# Oskar Schlemmer artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/oskar-schlemmer/
Profile generated: 2026-05-16T18:10:19.245Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1888-09-04
- Death date: 1943-04-13
- Nationality: German
- Movements: Bauhaus
- Common media: Oil painting, Sculpture, Watercolor, Drawing and works on paper, Prints and graphic works, Stage design and costume, Mural and wall painting

## About Oskar Schlemmer

Oskar Schlemmer (1888–1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer, and choreographer best known for his central role at the Bauhaus, where he served as a master of form and led the wall-painting, sculpture, and theater workshops. Born in Stuttgart and trained in that city's academy, Schlemmer developed an immediately recognizable visual language centered on the abstracted human figure — geometric, volumetric forms set against subtly modulated grounds. His stage work, most famously the Triadic Ballet (1922), fused costume, movement, and space into a total artwork that remains a touchstone of modernist performance. Major museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, hold significant holdings. Schlemmer's career was curtailed by the Nazi regime, which denounced his work as degenerate, and he died in 1943 in Baden-Baden. Collectors encounter his work across paintings, sculptures, watercolors, drawings, prints, and stage-design studies.

## Common works and media

Collectors are most likely to encounter Schlemmer's work in the form of figurine studies and costume designs on paper, often in gouache, watercolor, or ink. Lithographic and screen prints reproducing his Bauhaus imagery circulate with some regularity. Oil paintings of his characteristic abstracted figures on monochrome grounds are rare at auction. Sculptural maquettes and reliefs occasionally appear. Stage photographs and printed ephemera related to the Triadic Ballet also surface in design and photography sales.

## Market and appraisal context

Oskar Schlemmer's relatively small surviving oeuvre means that major oil paintings appear infrequently at auction and can achieve strong results when provenance and condition are well documented. Works on paper — particularly figurine studies, costume designs, and Bauhaus-period drawings — form the largest share of what appears on the market and offer a more accessible entry point. The Triadic Ballet-related compositions and Bauhaus-era pieces generally command a premium over later works. Provenance tracing to the artist's estate or a documented exhibition history significantly affects value. Because many works were lost or destroyed during the Second World War, authentication and condition reports are essential for any appraisal.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine structured artist-identity research from library-authority and museum sources with auction records, auction-house context, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots when those records are available. For Oskar Schlemmer, identity data is drawn from the Getty ULAN, VIAF, RKD, Wikidata, and the Museum of Modern Art. Market observations are general and should be verified against current auction results before any appraisal conclusion.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q458816
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oskar_Schlemmer
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500010968
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/9910342/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50002710
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/5219
- RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History): https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/70607