Clara Kress

Clara Kress (born November 3, 1899 in Herten (Rheinfelden) ; † March 1, 1971 in Karlsruhe ; also Clara Kreß ) was a German craftswoman and visual artist ( textile design , glass windows ), graphic artist and painter .

Life

Clara Kress was born on November 3, 1899 in the Baden village of Herten, which is now part of Rheinfelden (Baden), as the fifth of six children. Her father, Sebastian Kress (1864–1924), was the main teacher and headmaster, as well as an organist . Her mother, Paulina Kress (1872–1937), b. Zwik, came from Worndorf near Neuhausen ob Eck.

First, Clara Kress attended the district and commercial school in nearby Basel (Switzerland). She later moved from Herten to the district town of Lörrach and completed an apprenticeship at the Kunstgewerbeschule (today: Schule für Gestaltung) in Basel. In 1928 , a few years after her father's death, she moved with her mother to Karlsruhe , where her brother Eugen lived and was able to look after his mother. In Karlsruhe she first attended a seminar for handicraft teachers and completed it with the state examination. With the first church orders for paraments and other church textiles, she was able to contribute to the maintenance of herself and her mother.

In 1930 she began studying at the "Badische Landeskunstschule" (today's art academy ) in the painting class of August Babberger , the pioneer of Expressionism in southwest Germany from the same district . She also took courses in the textile class. Clara Kress was also a regular guest in class with Paul Klee , who was professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1931 to 1933 . From 1935 on she was a master class student at Babberger. Her first, still preserved, draft for a cycle of stained glass windows in the Christkönigskirche Karlsruhe- Rüppurr dates from 1936 (see web links). Until 1939 she had her studio in the art academy, then a small one of her own in an attic apartment on Baischstrasse , which she shared with her mother. It was destroyed in a bombing raid in 1943, and almost all of its previous work was lost as a result.

At the end of the war in 1945, Clara Kress moved to Allensbach , was often to visit the painter Willi Müller-Hufschmid , now living in Constance , whom she already knew from Karlsruhe. A close artistic dialogue began, which is reflected in her works.

In 1947 Kress moved back to Karlsruhe to her old apartment, into which a refugee family was also admitted until 1950. In 1950 Willi Müller-Hufschmid moved into a room directly in front of her attic apartment, which he lived in until 1966.

Also in 1950 she obtained the master's certificate for art embroidery. Kress received more orders from the church for chasubles and other textiles. This was followed by orders for wall hangings and large glass windows in many churches and public buildings throughout Baden and beyond. From this time z. B. the choir windows of the St. Francis Church in Mannheim-Waldhof . 1953 she created Michael's Church St. in for six after the war, newly cast bells of Saarbruecken portraits of their respective patrons . In 1955 she took part in the artistic design of the Freihof in Wiesloch .

In 1955 Clara Kress began many journeys that took her across half of Europe (initially to Spain and Portugal, and later to France, Italy, Yugoslavia, Ireland and Denmark).

At the turn of the year 1959/1960 she made wax models for the lettering and illustrations on the new bells of the church "Maria vom Guten Rat" in Munich- Schwabing . On the occasion of the 37th World Eucharistic Congress at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from July 28 to September 30, 1960, the exhibition “Church Construction of the Present in Germany”, Interior Section, showed a wall hanging from her.

In 1963, Kress won the competition to design a glass window for the General Kammhuber barracks in Karlsruhe on the subject of "flies and planes".

In 1967 she was awarded the “Rome Prize for Church Art”, and in 1969 the “Ancona Graphic Prize”. In the same year Clara Kress bought her own house on Bürklinstrasse, where she now also moved her studio.

Clara Kress died in this apartment on March 1, 1971.

plant

Clara Kress' most famous creations are her textile works. Her wall hangings are particularly outstanding . Characteristic for this are imaginative and elaborate embroidery, the frequent use of unusual materials such as foils, ribbons made of plastic, leather, shells, porcelain elements, and a relief-like design. She often received orders from the church for wall hangings and liturgical vestments.

Another essential part of her work are stained glass windows, also often commissioned by the church. So are z. For example, the round windows in the side aisles of the Catholic Christkönigkirche in Karlsruhe-Rüppurr, a work by Kress from 1948. They show pictures from the life of Jesus and his disciples. They were made in the Karlsruhe glass art workshop.

A third part of the artistic work are paintings, pastels , drawings and collages . Portrait studies, various sketches on her travels and, in turn, works on religious or mythical subjects emerge. Clara Kress' work is an independent middle ground in terms of form language between abstract classical modernism (representatives: Paul Klee et al.) And the so-called “Karlsruhe Line” of New Objectivity . This is particularly true of her later work. During this creative phase, the Karlsruhe painter Willi Müller-Hufschmid , with whom she lived for 16 years , was clearly influenced .

After the war, Clara Kress rarely paints. For this she drew all the more and made textile collages and again imaginative wall hangings.

literature

• Dorothee Höfert, Energie Baden-Württemberg AG (ed.): Clara Kress (1899–1971). Exhibition from October 24 to December 15, 2002 in the foyer of EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG in Karlsruhe ; EnBW Service GmbH, 2002, ISBN 3-934510-12-4
• Sabine Krause (conception and text), GEDOK (Association of Artists and Art Friends) Karlsruhe (ed.): Clara Kress (1899–1971): wall hangings, drawings, painting ; Exhibition by GEDOK and the Baden-Württemberg State Trade Office in the premises of the State Trade Office, from January 14th to February 28th, 1993; Karlsruhe, 1993
• Sabine Krause: Clara Kress (1899–1971). Paintings, drawings, wall hangings , homework for obtaining the Magister Artium at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Karlsruhe, 2 volumes, 1994
• Martina Ellwein: Clara Kress - a textile artist as the starting point for working with schoolchildren in the area of ​​"combined textile techniques" ; in: Textil, Vol. 75, H. 2, pp. 1-13, 2004
• Community of Christian Artists Archdiocese of Freiburg (GCK) (Ed.): From our work, no. 4; Archbishop's Building Department Heidelberg, Karlsruhe branch, 1960
• Karin Hirn: "A picture has to be a world, captured on a small piece of paper". Attempt to approach Willi Müller-Hufschmid and Clara Kress , in: Kurpfälzer Winzerfest-Anzeiger 2001, pp. 34–48
• Brigitte Baumstark: Female craftsmen in Karlsruhe and Baden , in: Städtische Galerie im Prinz-Max-Palais (ed.): Women on the move? Women artists in the German southwest 1800–1945 , exhibition catalog, 1995
• Church construction of the present in Germany: Exhibition on the occasion of the Eucharistic World Congress, Munich 1960; July 28 to September 30, 1960, Academy of Fine Arts in Munich , Munich [u. a.]: Schnell & Steiner, 1960
• Hans Vollmer: General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. Paperback edition, Vol. 3, p. 118. dtv, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-423-05907-9 .

Web links

• EnBW press release on the exhibition in Karlsruhe 2002
• Karlsruhe rediscovery - "Clara Kress in EnBW" 2002
• Press release on the exhibition of ink drawings, works in tempera and textile murals by Clara Kress in the Rastatt City Museum, March 10 to June 18, 2006 , PDF (11 kB)
• “Me and the first man” , drawing by Clara Kress