WERNER MAYER-GUNTHER (1917 - 1996, GERMAN/CANADIAN) Untitled, (Cyclists).
Oil on canvas, 1967. Signed with artist's mark and dated, 58, lower right. 508x610 mm; 20x24 inches.
Provenance: The artist; Thence by descent to the current owner.
Werner Mayer-Gunther was born in Germany in 1917. He began fine arts training at Berufsoberschule, Germany until 1933, when the Nazi government expelled him based on his Jewish lineage. He fled Germany in 1938, returning after the war and settling in East Germany. Mayer-Gunther was awarded a high-ranking government position in the East German province of Saxony-Anhalt where he was tasked with the responsibility to retrieve the plundered expressionist collection of the Moritzburg Museum in Halle. In 1948 He moved to Hamburg, West Germany where he worked as an illustrator for the publication "Die Welt." In 1951 Mayer-Gunther left Europe, settling in Whitevale, Ontario, Canada. His mature style shows his great interest in and influence of the Bauhaus educators, primarily the works of Paul Klee.
