Werner Drewes: Sixty-Five Years of Printmaking by Martina Roudabush Norelli

Biographical interview with a pioneering abstractionist

I dabble a bit in printmaking—linocuts and woodcuts—so I always keep an eye open for good books on the subject, and “new” (to me) artists to discover. I recently became aware of Werner Drewes (1899-1985), a prolific German-American artist who produced several hundred prints, most of them etchings and woodcuts (as well as over a thousand paintings). After stumbling upon a collection of Drewes’s work online, I was really blown away by his range of styles and subject matter, his skillfully aggressive style of carving, and his bold yet sensitive taste in color and design. Drewes studied at the Bauhaus in Germany before emigrating to America in 1930. His work ranges in style from German expressionism to abstract expressionism, with occasional touches of cubism and surrealism.

As far as I know, only a few books have ever been published about Drewes, and all of them are out of print. The best of these books is the massive tome Werner Drewes: A Catalogue Raisonné of His Prints, compiled by Ingrid Rose. Like most catalogue raisonnés, however, a used copy will set you back at least 80 bucks. The runner-up, and a distant second in terms of size and coverage (only 56 pages), is Werner Drewes: Sixty-Five Years of Printmaking, an exhibition catalog published by the Smithsonian National Museum of American Art in 1984.

If you are looking for a beautiful portfolio of Drewes’s art, this book isn’t it. Sixty-Five Years of Printmaking contains only three color plates, 26 black and white images of Drewes’s prints, and a few photos of the artist at different stages in his life. The exhibition for which this catalog was published was about evenly split between etchings and woodcuts, so the illustrations in the book are about evenly split as well. Fortunately, if you want to look at Drewes’s art, you can view hundreds of his works in full color online, either at drewesfineart.com or at the website of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM).

The main attraction of this book is the text. Drewes was still alive when this exhibition was held, and the bulk of the catalog is devoted to an interview with the artist. In this interview, Drewes discusses his childhood, his artistic education, his world travels, and his career as an artist and teacher. This first-hand account by Drewes is likely the most authoritative source on his life and the influences behind his art. In the Bauhaus, Drewes studied with Johannes Itten, Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and László Moholy-Nagy. Decades before abstract expressionism became big, Drewes was part of a small group of American artists who pioneered purely abstract art. Though he never became a household name like some of his Bauhaus contemporaries, Drewes nevertheless built a solid career as an artist and educator. He led a very adventurous and inspiring life.

Interviewer Martina Roudabush Norelli doesn’t ask all of the questions I would have asked. Sometimes the interview reads more like a curriculum vitae than a discussion of an artist’s methods and philosophy. Nevertheless, there’s a lot of interesting content to this conversation that makes this a worthwhile read for any fan of Drewes’s prints. This may not be the visual feast that this talented and innovative artist deserves, but considering the scarcity of information on Drewes, this book at least serves up a satisfying snack.
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Visit the website drewesfineart.com to see several hundred images of Werner Drewes’s prints: