shown in the exhibition ‘Entartete Kunst’ (‘degenerate art’) in Nuremberg. When he was invited to take part in an international exhibition in the MOMA in New York together with Heckel, Beckmann, Hofer and Scholz, Scharl’s wish to emigrate in the US was reinforced and he did so in 1938.
In New York he was supported by Nierendorf and also by Albert Einstein with whom he was on
friendly terms. Due to this early emigration, Scharl is less known today in Germany than some
of his fellow expressionists. Thanks to the tireless effort of the Nierendorf Gallery, this has
began to change during the last years. Works by Josef Scharl are held by the collections of
the City Gallery Munich, the National Gallery Munich, the City Gallery Nuremberg and at the
German Academy Rome.