August Frederick Biehle: Reckoning with Modernism
Opening Friday, October 10, 5:30-8pm
On view through December 30
WOLFS is pleased to present the exhibition and sale of the remarkable Cleveland School artist August Frederick Biehle (1885-1979). The exhibition will highlight the breadth of styles that Biehle explored throughout his artistic career. This lack of commitment to a single style is one of the most distinctive features of Cleveland art between the world wars.
An early member of what is known as the Cleveland School of Art, Biehle made important contributions to the artistic character of the city during this era, including creating artwork for the legendary, prominent and provocative Kokoon Club.
August Biehle joined the Cleveland modernist movement in 1912, contributing to its gathering momentum. The son of a German-immigrant decorator, Biehle received his initial art training in Cleveland before going to Munich in 1903 and again in 1910 for two years of study.
"One of northeast Ohio’s most prolific and distinguished artists, Biehle combined masterful draftsmanship with a superior sense of design. He assimilated aspects of German Expressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism, and moved skillfully between a range of styles, from Jugendstil (a German modernist style) to American Scene realism. He also displayed his versatility by mastering a variety of media and techniques, from graphite drawing to painting in oil, gouache, pastel, and tempera." - William H. Robinson
Fire Tug on the Cuyahoga River, c. 1908-1910
Oil on canvas, 36.5 x 34.5 inches
House in the Moor near Munich, 1912
Gouache on paper laid on cardboard, 21 x 25 inches
Sketch for Kokoon Klub, Souvenir/Poster, c. 1914-1919
Gouache, watercolor and ink on paper, 20.5 x 14.5 inches
Mill on the Canal, Zoar, Ohio, c. 1920
Oil on canvas, 32 x 39 inches
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
August Frederick Biehle (1885-1979)
A versatile painter who worked in a variety of genres and styles, August Biehle was active in Cleveland for more than three-quarters of a century. Born in Cleveland in 1885 to German immigrant parents, he apprenticed at an early age to his father, a painter trained in Germany who produced decorative murals for fashionable homes.
In 1903 Biehle traveled to Europe to receive a formal art education. After a brief stint in Paris, he studied for two years at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. Returning to America, he attended evening classes at the Cleveland School of Art, 1906-9, studying with Frederick Gottwald. Although Biehle worked as a consultant for the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company, his interest in easel painting compelled him in 1910 to make a second trip to study in Munich, where he was impressed by the expressionist paintings of the Blue Rider group.
In the fall of 1912, after returning to Cleveland, Biehle exhibited his modernist paintings at the Rorimer-Brooks Studios and the Korner & Wood Galleries. To support himself, he worked as a commercial lithographer until he retired in 1952. Around 1913 he became friendly with William Sommer and joined the Kokoon Klub.
With Sommer and others he went on painting excursions to Berlin Heights, Ohio. Biehle participated in the exhibition of American modernists at the Taylor Gallery (1914). The following year his paintings were displayed in a solo exhibition at the Kokoon Klub, where he continued to show through the 1930s. Although his last solo exhibition was mounted in 1963, Biehle continued to exhibit in group shows through the late 1970s, including the annual May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1920-77).
He died in 1979, having had a career of nearly seventy years. His paintings have been in numerous exhibitions including the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Butler Museum in Youngstown, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia and the Whitney Museum in New York City.
biography courtesy of Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946, The Cleveland Museum of Art
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________