Conrad Felixmüller

Conrad Felixmüller was born on 21 May 1897 in Dresden, Germany. He took drawing classes at the Dresden School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) around 1911 to 1912, then, at the end of 1912, entered the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts to study painting under Carl Bantzer. By his late teens he had largely taught himself the printmaking techniques, including woodcut, that would become central to his output.

He built his reputation in Dresden and Berlin as a painter and printmaker associated with German Expressionism, producing portraits alongside urban and politically engaged imagery. His early institutional recognition included the Saxon State Prize in 1920.

After the Second World War, Felixmüller taught at the University of Halle from 1949 to 1961. His later career brought renewed international attention: exhibitions in Bologna and Rome in 1971 marked a broader European recognition, and in 1974 he won first prize at the IV International Graphics Biennale in Florence. He died on 24 March 1977 in Zehlendorf, a suburb of Berlin, Germany.

Felixmüller's standing rests primarily on institutional and historical recognition rather than a large body of contemporary critical commentary in the available sources. His international profile grew from exhibitions in Bologna and Rome in 1971 and the 1974 first-prize award at the IV International Graphics Biennale in Florence. His first UK retrospective, Between Politics and the Studio: Conrad Felixmuller 1897-1977, opened at New Walk Museum, Leicester, in 1994, with a complementary exhibition of his graphic work at the Courtauld Institute, London, the same year. A 2022 exhibition at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin further reflects continued institutional interest in his work. No verbatim critic quotations from named writers in major outlets could be confirmed in current research, so none are reproduced here.

Public auction-market data for Felixmüller is comparatively sparse. Market databases point to Christie's London, 24 March 2021, as the site of his auction record, for a work reported as Das Schicksal (Destiny), with a hammer price of GBP 706,500 according to LotSearch. The artist-summary service MutualArt separately cites realized prices of up to USD 1,136,000 for his paintings, a figure presumed, though not independently confirmed, to refer to the same sale; the exact relationship between the two reported figures could not be fully verified as of 2026-07-10. Collectors should treat the precise dollar equivalence, and the exact work title, as data points warranting further primary verification rather than a fully reconciled auction record.

No catalogue raisonne or certificate-of-authenticity program has been identified for Felixmüller, so provenance and attribution depend on museum records, auction house specialists, and dealer archives. Public auction data is limited: the record sale is reported as Das Schicksal (Destiny) at Christie's London on 24 March 2021 for GBP 706,500, while a separately cited USD 1,136,000 figure for a painting has not been independently confirmed to be the same lot, so the precise currency equivalence should not be treated as fully verified without further primary research. Current gallery or estate representation for the artist is not confirmed in available sources. His strongest signal of durability remains his presence in major museum collections, including MoMA, the National Gallery of Art, the Berlinische Galerie, and the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.