Ewald Platte (1894-1985) was one of the greats of the German art scene of the 1920s. He exhibited with the likes of Picassso, Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee, Feininger, Matisse and Nolde in various exhibitions in Germany. He forged close ties with Jawlensky, with whom he exchanged several paintings, a gesture demonstrative of their mutual recognition and respect for each other’s work. During this time, he also befriended the prominent art connoisseur, Ms Galka (Emmy) Scheyer who organized the legendary ‘European Modernists’ exhibit in Los Angeles and Oakland in 1927-28.

Circumstance robbed Platte of the enduring recognition he deserves. Other major German artists, sensing the menace posed by the Nazi takeover of Germany, fled the country with many of their works. Platte stayed. The Nazis found his impressionist works bereft of the muscular true-life depiction of what they narrowly construed as worthwhile art.