Adolf Hoelzel studied at the Art Academies of Vienna and Munich. He was one of the founders of the ‘Dachau Painting School’ and his progressive teaching attracted students from Germany and abroad. He developed his own colour theory and a painting style of abstract colour fields. Hoelzel war co-founder of the Munich and the Vienna Secession. As a professor – later director – of the Stuttgart Academy he gathered around him the the ‘Hoelzel circle’, which included, among others, Max Ackermann, Willi Baumeister, Adolf Fleischmann, Johannes Itten, Ida Kerkovius, and Oskar Schlemmer. Hoelzel is considered one of the trailblazers of Modernism.
