Adolf Hölzel

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Self-portrait , before 1887

Adolf Richard Hölzel (born May 13, 1853 in Olomouc in Moravia , † October 17, 1934 in Stuttgart ) was an important German painter , an early protagonist of abstraction and a pioneer of modernism .

Life and artistic work

Formerly Hölzel
Capodistria (1905)

Adolf Hölzel, the son of the publisher Eduard Hölzel, born in the same year as Vincent van Gogh and Ferdinand Hodler , completed a three-year training course as a typesetter in Gotha at the Kartographisch-Geographische Verlaganstalt of Friedrich Andreas Perthes and took private drawing lessons. In 1871 he moved to Vienna with his parents . From 1872 he studied painting at the Vienna Academy and continued his studies at the Munich Art Academy from 1876 ; the original registration entry there is made out to Adolph Hölzl . After completing his studies (1882), Adolf Hölzel married Karoline Emilie von Karlowa (1858–1930). The couple lived with their son, born in 1886, partly in Rothenburg ob der Tauber and partly in Munich. In Munich he met the impressionist painter Fritz von Uhde and founded the “ Dachauer Malschule” (also: “ Neu-Dachau ”) with Ludwig Dill and Arthur Langhammer , which made him one of the first representatives of the Dachau artists' colony . He later hired August von Brandis as a teacher . In 1904 Adolf Hölzel took part in the first exhibition of the German Association of Artists (still organized by the Munich Secessionists) with the oil paintings of the edge of the forest , the spring landscape and two hand drawings from the private collection of the Mainz architect Carl August Bembé .

Hölzel lived in Dachau from 1888 to 1905. His innovative teaching method soon attracted young artists from home and abroad. Hölzel's "painting school" was not an institution in the general sense,

one could rather have spoken of a small academy. In the former studio of his late friend Langhammer, he gave lectures on composition theory, image structure, division of space, the figure in space, color theory, the 'golden ratio' and the like, on which his students worked out notebooks .
Composition in red , 1905
Adolf Hölzel: Adoration , 1912
Adolf Hölzel: Abstraction II , 1915/16. State Gallery Stuttgart
Abstract sticker image . Painting, around 1920
Adolf Hölzel: Composition , German postage stamp from 2003

Hölzel is not only one of the founders of the Munich Secession , but also one of the founders of the Vienna Secession . His programmatic essay "On Forms and Mass Distribution " in Ver Sacrum , the magazine of the Vienna Secession, had strong aftermath. Close friends with Carl Moll , he belongs to the group of style artists around Gustav Klimt who left the Secession in 1905 . The increased turn to form art becomes understandable in this context and explains the gradual turning away from the depiction.

Already during his time in Dachau the artist began to deal with abstract ornament. In contrast to his late, often strongly colored painting, his paintings, which were created in the city on the Amper , depict the local landscape and atmosphere in the finest tonal values . After Hölzel had left Dachau, he always returned there in the summer months and gave private painting lessons.

His of Wilhelm von Bezold's color theory outgoing studies led him to an own color theory (with 8-piece diatonic and 12-piece chromatic color circle), on the doctrine of the seven color contrasts later also Johannes Itten moved, and formative to abstract areas of color painting. After Ferdinand Hodler refused to succeed Leopold von Kalckreuth, Hölzt was appointed professor and head of a composing school (sic) at the “Kgl. Academy of Fine Arts ”in Stuttgart (today State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart ) appointed by Karl von Weizsäcker . Several years before Wassily Kandinsky he painted abstract compositions - Composition in Red (1905) - in strong colors. He also worked on religious topics such as Saint Ursula (1914/15), a commissioned work for the German Werkbund . Hölzel himself vigorously protested against being a painter of religion.

A co-activist and committed promoter of modern endeavors in painting, Hölzel again proved himself to be a mentor of the youth at a time when his students Willi Baumeister , Oskar Schlemmer and Hermann Stenner met with more opposition than applause with their Cologne Werkbund pictures : The Association of Friends of Art in the Länder on the Rhine gave him the opportunity to organize a so-called “Expressionist” “under his own responsibility” as part of the Stuttgart art exhibition, which was scheduled for the months of May to October 1914 and was thus already under the influence of the war Hall ”(room XVIII of the exhibition) and“ [to show] painters of the most recent direction ”, says Wilhelm Schäfer in the foreword of the catalog,“ who at first did not find the applause of the public, but because of the undeniable seriousness and zeal of the artists Association seemed worth careful consideration ”. The 24 painters represented included the “locals” Willi Baumeister, Paul Bollmann , Josef Eberz , Lily Hildebrandt , Johannes Itten , Ida Kerkovius , Edmund Kinzinger , Oskar Schlemmer, Hermann Stenner and Alfred Wickenburg as well as the “foreigners” Walter Bötticher and Adolf Erbslöh , Hermann Huber , August Macke , Heinrich Nauen and Walter Ophey .

