Head in Red
1938
Oil on paper
59.5 × 44 cm (23.4 × 17.3 in)
SEE IT IN PERSON
● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 20, West Wall
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG
German painter Alo Altripp was labeled "degenerate" by the Nazis, and German troops closed a 1933 exhibition of his paintings in Essen. But when the Gestapo ordered him to cease painting, Altripp continued making art, working in secret and using whatever materials he could find. This work is an example of art informel , a movement characterized by gestural expression and an undermining of solid form. Viewed through the lens of history, it pulses with the blood, fire, and sorrow of oppression and war.
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