Adam Kurtz

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Adam Kurtz (born March 3, 1929 in Antonowka ( East Prussia ), † January 19, 2020 in Berlin ) was a German painter , graphic artist , metal artist and sculptor . He lived and worked in Pudagla on Usedom in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and in Berlin. During the GDR era, he created numerous works of art for public spaces , especially in East Berlin .

Life

Adam Kurtz came from a family of small farmers. In addition to farming , his father also ran small craft trades. Adam discovered his joy in painting and design early on. While he was still attending school, he was called up for the Volkssturm in the final months of the Second World War . The father was able to hide the boy and thus saved him from a frontline mission. But all German settlers had to leave their hometown and moved westward as refugees . They found accommodation in the small town of Grabenmühle ( Saxony-Anhalt ) and soon settled there. Adam Kurtz was able to finish elementary school here and then contributed to the family's livelihood as a poster painter for cinemas and small shops. The parents supported Adam's desire for their son to pursue an artistic career. He first made up his Abitur at the ABF in Halle. He then applied for a place to study at an art college , including in Hamburg and Berlin. He was accepted at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art and began training as a painter and graphic artist . After successfully completing his studies, Kurtz took on a teaching position at the same institution. After a few years, during which he also received and carried out his first orders for the design of public facilities, Adam Kurtz set up his own studio in 1965. The state contracts secured his livelihood; one of his first commissioned works was the design of a large mural for a kindergarten .

In 1957 Adam married Kurtz and started a family. The couple had three children, a daughter and two sons.

In the 1980s, the family was able to move into a newly built communal residential building on Bersarinplatz in Berlin-Friedrichshain , where there was also a large studio for the residential unit. Continuous commissioned work followed until 1990, among other things Kurtz designed and manufactured the copper numerals for the world clock on Berlin's Alexanderplatz, many murals, including ornamental fountains. (see here ).

For all designs, Kurtz used all his skills in metal design, sculpture, painting or mosaic work. He also developed his own design techniques, such as novel glass mosaics: he acquired colored glass scraps from a Czechoslovak glass factory, which he reshaped using a novel glass melting process and joined together to form mosaics with the help of epoxy resin adhesive (1965). This process also resulted in wall lamps that could be sold well.

After the fall of the Wall , Adam Kurtz was no longer able to raise the new rent for his studio and apartment in Friedrichshain and therefore moved to Pudagla. He had owned a summer house there for a long time, which has now been expanded and given a studio. The half-timbered house on Usedom has served him as a summer residence and workplace since then. Kurtz now turned increasingly to landscape painting. He was able to exhibit his pictures as a permanent exhibition in the Golf Hotel Balmer See , which brought him new customers.

Adam Kurtz regularly took part in the “Open Atelier” events with his artist workshop on the Faith and met with great interest.

Kurtz died in January 2020 in his Berlin apartment in Friedrichshagen.

Works (selection)

Sculptures

View of the mosaic fountain in 2012
  • 1973: Mosaic fountain in Berlin-Lichtenberg , Siegfriedstrasse 74
    A small, round mosaic picture with fish, starfish, water waves, sun and moon was placed in a four meter wide flat artificial stone bowl . Four fountains in the center of the pool watered the mosaic from above. The work of art with an outer diameter of five meters and a height of about half a meter on a narrower stand seemed to float. It stood within an area that had been built as a construction workers 'hotel based on plans by the architects' collective G. Boy, H. E. Bogatzky and other employees. The complex, comprising several buildings, with a low-rise building as a restaurant, enclosed a courtyard that was intended for dance and film events. In the middle, the fountain was erected according to a design by Adam Kurtz.
    The fountain had been drained since the early 1990s, the mosaic was crumbling and the water system was defective. It was sold to a home operator company around 2011 together with the surrounding buildings and the area; its fate was uncertain. The remains were preserved at the site in 2018, in spring 2020 there is only a pile of rubble in which some colorful mosaic stones can be seen. The former well area is surrounded by a small site fence.
Bridge railing in 2007: still without love locks
  • 1982: Bridge railings on the Fennpfuhlbrücke , decorative railings on two bank areas of the Fennpfuhl and around the villa,
    plant and bird ornaments adorn the railing of the bridge along both sides. In addition, individual motifs return on two fences at the Langpfuhl and at the Fennpfuhl. The craftsmanship of the designs took place in the VEB Kunstschmiede Weißensee .

Murals, glass and enamel art

  • 1965: Wall design of the zoo garden facade , mosaic
  • 1969/70: Decorative wall design in the foyer of the Hotel Stadt Berlin in Berlin-Mitte, Alexanderplatz (Hotel Park Inn since the 1990s ); Bar enamel, size 275 × 620 cm
Mural in the counter hall at Rathausstrasse Berlin
  • 1971: Mural work and leisure (enamel) in the counter hall of the post office, Rathauspassagen Berlin-Mitte , removed with the renovation of the post office after 1990 (see picture)
  • 1975–1977: Foyer picture (enamel work) in the former Hotel Metropol (after the fall of the Wall, Maritim pro Arte ), Mittelstrasse / corner of Friedrichstrasse 150–153
  • 1976: Large-scale wall sculpture Man, Nature, Health (copper etching), in a building of the Buch Clinic , Hobrechtsfelder Chaussee 100; not received
  • 1987: World of Tomorrow , facade painting in silicate painting at the school Golliner Straße 2 ( Berlin-Marzahn ); at that time 44th Polytechnic Oberschule (since 2000 Kerschensteiner Integrated Secondary and Evening School , combined from the Hauptschulen Karl-Ferdinand-Braun-Oberschule and Felix-Wankel-Oberschule).
    Image size 12 m wide, 18.80 m high, interrupted by a vertical row of windows. Symbolic abstract representations from technology, economy and nature, which extend in and above a tree represented in life size. At the top right corner of the pediment the heads of a girl and a boy can be seen looking out of a painted window. In doing so, the artist focused the students' attention on future career opportunities.
    The painting was visible on the gable side until the structural renovation, after which it disappeared under the insulation mats .