Gradually the so-called "Hölzel Circle" was formed, in which pupils and followers gathered and which first manifested itself in 1916 with the Freiburg Art Association exhibition "Hölzel and his Circle". The students included Max Ackermann , Willi Baumeister, Paul Bollmann, Carry van Biema , Heinrich Eberhard , Adolf Fleischmann , Johannes Itten, Ida Kerkovius, Otto Meyer-Amden , Richard Neuz , Alfred Heinrich Pellegrini , Oskar Schlemmer, Hermann Stenner and Alfred Wickenburg. Hölzel was also responsible for setting up a ladies' painting class. Between June and August 1912, Hölzel and his group settled in Monschau on the recommendation of August von Brandis to paint there.

Tired of the constant hostility from colleagues, Adolf Hölzel resigned, "unconventional in the exercise of his teaching post" and after he had "been unable to push through his efforts to reform the academy" during his two-year term as director of the academy from 1916 "at the end of the winter semester 1918/19 and retired, but continued to give private lessons, including for Max Ackermann . The intensified around the middle of 1919 attempts Willi Baumeister and Oskar Schlemmer , Paul Klee Chair successor than winning, met at the academy (at once after its liberation Arnold Waldschmidt had been set to Hölzel Position) and in the local press to fierce resistance, especially defamatory of Paul Klee, and were brought down by the Academy Convention under director Heinrich Altherr , not least with the flimsy justification that there was no post. Hölzel withdrew as a freelance painter and concentrated more on pastel and glass painting as well as his art theoretical work.

Adolf Hölzel died in Stuttgart on October 17, 1934. The great success was denied him. Shortly before his death he wrote: I don't want my death to bother anyone. I know how few people were interested in my artistic intentions and therefore in me .

His grave is in the forest cemetery in Stuttgart .

estate

The monumental Christ crucified in the Pauluskirche in Ulm , the only hand-made mural by Hölzel

A significant part of Adolf Hölzel's art theoretical legacy, 2290 handwritten notes, some with drawings, is in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart . Other sheets are in free float. One of the early collectors was the later Ministerialrat in the Ministry of Culture in Baden-Württemberg, Fritz Kauffmann, who also corresponded with Hölzel and included this correspondence in his Dr. Fritz Kauffmann recorded. From the property of the collector Fritz Kauffmann, many of Hölzel's so-called font base sheets passed into the property of Hermann-Josef Bunte . In the exhibition of the Bunte Collection in the Kunsthalle Bielefeld 2014 under the title “Das Glück in der Kunst”, the font base sheets by Hölzel were shown together, naming the collector Fritz Kauffmann. The Kunstmuseum Stuttgart - formerly the gallery of the city of Stuttgart - owns the most extensive Hölzel collection (through purchase of the Fritz Beindorff / Pelikan collection, Hanover in 1987). A south German collector owns a smaller part of the works (exhibitions, among others, in January 2006 in Rheinfelden in Baden ). In 2007, after a long time, Hölzel's work was honored in a comprehensive solo exhibition at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. This show showed his work, including an abundance of loans from private collections, in a completely new context. In 2009, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the Art Forum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg Adolf Hölzel organized the most extensive exhibition to date.

The non-profit Adolf Hölzel Foundation was founded in Stuttgart in 2005, with the aim of promoting the work as well as preserving and processing the artistic legacy. She is heir to the estate of the artist's last direct descendant. The house in Stuttgart-Degerloch, in which Adolf Hölzel lived from 1919 until his death, was preserved with public support and serves as the headquarters of the foundation. Exhibitions and events are also held there.

Against the background of the exhibition “Hölzel and his circle” in 1916 by the Freiburg Art Association, the Augustinermuseum Freiburg showed 2017-2018 under the title “In the laboratory of modernity. Hölzel und seine Kreis ”is an exhibition on the charisma, impact and significance of the group around Hölzel in terms of art history.

student

The artists who took lessons from Hölzel included, among others

Works (selection)

