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| Cramer studied art
at the academy in Karlsruhe, Germany, in 1910 and moved to Munich.
There he became acquainted with Wassily Kandinsky and the other
artists of the avant-garde
Blaue
Reiter group. This experience had a tremendous
influence on the direction Cramer’s painting took after he
immigrated to the United States in 1911. On his arrival in New
York, at the age of twenty-three, Cramer embarked on the most
important series of paintings he would produce. Painted in early 1912, Improvisation is one of the two earliest and most important works in the series. Cramer’s choice of title celebrates his firsthand experience with Kandinsky, who had been producing a numbered series of paintings called Improvisations since 1910. In his 1912 treatise on the spiritual in art, Kandinsky defines improvisation as “a largely unconscious, spontaneous expression of inner character [and] non-material nature.” Cramer’s Improvisation is indebted to Kandinsky stylistically as well. It recalls the rhythmic forms in the Russian painter’s work that refer to the organic character of nature. Structurally, however, through its arrangement of angular facets heavily outlined in black, it most immediately recalls Cubism.  (For Grades K-2) What primary colors do you see? Secondary? Did the artist use mostly warm colors or cool colors? Do you see different values of the same colors? Where? What sort of shapes do you see? Are these shapes geometric or organic? |
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Konrad Cramer United States (born Germany), 1888-1963 Improvisation Oil on canvas, 1912 Museum purchase through the Earle W. Grant Acquisition Fund 1973:130 © San Diego Museum of Art |
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