Adolf Uzarski

Adolf Uzarski (born April 14, 1885 in Ruhrort ; † July 14, 1970 in Düsseldorf ) was a German writer , painter and graphic artist .

Life

Uzarski visited the High School in Meiderich to annuals Easter 1903. At his father's request, the merchant and legal adviser Karl Uzarski, he completed a two-year apprenticeship or an internship as bricklayers and carpenters. After attending the building trade school in Cologne , he finished his training as a master builder . He then worked for two years as a site manager in the Meiderich building authority .

In 1906 he realized a long-cherished dream and enrolled at the prestigious, progressive arts and crafts school in Düsseldorf . Uzarski attended courses in book art and commercial graphics with Fritz Helmuth Ehmcke , where he met Arthur Kaufmann . In 1910 he opened his own studio in Düsseldorf.

In 1911 he made the first of his numerous trips abroad to southern Europe and North Africa . At the beginning of the First World War , Uzarski was surprised during a study visit to Paris . He returned to Düsseldorf on one of the last trains. Uzarski initially shared the patriotic exuberance of many of his contemporaries.

During the war, Uzarski worked as the head of the advertising department for the Düsseldorf department store Leonhard Tietz . Uzarski, who had been married since 1915, maintained the usual patriotic pace in the agendas that the department store presented to its customers every Christmas. Outside of his work for Tietz, however, he took an energetic opposing position.

In the revolutionary turmoil of the post-war period, on February 24, 1919, together with Arthur Kaufmann and Herbert Eulenberg, he founded the artists' association Das Junge Rheinland , where he was a board member and secretary. Uzarski, " Communist without a party book ", was also a founding member of the left activist association founded in 1919 and the Immermann association founded in late 1918 .

Uzarski managed to arouse the interest of the Düsseldorf public in modern and expressionist art. His former employer, the art-loving department store owner Leonhard Tietz , made the fourth floor of his large department store (now Kaufhof) available to him in 1922 for his 1st international art exhibition in the Tietz department store . Issued were u. a. Archipenko , Barlach , Chagall , de Chirico , Feininger , Haeckel , Kirchner , Lehmbruck and Picasso .

When Johanna "mother" Ey reviled his works of art in 1923 against friends, there was an open argument. Uzarski left the Young Rhineland and founded the Rhine group . As a board member of the Association for the Organization of Art Exhibitions e. V. , he had an influence on the organization of the regularly held Düsseldorf Art Exhibition in the Düsseldorf Art Palace .

Uzarski led sharp attacks in words and pictures against anti-democratic, anti-Semitic and militarist forces and tendencies in the Weimar Republic . After taking power in 1933, he, whom the Nazis called the Mephisto of Düsseldorf , was targeted by the National Socialists , and he was dismissed from West German Broadcasting . His applications for admission to the Reich Chamber of Literature and the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts were rejected and he was banned from painting and writing. Uzarski escaped the Nazis' grasp at first by constantly changing his place of residence; he spent the last years of the war in Robertville / Belgium .

After the Second World War, Uzarski returned to Düsseldorf. Like many artists persecuted by the National Socialists, he was unable to build on his old successes. Uzarski's satires were not in demand in the Adenauer era. He was only able to publish a few satirical drawings in the magazine Der Deutsche Michel . During the 1950s he was almost completely forgotten and believed to be dead. When in 1967 the one who was believed to have been lost was honored by the Berlin Academy of the Arts with a retrospective of his works, Uzarski once again moved into the public eye. In 1970 Uzarski's graphic works were shown as part of the exhibition Alte Zeiten in the Düsseldorf City Museum , and he died a few weeks later. His grave is in the Düsseldorf North Cemetery .

plant

Uzarki's first posters were published in the magazine of the student association Ring in 1908 , and in 1913 Uzarski began to work as a book artist.

In 1914, right after the outbreak of the war, he illustrated the youth book The World War. In this volume, Uzarski presented the war as a tremendous, exciting adventure, an attitude that he quickly revised; he clearly articulated his now anti-militarist and anti-monarchist actions in the lithograph portfolio Totentanz , published in 1916/1917 . At this time he also had his first exhibition together with Arthur Kaufmann in the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf .

Initially, Uzarski's work was more in the tradition of Art Nouveau, but during the war, expressionist and neo-objective elements increasingly flowed into his visual work, in which he approached George Grosz and Otto Dix , the latter also portraying him in the portrait of Adolf Uzarski .

