Alfred Maurer

Alfred Maurer's Still Life with Red Bowl and Black Bottle is a testament to his Cubist experimentation, showcasing his ability to manipulate color and form. Maurer’s vibrant painting captures a tabletop still life, with the upward-tilting table displaying a myriad of fragmented perspectives, including an aerial view of a red bowl and black bottle, elements of a lace table dressing, and a striped wall. Highly abstracted, Maurer has taken his Fauvist experiments to fluorescent extremes, starkly contrasted with black outlines and the dark surface of the table—all painted in thick impasto layers.

Still Life with Red Bowl and Black Bottle evidences the degree to which Maurer was ahead of his time. Among the first Americans to espouse novel European modernist approaches to painting, Alfred Maurer was directly influenced by his exposure to avant-garde circles in Paris. Maurer developed a strong friendship with fellow American artist Arthur Dove over many years, having first met in Paris in 1907 and continuing their friendship after Maurer resettled in America. Maurer returned to New York in 1914 at the outbreak of World War I, and for the next ten years, he rarely exhibited his art. During this time, he entered a charged period of creative development, redefining his artistic identity and attempting to align his French foundations and post-Impressionist experiments with his desire to hone a uniquely American aesthetic.