Werner Drewes

German/American, (1899–1985)

Werner Drewes was born in Canig, Germany in 1899. He attended the Stuttgart School of Architecture and later transferred to the Stuttgart School of Arts and Crafts. He also studied with notable artist Paul Klee at the Bauhaus. In 1936 he gained American citizenship,joined the American Artists Congress, and helped found the American Abstract Artists group. Throughout Drewes’ career, he worked mainly with painting and printmaking and is known for helping the Bauhaus aesthetic take hold in America. Drewes and Carl Holty opened the Department of Abstract Art at the Master Institute of United Arts while exhibiting at the Riverside Museum. He died in Reston, Virginia in 1985.