Erich Glas

Erich Glas was born in 1897 in Berlin

Erich Glas was born in Berlin, the only son of an actress and prompter. In 1903 a stage accident ended his mother's career. He grew up without his father and was raised by his aunt and uncle, the theater figures Louise Dumont and Gustav Lindemann.

He went to a boarding school in Düsseldorf, where he showed skill in engineering and technical drawing. In 1914 he joined the Imperial German Army and fought on the Western Front. His war experience shaped the themes of war and death in his art.

After the war he studied at the art academy in Munich. In 1919 he entered the Bauhaus in Weimar, where he studied under Lyonel Feininger and Johannes Itten. He later studied and taught at the state art school in Berlin and worked as a press photographer.

He focused on printmaking and favored New Objectivity over Surrealism. In Weimar he illustrated editions of works by Li Bai, Ki no Tsurayuki and Hans Christian Andersen. He also made the woodcut series The devil rides in Flanders.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, he lost his teaching post because he was Jewish. In 1934 he moved with his family to Mandatory Palestine and settled at Kibbutz Yagur. He became a figure in the art life of the kibbutz movement and died in 1973.