Max Herrmann (painter)

Max Herrmann in 1998

Max Herrmann (born September 11, 1908 in Halle (Saale) ; † November 18, 1999 in Oldenburg (Oldenburg) ) was a German painter and ceramist . He was also known for his art in building work .

Career

After graduating from secondary school, from 1926 to 1928 he trained with the painter and architect Karl Völker in Halle / Saale in drawing and painting, including working on architectural work and church renovations. From 1928 to 1930 he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden , where he was a master student with Otto Dix , life drawing with Richard Müller and materials science with Kurt Wehlte . From 1930 to 1932 Herrmann was a master student of Max Beckmann at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main . From 1932 to 1933 he continued studying drawing with Charles Crodel and Gerhard Marcks at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Applied Arts in Halle / Saale.

From 1935 to 1937 Herrmann studied music at the Leipzig Conservatory, including organ studies with Karl Hoyer . As early as 1934 he was working as a freelance artist in Oldenburg. From 1937 to 1973 he worked as a music educator at the College for Teacher Training in Oldenburg, as a choir repetitor at the Oldenburg State Theater and as an organist, interrupted from 1940 to 1945 by military service as a soldier with severe injuries. In 1945 all works from the pre-war period were destroyed by a bomb attack on Oldenburg. An early work from 1929 (portrait of a woman, oil on canvas, painted on both sides, original frame) was rediscovered by chance in the art market in 2009.

plant

With a new artistic start after 1945, Herrmann took up the social experiences of the post-war period, Beckmann's influence was evident. From the 1950s he turned to abstraction, lines, surfaces and shapes became independent, the subject was abstracted. The decisive breakthrough came in 1959 with the mural “Through darkness to light” on the wall of the school in Kreyenbrück (Oldenburg) and in 1960 with the 200 m² glass concrete wall of the St. Johannes Church in Oldenburg-Kreyenbrück. What had been laid out since training at Max Beckmann and tried to be implemented in a variety of ways, now came into play: the step from color as a form to color as a space-creating force. From 1956 until his death in 1999, H. carried out numerous artistic works on the construction of churches and public buildings with wall paintings, glass concrete walls, concrete relief and brick mosaic walls, glass paintings, and designs for tapestries. From 1991 he created painted bowls, vases and reliefs together with his partner and ceramist Helga Brandhorst.

Solo exhibitions

• 1953: Kunstverein Hannover
• 1954 and 1994: Oldenburger Kunstverein
• 1958: Braunschweig Municipal Museum
• 1974, 1979, 1998 and 2006: Oldenburg City Museum
• 1984: Kunstverein Wilhelmshaven
• 2000, 2008 and 2009: State Museum for Art and Cultural History Oldenburg
• 2006: Art Association Talstrasse Halle / Saale.
• 2012: Cathedral Museum in the St. Petri Cathedral in Bremen
• 2014: Art Association Die Wassermühle eV, Lohne

Participation in exhibitions

• 1959: The Art Institute of Chicago
• 2000: Museum for Applied Art (mak) Frankfurt / Main

architectural art

• Glass concrete wall St. Johanneskirche Oldenburg,
• Glass concrete wall Reconciliation Church Oldenburg,
• Hinrichsfehn Reconciliation Church : glass concrete walls of the south and north facade (1965), leaded glass windows of the west facade (1999)
• Rosette and side window Ansgarikirche Oldenburg, altar table,
• Window and brick wall design Johanneskirche Rechtsupweg, East Friesland
• Baptismal font, pulpit and altar Andreaskirche Plaggenburg
• Rosette and window Gnadenkirche Tidofeld , North / East Friesland (today: Documentation center for the integration of refugees and displaced persons in Lower Saxony and Northwest Germany), a listed building since 2007.

Numerous pictures are in museums, public buildings and private property.

literature

• Reclam's Art Guide Vol. IV (1960): St. Johanneskirche Oldenburg
• Catalogs of the State Museum for Art and Cultural History Oldenburg
• City Museum Oldenburg, Oldenburger Kunstverein, Oldenburg landscape
• Max Herrmann - Painting drafts, text: Jürgen Weichardt , catalog for the exhibition in the Kunstverein and the Lamberti Chapel 1994, ISBN 3-89442-214-9
• Max Herrmann - Painting, catalog Kunstverein Talstrasse Halle / Saale, text: Bernd Küster , former director of the Landesmuseum Oldenburg, ISBN 3-932962-32-X
• Max Herrmann, in the new series on current art, vol. 12, text: Ewald Gäßler , former director of the City Museum in Oldenburg
• Paintings, drawings and ceramics, ISBN 3-89598-549-X
• Michael Müller (Ed.): Open in spirit. The artist Max Herrmann and his work. Exhibition catalog. State and University Library, Bremen 2012, ISBN 978-3-88722-727-2 .

Three video films about life and work (including from Radio Bremen ), correspondence with John Anthony Thwaites (American art critic), Hans-Joachim Hespos (composer of contemporary music), Karl Völker (painter and architect), Henri Nannen .

Web links

Commons : Max Herrmann (painter)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files