African art was an inspiration for Max Pechstein and his fellow Expressionist artists. This scene of a male hunting with a bow and arrow as two females look on from beneath a flowering tree was copied from a bronze plate made in the east African country of Benin. To capture the flatness of the plate, Pechstein made a woodcut print by roughly gouging the wood block, using only thick lines, and distilling the scene into basic forms to create a sculptural effect. The title, Killing of the Banquet Roast, suggests this hunt anticipates a banquet feast—often a formal affair honoring someone or something.

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Galerie Der Sturm (Herwarth Walden), Berlin, 1912 - [?].
Sold through Kende Galleries, New York, March 4, 1953 (lot 91) to The Museum of Modern Art, New York

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Medium Woodcut, with watercolor additions
Dimensions composition: 8 7/8 x 10 3/8" (22.6 x 26.4 cm); sheet: 9 7/16 x 11 7/16" (24 x 29 cm)
Publisher Verlag Der Sturm, Berlin
Printer Carl Hause, Berlin, Berlin
Edition Special edition, signed, with watercolor additions: 100 [this ex.]; regular edition: unknown (several 1000)
Credit Purchase
Object number 458.1953
Department Drawings and Prints

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