In 1878 the twentyo-ne year old German artist Max Klinger exhibited a group of ten drawings which were collectively called "A Glove". The drawings created an outrage at the Berlin academy where they were shown.
The mystery of "A Glove" has never been fully explained, but it involves the story of Klinger himself who finds a glove dropped by a Brazilian lady at a roller-skating rink. The glove begins to assume a life of its own as it goes through numerous fantastic and nightmarish adventures. The portfolio has variously been described as an artistic manifestation of fetishism as well as a prototype of Surrealist art.
Klinger was born in Leipzig in 1857 and was trained at the arts school in Karlsruhe. He was famous as a painter and sculptor as well as a printmaker before his death in 1920.
Source: Bulletin, November-December 1974.
Exhibition History"Masterworks on Paper: Fifteenth to Nineteenth Centuries," Des Moines Art Center, Oct. 10, 1998 - Jan. 24, 1999
"Fin de Siecle," Sioux City Art Center, Sioux City, IA, Jan. 13 - Feb. 25, 1990
"Sight and Insight: Prints of the Late 19th Century," Des Moines Art Center, Sept. 23 - Nov. 19, 1989
Published ReferencesAN UNCOMMON VISION: THE DES MOINES ART CENTER, Des Moines Art Center, 1998, ref. p.305, b/w ill. fig.6, p.303
DMAC Bulletin, Nov./Dec. 1974, ill.
Plate: 4 3/4 × 10 9/16 in. (12.1 × 26.8 cm)
Image: 3 1/2 × 8 5/8 in. (8.9 × 21.9 cm)
