Werner Drewes' (1899-1985) art was based in an abstraction that is realistic at its core, but controlled by geometric simplification.  He was among a group of artists that founded the American Abstract Artists (1937) that included Leger, Mondrain and Moholy-Nagy.  His works lead to a rebirth in intaglio printmaking in the United States.

Later in Drewes career he returned to an abstract idiom.  Large background areas of color in high-keyed intensities enhance the spatial elements and forms that draw the viewer's attention.  It is in his later works that the color sensibilities of the Abstract Expressionists accent the artist's response to the rapidly changing patterns of contemporary visual expression as seen in "At Play No 2, Encounter".