Oil on canvas. Signed and dated in the upper right. Signed and inscribed with the artist's address, as well as "oben" (top) and a direction arrow on the reverse. 171 x 131.5 cm.
Several old exhibition labels on the stretcher identify the work as “Verni Mou” or “Vernimou”; however, in Dr. Ulrich Schumacher’s archive at the Emil Schumacher Foundation in Hagen, it is recorded as “Vernis Mou”. [CH].
- A large early work by the leading representative of German Art Informel. - Key work: “Verni Mou” was Schumacher’s contribution to the 29th Venice Biennale in the year it was created. - A fascinating fusion of color fields and graphic dynamics, dense paint application and scratching techniques, dark tones, and luminosity. - Formerly part of the renowned Carlo Monzino Collection (1933-1996), Milan; in the 1960s and 1970s, Monzino was a friend and patron of Andy Warhol. - Part of a distinguished private collection in Berlin for the past 40 years. - Comparable works from the 1950s are part of major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Nationalgalerie Berlin, and the Hamburger Kunsthalle.
The work is registered in the archive of the Emil Schumacher Foundation in Hagen, established by Dr. Ulrich Schumacher, under the inventory number “0/726.” We are grateful to Mr. Rouven Lotz, Director of the Emil Schumacher Museum in Hagen, for his kind expert advice.
LITERATURE: La Biennale di Venezia, 29th International Art Biennale, Venice 1958, p. 260, cat. no. 48. Sotheby's, London, Post-War & Contemporary Art, Dec. 5, 1985, lot 371 (illustrated).

German Pavilion, 29th Venice Biennale, Venice, June 14-October 19, 1958, cat. no. 321 (on a barely legible label on the stretcher). La pittura moderna straniera nelle collezioni private italiane, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin, March 4-April 9, 1961 (with the exhibition label on the stretcher). Emil Schumacher, Falchi Arte Moderna, Milan, from March 15, 1975

Galerie Van de Loo, Munich (1958). Carlo Monzino Collection, Milan (since 1961 the latest). Private collection, Berlin (acquired in 1985, Sotheby's, London)