Episodes from an Unwritten History

images from Unwritten History exhibition
Claude Bragdon and Fritz Trautmann

August 13–December 12, 2010 in the Lockhart Gallery

This exhibition showcases Rochester artists and visionaries Claude Bragdon and Fritz Trautmann, whose shared ideas about cosmic forces in art and life fueled a steady friendship until Bragdon’s death in 1946. While Bragdon—architect, author, and stage designer—has been the subject of books and exhibitions in recent years, this will be the first examination of Trautmann’s contributions as a colorist, longtime teacher at the Gallery’s Creative Workshop, and painter of Galaxy, a visitor favorite.

Presented in honor of Jean France, architectural historian.

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Preview selected works

Read excerpts from Bragdon’s 1915 book Projective Ornament, The Frozen Fountain (1932), and selected writings by Fritz Trautmann from his notebooks in the Gallery’s archives.

Pictured left to right: Claude Bragdon, Mathematical Abstraction No. 5 “Study in complementaries” (ca. 1939–41). Gift of a Friend of the Gallery. Fritz Trautmann, Galaxy (1942). Marion Stratton Gould Fund.