In 1919 the first of Uzarski's ten novels was published: The Spanish Journey . Uzarski published a novel almost every year throughout the 1920s. His best-known literary work to this day is the novel Möppi - Memoirs of a Dog , published in 1921 , in which the "Düsseldorfer Zille " satirically portrayed Düsseldorf in the post-war period. The novel had numerous editions and is still part of the Düsseldorf “folklore” today.

After 1945 Uzarski only published a few picture books for children.

family

Father Karl Uzarski (1850–1920), businessman and legal advisor at Phoenix AG, was married to Bertha, née Windelschmidt (1857–1938). Adolf Uzarski was the oldest son. Two brothers followed. Julius Uzarski (born August 16, 1888) became an assessor at the Comenius Gymnasium in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel . He died in August 1915 as a war volunteer in the field of pleurisy. The brother Richard Uzarski (born May 25, 1893) became an engineer. He died in a traffic accident in 1945. Usarzki was married to Frieda Schwarz (1890–1961) since March 31, 1915. The marriage remained childless.

Fonts

• Tuti name , 12 sheets. Original lithograph 66 × 51.5 Düsseldorf 1919
• Möppi , Munich, 1921
• The Spanish Journey , Munich, 1921
• Chameleon. A book of heroes , Munich, 1922
• The trip to Germany , Potsdam, 1924
• Tun-Kwang-pipi , Potsdam, 1924
• The column of shame by Ludwig M. Recordings of a Vision , 1925
• Mr. Knobloch , Munich, 1926
• The journeys of Mariechen Stieglitz , Düsseldorf 1927
• Kurukallawalla , Munich, 1927
• The Uzarski case , Munich, 1928
• The Hotel Zum Paradies , Munich, 1929
• Almost world champion , Munich, 1930
• Panoptikum , Berlin, 1955
• A thoughtful story in 48 pictures , Berlin, 1984
• Warehouse damage , Berlin, 1985

literature

• Kirsten Fitzke: In the human slaughterhouse, death personified is booming . The industrialized war in death dance cycles from the Rhineland and Thuringia . In: Gertrude Cepl-Kaufmann, Gerd Krumeich, Ulla Sommers (eds.): War and Utopia. Art, literature and politics in the Rhineland after the First World War . Essen 2006, pp. 234-250.
• Wilfried Kugel: Adolf Uzarski: (1885–1970) . In: Literature next door . Bielefeld 1995, pp. 361-365.
• Marlene Lauter: Pictures to read - the graphic and painterly work of Adolf Uzarski . Cologne / Weimar 1990.
• Michael Matzigkeit: Uzarski, Adolf . In: Walther Killy: Literature Lexicon. Authors and works in German . Munich 1991, Volume 11, p. 502.
• Adolf Uzarski 1885–1970 - painting graphic. For the 100th birthday . Exhibition catalog Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, 1985.

Web links

Commons : Adolf Uzarski  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Adolf Uzarski in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ final exam passed, Easter 1903: Uzarski, Adolf, 04.14.85, Catholic, Father merchant from Meiderich, future work building trade, in. Urban Secondary School Connected to reform secondary school in development, Duisburg-Meiderich , reporting school year 1902/1903, S. 15 uni -duesseldorf.de
2. ↑ Portrait of Adolf Uzarski , 1923 by Otto Dix , in the Museum Kunstpalast
3. ↑ Passed final exam, Easter 1904: Uzarski, Julius, August 16, 88, Ruhrort, Catholic, father businessman from Meiderich, future occupation in secondary school, in municipal secondary school, connected with reform secondary school in development, Duisburg-Meiderich , report on school year 1903/1904, p. 16 uni-duesseldorf.de
4. ↑ Memorial plaque First World War in the Comenius-Gymnasium building from 1912: Assessor Dr. Jul.Uzarski, died on August 25, 1915.
5. ↑ Passed final exam, Easter 1911: Uzarski, Richard, May 25th, 1993, Ruhrort, Catholic, father businessman from Düsseldorf, future occupation mechanical engineering, in annual report of the municipal secondary school with secondary school on Rethelstrasse , report school year 1910/1911, p. 22 uni -duesseldorf.de
6. ^ Kurt Franz (ed.): Lexicon of children's and youth literature . German Academy for Children's and Youth Literature Volkach. Meitingen, Corian Verlag H. Wimmer. 63. Supplementary delivery September 2017. P. 1–21 Digitized version: Lexicon of children's and youth literature - Adof Uzarski