Graphics, paintings

  • 1959: After a visit to the Bergmann-Borsig factory in Berlin , Kurtz made the pen-and-line drawing of a view of the pipe bending hall .
  • 1961: typical village landscape with a pond, trees and flat buildings; Oil on canvas, 90 × 70 cm;
    Gift of the artist to the Berlin lawyer Dr. Wilhelm Stark
  • 1974: Under the influence of the Chilean Revolution, he painted the oil painting We will win (Venceremos) ; 158 × 200 cm
  • 1979: Street , oil on canvas, 98 × 120 cm; in the Beeskow art archive [inventory no. 14452]
  • 1983–1986: Mot.-Schützen ; Oil on hardboard, 138 × 161 cm; in the Beeskow art archive [inventory no. 1091].
    With this picture, Adam Kurtz participated, among other things, in the redesign of the 'Wilhelm Pieck' youth college on Lake Bogensee .
  • 1984: Peace Must Be Armed ; three panel pictures in the Military Political Cabinet, Murtzaner Ring, Berlin-Marzahn for the interior design, painted in earth-brown colors with scenes from the NVA , the Soviet Army and a military still life . The pictures are no longer preserved (status 2010).
  • 1989: express march ; Oil on hardboard, 126 × 140 cm; in the Beeskow art archive [inventory no. 14390]
  • For a few years after 1990 Adam Kurtz painted only a few pictures, which turned out to be gloomy due to the strong political changes and personal experiences. The choice of subjects also showed a strong dejection.

It was only from the 21st century onwards that small-format new landscapes began to emerge, especially with motifs from the Baltic Sea and islands.

Exhibitions

literature

  • Fine arts and architecture. Catalog part 1 - Berlin. Building catalog. Publisher / Editor of German Building Information / German Building Academy in Berlin; 1969

Web links

Commons : Adam Kurtz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Oral information from Adam Kurtz's daughter to user: 44Pinguine at the end of March 2020.
  2. ↑ Colored Glass Designs , Mentioned in Fine Arts , Issue 10, 1966 .
  3. ^ Adam Kurtz - Designer in Pudagla , accessed on March 31, 2020.
  4. ↑ Homepage Balmer See-Hotel , accessed on March 30, 2020.
  5. ^ Art: Open - Ateliers auf Usedom , accessed on May 15, 2018.
  6. ^ Joachim Schulz, Werner Gräbner: Architectural Guide GDR. Berlin. Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1974, p. 134.
  7. ↑ Monika Arnold: Only dried fish in the mosaic fountain , on Berliner Morgenpost online, March 4, 2013; accessed on Nov. 19, 2014; accessed again on March 31, 2020: (playback messed up).
  8. ^ Material collection: Art - Architecture - GDR on wordpress.com; accessed on April 5, 2020.
  9. ↑ ZS Bildende Kunst 7/1971 with table of contents , accessed on February 15, 2013.
  10. ↑ Picture and description of the post hall on deutsches-architektur-forum.de ; Retrieved on Nov. 19, 2014.
  11. ↑ Selected examples of hotel buildings in Berlin between 1950 and 1979 at :,70zigerjahre.laufwerk-b.de; Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  12. ↑ Kristiane Spitz: Works of architecture-related art continue to bob about. Senate shows disinterest , Bucher Bote , 2/2009; Retrieved February 15, 2013.
  13. ^ A b Art in the large Marzahn-Hellersdorf housing estate, Springpfuhl district; District Office Marzahn (Ed.), ISBN 978-3-00-026730-7 , p. 87.
  14. ↑ Ben Kaden: Bildende Kunst, issue 10 / 1959. A short magazine review. In: Heft Bildende Kunst , No. 10/1959. April 2018, accessed July 17, 2019 .
  15. ^ Information from the lawyer 's son to the user: 44Pinguine , April 2020.
  16. ↑ Marcus Kenzler: The view into the other world. Influences of Latin America on the visual arts of the GDR , LIT Verlag Münster, 2012; ISBN 978-3-643-11025-1 ; Retrieved February 16, 2013.
  17. ^ Art in the GDR , picture atlas GDR art; on www.bildatlas-ddr-kunst.de (enter "Adam Kurtz" in the search field)
  18. ↑ Young art by order - youth college ´Wilhelm Pieck´ ; Retrieved February 7, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Kurtz, Adam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German visual artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 3, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Antonovka
DATE OF DEATH 19th January 2020
Place of death Berlin