Study on the Crucified, which Hölzel himself painted in 1910 in the Pauluskirche in Ulm
  • Old woman from Dachau in traditional costume at home service (oil around 1890)
  • A spring afternoon in Dachau (oil around 1890)
  • The love letter (oil around 1890)
  • Young Dachau peasant couple having their lunch break (oil around 1895)
  • Peasant girl in the Dachauer Moos (oil 1899)
  • Winter in the Dachau Moos (Oil 1900)
  • Peat extraction in the Dachauer Moos (Oil 1904)
  • Dachauer Moor (oil 1905)
  • Midsummer heat in the Dachauer Moos (Oil 1905)
  • Dusk at the Amper (Oil 1905)
  • Composition in red (oil 1905)
  • Dachauer Moos III (oil 1905)
  • Dachau Cloud Landscape (Oil 1907)
  • Gravel pit (oil 1907)
  • Encounter (with the Bebenhausen monastery church in the background, 1907/1908)
  • Pilgrimage (1910)
  • Crucifix (dying Christ) in the Pauluskirche (Ulm) (east wall, 1910)
  • Fugue on a Resurrection Theme (1916)
  • Colored windows at the Bahlsen headquarters in Hanover (1918)

literature

  • Marion Ackermann , Gerhard Leistner , Daniel Spanke (eds.): Kaleidoskop. Hoelzel in the avant-garde. Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86828-089-0 .
  • Rainer Beck : Adolf Hoelzel: Departure to Modernity. Museum Villa Stuck, Munich 1980.
  • Norbert Göttler : You made history in the Dachau region. Dachau 1989, ISBN 3-89251-049-0 , pp. 93-98.
  • Dörthe Jakobs, Viola Lang: The only mural by Adolf Hölzel. The crucifix in the Protestant Pauluskirche in Ulm. In: Preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 40, 2011, issue 1, pp. 45–50 [1] (PDF).
  • Oliver Jehle: About artistic religion. Adolf Hölzel's painting as speculative theology. In: Christoph Dohmen (Hrsg.): Religion as image - image as religion. Schnell & Steiner, Regensburg 2011 (Regensburg Studies on Art History; Vol. 15), pp. 31–57.
  • Wolfgang Kermer : A late work by Adolf Hölzel for the academy . In: Akademie-Mitteilungen 3 / Staatliche Akademie der bildenden Künste Stuttgart / For the period from October 1, 1972 to March 31, 1973 / Stuttgart: State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, April 1973, pp. 25–26, Fig. P. 13.
  • Wolfgang Kermer (Ed.): From Willi Baumeister's diaries: Memories of Otto Meyer-Amden, Adolf Hölzel, Paul Klee, Karl Konrad Düssel and Oskar Schlemmer. With additional writings and letters from Willi Baumeister . - Ostfildern-Ruit: Edition Cantz, 1996 ( contributions to the history of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart / edited by Wolfgang Kermer; Vol. 8) ISBN 3-89322-421-1 .
  • Wolfgang Kermer (Hrsg.): Adolf Hölzel: Some about the color in its picture harmonic meaning and utilization. About the color . With an introduction by Wolfgang Kermer about the “First German Color Day” of the German Werkbund in Stuttgart 1919. Stuttgart: State Academy of Fine Arts, 1997 ( WerkstattReihe / [State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart] edited by Wolfgang Kermer; vol. 3) .
  • Wolfgang Kermer (Ed.): "Dear Master Hölzel ..." (Willi Baumeister) - students remember their teacher. On the 70th anniversary of Adolf Hölzel's death on October 17, 2004. State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, 2004 (WerkstattReihe / [State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart] edited by Wolfgang Kermer; Vol. 11) ISBN 3-931485-67-6 ( The printing of texts by Oskar Schlemmer was prohibited due to inheritance disputes).
  • Alexander Klee : Adolf Hölzel and the Vienna Secession. Prestel Verlag, Munich 2006. ISBN 3-7913-3594-4 .
  • Agnes Husslein-Arco and Alexander Klee : “Formalization of the landscape - Hölzel, Mediz, Moll u. a. ", Vienna 2013. ISBN 978-3-7774-2124-7
  • Michael Lingner et al. a .: Adolf Hölzel (1853–1934) - The Art Theoretical Legacy . KulturStiftung der Länder / Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, 1998. ISSN  0941-7036 .
  • Karin von Maur : The misunderstood revolutionary: Adolf Hölzel. Work and effect. Hohenheim Verlag, Stuttgart 2003 ISBN 3-89850-112-4 .
  • Gert K. Nagel: Swabian artist lexicon. Munich 1986. ISBN 3-921811-36-8 , p. 53.
  • Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz (ed.): On your own way - Adolf Hölzel and his Swiss students. The catalog was published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name in the Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz (February 20 to May 8, 2011) and Spiez Castle, CH (June 9 to September 12, 2011), Konstanz, 2011.
  • Carl Thiemann : Memories of a Dachau Painter. Contributions to the history of Dachau as an artist's place, Dachau undated, p. 15 ff.
  • Wolfgang Venzmer:  Hölzel, Adolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 339 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Wolfgang Venzmer: A. Hölzel, monograph with catalog raisonné of the oil paintings, glass windows and selected pastels. 1983.
  • Christoph Wagner , Gerhard Leistner (ed.): Vision color. Adolf Hölzel and the modern age. Wilhelm Fink, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-7705-5258-0 .
  • Christoph Wagner , Oliver Jehle (ed.): Adolf Hölzel. Art theory writings (evidentia, 4), Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Paderborn 2020. ISBN 978-3-7705-5259-7 .
  • Christoph Wagner : “Generation change in the avant-garde. Adolf Hölzel in retrospect of his students Johannes Itten and Hermann Stenner ”, in: Vision Color. Adolf Hölzel and the Modern Age (Evidenceia, 3), ed. by Gerhard Leistner and Christoph Wagner, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-7705-5258-0 , pp. 42-68.
  • Christoph Wagner : “Adolf Hölzel, Johannes Itten and the Bauhaus. Comments on the reception of Hölzel's theory of colors ”, in: Kaleidoskop Hölzel in der Avantgarde , ed. by Marion Ackermann; Gerhard Leistner and Daniel Spanke, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-8682-8089-0 , pp. 110-115. Available online

