Josef Wittlich

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Josef Wittlich, celebrity couple in front of the flag

Josef Wittlich (born February 26, 1903 in Gladbach in the Rhineland; † September 21, 1982 in Höhr-Grenzhausen ) was a German "naive" painter .

Life

As the child of a button maker, Wittlich grew up in poor circumstances. Even as a child he draws and paints. In 1920 he allegedly went to the Foreign Legion and then worked for a few years as an officer's boy in Paris . At the time of great unemployment in the late 1920s, he wandered through Eastern Europe and tipped through Bulgaria and Yugoslavia . In 1934 he came to Nauort and found work as a farmhand in agriculture and pumice mining. In his free time, Josef Wittlich paints busily on sheets of paper. He was drafted into World War II and was taken prisoner by the Soviets . After escaping from captivity, he found work in Kassel, but after the war he was drawn back to Nauort. From 1948 until his death he worked and lived on the premises of the Steuler -Werke in Höhr-Grenzhausen, where he worked and painted until his death. His works were discovered during a factory visit. An artist researched his own motifs and discovered Wittlich's colorful pictures. “At Steuler, art was present everywhere in the factory. He simply gave away many pictures. Because he didn't paint for a living, he liked to do it ”.

Josef Wittlich was inspired by academic paintings as well as war books, photos from mail order catalogs and magazines. The images of the Pope, prince couples and well-known personalities of his time, however, are only templates for his accentuated and abstract images. He pins the finished works to the walls of his workplace with thumbtacks. There they were noticed by the artist Fred Stelzig during a visit to the factory in 1967 . He is fascinated by Wittlich's distinctive handwriting and the shimmering, evenly applied colors. It is thanks to Stelzig that Wittlich's rich work is exhibited for the first time in 1967 at the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart . Numerous solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad followed. Wittlich had been a pensioner since 1968. He died unmarried and childless in 1982 of a heart attack.

Wittlich's imagery essentially comprises three fields of motifs: battle pictures and soldiers, portraits of queens and potentates as well as pictures of women, especially mannequins. Wittlich's paintings have so far been received primarily as outsider art and since the late 1960s have also been widely recognized in exhibitions at home and abroad. His artistic signature is close to the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein but also to comics.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 2014 Gallery Wagner + Partner, Berlin
  • 2009 Neuss, Clemens Sels Museum
  • 2008 Antonnierhaus, Memmingen
  • 2007 Waterworks, Galerie Lange, Siegburg
  • 2007 Museum Haus Cajeth, Heidelberg
  • 2006 Galerie Chobot, Vienna, Austria
  • 1998 Museum Zander, Bönnigheim
  • 1990 Art Association, Friedrichshafen
  • 1982 Mathildenhöhe Institute, Darmstadt
  • 1973 Kunstverein Ulm
  • 1968 Springer Gallery, Berlin
  • 1967 Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart

Group exhibitions (selection)

  • 2012 Wasserwerk, Galerie Lange, Siegburg
  • 2009 Clemes-Sels Museum Neuss
  • 2005 Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
  • 2004 Museum for Art and Cultural History, Dortmund
  • 2003 Vestiches Museum Recklinghausen
  • 2001 Kunsthaus Wien, Vienna
  • 2000 Oberhausen Castle Gallery, Oberhausen
  • 1998 Museum Zander, Bönnigheim
  • 1995 Art Museum in the Ehrenhof, Düsseldorf
  • 1992 Friedrichshafen Art Association, Friedrichshafen
  • 1988 Clemens Sels Museum, Neuss
  • 1988 Musée du Vieux Chateau, Laval
  • 1988 Kunstverein , Hanover
  • 1988 Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
  • 1982 Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
  • 1981 Altonaer Museum, Hamburg
  • 1981 Cultural History Museum, Bielefeld
  • 1979 Roundhouse, London
  • 1979 Lange waterworks, Siegburg
  • 1977 Kunstverei, Zurich
  • 1974 Kunsthalle, Zurich
  • 1974 Kunstverein, Heilbronn
  • 1974 Kunsthalle, Recklinghausen
  • 1974 House of Art, Munich
  • 1973 Amos Anderson Museum, Helsinki, Finland
  • 1971 Ruhr Festival, Recklinghausen
  • 1970 Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
  • 1970 Gallery of the City of Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen
  • 1969 Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • 1967 Gallery Brusberg, Berlin

literature

  • Meinrad Maria Grewenig (Ed.): Josef Wittlich. Avant Pop (exhibition catalog, European Center for Art and Industrial Culture, World Heritage Site Völklinger Hütte) Verlag Das Wunderhorn, Heidelberg 2014, ISBN 978-3-88423-450-1 .
  • Hans Körner, Manja Wilkens: Josef Wittlich. Pictures after Pictures . Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König. Cologne 2014.
  • Bernd Krimmel, among others: Josef Wittlich. Mathildenhöhe . Darmstadt 1982.
  • Josef Wittlich: Josef Wittlich . Wachter, Bönnigheim 1996, ISBN 3-926318-20-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Körner, Manja Wilkens from the Exposé Josef Wittlich. Pictures after Pictures. Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König. Cologne 2014.
  2. ^ Rhein-Zeitung: Exhibition shows works by the artist Josef Wittlich in Höhr-Grenzhausen, February 26, 2014.
  3. ↑ State Secretary Walter Schumacher, opening speech book presentation "Josef Wittlich - Pictures after Pictures", Rhein-Zeitung No. 52/2014 of March 3, 2014.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wittlich, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Gladbach
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 1982
Place of death Höhr-Grenzhausen