"My world is color, in it my imagination can fully unfold" was the leitmotif of Ida Kerkovius (1879-1970). Among the 20 or so students of Adolf Hölzel at the Stuttgart Academy, "Kerko," as she was called, stood out in particular. As early as 1903 she was with the great teacher in Dachau, then from 1908 with him in Stuttgart. Hölzel, who later made her his assistant, appreciated her peculiarity: "She does my teaching, but funny, she does completely different things."
Between 1920 and 1923, the artist studied at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where she was particularly inspired by the teachings of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Despite the various influences, she always emphasized that she did not follow just one style: "I don't profess any artistic direction, but always strive, as I did at the beginning of my development, to give shape, quality, and expression to the feelings that live in me."
The refusal to subordinate herself to a binding style enabled her to deal with the pictorial means and color in ever new ways. She developed, especially in her pastel works, an independent emotional, colorful visual language that involves the viewer on a sensual level of perception.