Thanksgiving, 1969 by Werner Drewes November 24, 2009

Thanksgiving, 1969 by Werner Drewes

Forty years ago, German-born American artist Werner Drewes created this colorful woodcut in honor of what may be the most typically American holiday. I like it for its vivid lines, burst of energy, and full-blown spectrum, especially the use of the color purple. In the woodcut, a sunflower, a stalk of corn, and a turkey share a pas-de-trois on the same stage. They exist as independent objects as well as part of the same pageant. The painting never veers into the sentimental, which often happens when the palette meets the Pilgrim. Here, in the absence of people, nature rules the roost.

Werner Drewes lived a fascinating life that spanned from the Bauhaus to Brooklyn. Born in Germany in 1899, he studied with Paul Klee, Johannes Itten, and Oskar Schlemmer at the influential Bauhaus school in Weimar from 1920--1921. He came to the U.S. shortly after that, then returned to Germany, before immigrating here in 1930. At that point, life for abstract artists in Germany was next to impossible: Hitler would close the Bauhaus three years later.

In his adopted country, Drewes became an influential member of the New York art world. He taught at the Brooklyn Museum under the auspices of the WPA Federal Art Project from 1934--1936, the year he became a U.S. citizen. In addition, Drewes was on the staff of Columbia University from 1937--1940 before accepting a teaching position at the University of Washington, St. Louis, in 1946, retiring almost twenty years later. A year before his death in 1985, the Smithsonian American Art Museum held a retrospective of Drewes's works that focused on his printmaking.

I can only imagine all the things Werner Drewes must have been thankful for.

• Werner Drewes, Thanksgiving, Woodcut, American Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum