ERIKA GIOVANNA KLIEN* (Borgo Valsugana 1900 - 1957 New York) Dancer, around 1934 wooden relief 24.6 x 19.6 x 1 cm verso label Made by Erika G. Klien, New York City 1940 depicted in Marietta Mautner Markhof, Erika Giovanna Klien, Vienna 2001, p. 90 f, fig. 33 ESTIMATE € 10000 - 20000 STARTING PRICE € 10000 The Austrian-American artist Erika Giovanna Klien studied from 1919 to 1924 with Victor Schufinsky, Frank Cizek, Rudolf Larisch and Reinhold Klaus at the Vienna School of Applied Arts. The courses on ornamental form theory and Franz Cizek's children's art class were formative for her. Cizek introduced the students in his class to the art of kinetism. During her training she took part in various exhibitions and developed a particular interest in acting and puppet theatre. Inspired by the writer and dancer Leopold Wolfgang Rochowanski and his wife, the dancer Katja Kandinsky, Klien attended drama school and worked on a kinetic marionette theatre. In 1925 she completed her training as an art teacher with Franz Cizek and moved into a studio in Purkersdorf. She worked as a commercial artist and earned her living by designing toys. From 1926 to 1928 Klien taught at the Elizabeth Duncan School in Klessheim. In 1929 Klien moved to New York and taught at the Stuyvesant School, Dalton School, the New School for Social Research and the Spence School. She also attracted attention as an author of theoretical writings on art education. In 1934, Klien took a trip to New Mexico, dealt with the indigenous culture and began an abstract bird flight series in linocuts. Klein's artistic interests focussed on the movement of people, animals and plants, technical devices and means of transport such as subways. Around 1934, Klien created two wooden reliefs of dancers to decorate her own study. The label on the reverse refers to a sales exhibition at New York's Spence School, where Klien taught until 1940. Both reliefs were shown there together with works by students. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.