Web links

Commons : Adolf Hölzel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Excerpt from the register book 1841–1884, AdBK Munich
  2. ^ Exhibition catalog X. Exhibition of the Munich Secession: The German Association of Artists (in connection with an exhibition of exquisite products of the arts in the craft) , Verlaganstalt F. Bruckmann, Munich 1904 (p. 23: Hölzel, Adolf, Dachau. Catalog No. 46: Waldesrand m Fig. 47: Spring landscape, 48/49: hand drawings, property of Mr. C. Bembé, Mainz.)
  3. ^ Thiemann n.d., p. 15
  4. ^ “Ver Sacrum” 4th year, 1901, issue 15, pages 243-254
  5. ↑ printed in A. Husslein-Arco / A. Klee: “Formalization of the landscape - Hölzel, Mediz, Moll u. a. “Pages 24–37
  6. ↑ Thiemann no year, p. 16.
  7. ↑ s. Johannes Pawlik : Theory of Color. DuMont Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-0510-9 , p. 30 ff.
  8. ↑ s. Harald Küppers : Theory of harmony in colors. Theoretical basics of color design. DuMont Verlag, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7701-2192-9 , pp. 208-213.
  9. ^ Exhibition catalog Art Exhibition Stuttgart 1914 , Kgl. Art building, Schloßplatz, May to October, ed. from the Association of Friends of Art in the Länder on the Rhine, Stuttgart 1914, pp. 46–49.
  10. ↑ klenkes.de
  11. ↑ Wolfgang Kermer : Data and images on the history of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart. Edition Cantz, Stuttgart 1988 (= improved reprint from: Die Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart: a self-portrayal. Edition Cantz, Stuttgart 1988), o. P. [7].
  12. ↑ For the first time in detail: Karin von Maur : Oskar Schlemmer and the Stuttgart Avantgarde 1919. With a foreword by the editor. State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, Institute for Book Design, Stuttgart 1975 (= contributions to the history of the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart , edited by Wolfgang Kermer; 1). - Karl Diemer: How Hölzel was booted out and Klee thrown out: the Stuttgart Art Academy looks the past in the eye . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , No. 169, July 26, 1975, p. 23.
  13. ↑ quoted from Göttler 1989, p. 98.
  14. ↑ kunsthalle-bielefeld.de
  15. ↑ Catalog for the collection: Happiness in Art, Expressionism and Abstraction around 1914. Kerber Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86678-965-4 .
  16. ↑ Catalog for the exhibition: https://www.kerberverlag.com/de/no_cache/produktsuche.html (link not available)
  17. ↑ Alexander Klee : Adolf Hölzel and the Vienna Secession, Munich 2006
  18. ^ Ackermann, Marion., Leistner, Gerhard, 1955-, Spanke, Daniel., Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie., Kunstmuseum Stuttgart .: Kaleidoscope: Hoelzel in the avant-garde . Kehrer, Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86828-089-0 .
  19. ^ Municipal museums: In the laboratory of modernity. Hölzel and his circle. Retrieved December 19, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Hölzel, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hölzel, Adolf Richard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-German painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH Olomouc
DATE OF DEATH October 17, 1934
Place of death Stuttgart