Alexandra Povòrina

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Alexandra Povorina (* 26. February 1885 in Saint Petersburg ; † 23. December 1963 in Berlin ; actually Alexandra Andreyevna Povorinskaja ) was a Russian-German painter of modernity .

family

Alexandra Povòrina was the oldest of seven children and came from a wealthy, upper-class family. Her father was a civil servant and was ennobled. In her first marriage she married the Hungarian painting student Károly Kiss (1884–1953) on a study trip to Hungary . However, this relationship did not last long. After a complicated divorce, she was married to the painter Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann , whom she had met in Paris in 1912. Their son André, born in 1916, of whom a small pencil portrait has survived, died a few weeks after his birth. In 1919 their daughter was born, the textile artist Tatiana Ahlers-Hestermann .

life and work

Early years

Alexandra Povòrina received drawing and painting lessons as a child. At the age of 17, accompanied by her nanny, she traveled to Munich with her sister and began her art studies there in Simon Hollósy's studio . Academies were only accessible to women from 1918 in the Weimar Republic .

In Munich she met her first husband, Károly Kiss. After the wedding, the couple moved to Kharkov , Russia , a center of modernity at the time. After separating from her husband, she lived with her family again for some time and worked as an art teacher. In 1911 she went to Paris to continue studying painting. Her last stay in Russia is dated to 1913, where she ran a kind of handicraft holiday camp in Vyatka . The aim was to work with farmers and artisans to revive old handicraft techniques that were threatened with extinction by industrialization.

Then she returned to Paris. She moved into a studio on Rue du Montparnasse next to that of the then unknown sculptor Constantin Brâncuși . She worked in the so-called “Russenatelier” (Académie Russe) of the artist Marie Vassilieff , one of the meeting places for avant-garde artists. Dealing with the artistic avant-garde should become an elementary point of reference for her painting. In the Vassilieff studio she met her later second husband Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann.

Povòrina's proverbial temperament and unconventionality were reflected in her painting around 1912, as the memories of Ahlers-Hestermann testify: “While Cubism was rampant in Paris with rather muted colors, Alexandra Povòrina stood out for the bright colors of her pictures and a spontaneous, spirited painting style . "

None of her works have survived from before the First World War . Your early work from the Paris period is lost. After she traveled to Hamburg after the German declaration of war on Ahlers-Hestermann, she left her works in the Paris studio. From 1914 she met in a small group with the later Hamburg Secession artists Alma del Banco , Anita Rée and Gretchen Wohlwill to work together. Povórina's reputation as an artist was consolidated in Hamburg. In 1916, a critic wrote in the Neue Hamburger Zeitung about an exhibition by Low German women artists: "Among the painters, the Paris-Russian woman from Hamburg, A. Povorina (sic) (...) comes first as an idiosyncratic and harmonious talent."

New ways in the art and time of National Socialism

Ahlers-Hestermann became an established artist and teacher at an art school in Hamburg. Povòrina and Ahlers-Hestermann were among the first members of the Hamburg Secession founded in 1919 . The artist couple made numerous trips over the years to Franconia , Hesse , Berlin and regular study trips to southern Germany . From 1921 they met painters such as Otto Modersohn and Fritz Mühsam in the artists' colony on Gutshof Neue Welt in Würzburg , and in 1924 they traveled to Ascona , Switzerland.

In the 1920s, Povòrina began to occupy herself more with the abstraction of objects. Influenced by Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse , she developed a spiritually abstract art that connects her with the younger German painters Willi Baumeister , Fritz Winter and Ernst Wilhelm Nay . Starting with still lifes with fruits and flowers, she increasingly experimented with alienating objects.

After Ahlers-Hestermanns was appointed to the Cologne Werkbundschule , the family moved to Cologne in 1928 and traveled from there to Paris. In the early 1930s, Povòrina had success with exhibition participations and solo exhibitions in Germany. It also attracted attention in France. During her time in Cologne, she completely turned to abstract painting. Between 1930 and 1934 she painted around 140 works, most of which have no longer survived, as a large part of them burned to death in a Potsdam apartment after a bombing during World War II .

Povòrina was a member of the French group " Abstraction-Création ". In Germany she advocated the merger of a comparable group of abstract artists. Not much is known about this project today. The group name “the Imaginists” was mentioned in letters, but this name could not prevail and the group did not come into being on a permanent basis. In 1933 she carried out a traveling exhibition with other German abstract artists entitled “Signs and Pictures”, which was banned by the National Socialists shortly afterwards, a few weeks after the opening of the second station in the Folkwang Museum in Essen .

After the National Socialists seized power, her abstract pictures were considered degenerate and she was banned from exhibiting in 1934. In addition, she was forced out of the GEDOK board of directors for political reasons . Ahlers-Hestermann was also withdrawn from the Werkbundschule. Povòrina gave up painting, devoted herself as a textile artist to designing abstract fabric samples and contributed to the family's livelihood with her decorative designs.

During this depressing time, a series of black and white graphics was created - mostly ink drawings . The works in this series were the only ones in which Povòrina eliminated color from her work. The art historian Anke Münster interpreted the reduction to the black and white contrast as a “farewell to painting”.

In the course of 1939 it became too politically risky for the artist couple in Cologne, as they were known there for their attitude critical of the regime. Among other things, they refused to hang the swastika flag out of the window when the NSDAP marches . They moved to the anonymity of the big city of Berlin. During the Second World War, some of Povorina's best work was lost in the bombing of Berlin. She is one of the artists of the so-called lost generation .

1945 to 1963

After the capitulation of the German Reich in 1946, Povòrina became a lecturer at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art . Her husband was called to Hamburg by the new Senate of the Hanseatic City to rebuild the Hamburg State Art School .

Even though she lived in a freer political climate again after the end of the war, it was not easy for Povòrina to tie in with her abstract work from the early 1930s. She also suffered from an unhealed tuberculosis . Until her retirement in 1952, she was mainly occupied with teaching, so that the time frame for her own art was tight. Nevertheless, between 1951 and 1963 she took part in almost all annual exhibitions of the re-established German Artists Association .

In 1958 she gave up painting completely because of her poor health. Nevertheless, she found a way to continue the artistic work by switching to the medium of collage . She created numerous works on a wide variety of picture carriers. From paper waste such as B. tickets, brightly colored, glittering tinfoil paper, feathers and leaves she composed an independent late work. These collages looked lighter and more playful than the preserved paintings. The artist was well aware of this new quality. In a note from 1960, she wrote:

Grave of Alexandra Povòrinas, her husband and daughter in Berlin-Reinickendorf

“Back from the Hamburg exhibition, sick, exhausted. Finally today alone in the apartment, try your hand at the collages ...: there less, there more, a pushing a game ... A subtle work, a touch, try to indulge in the big, the only one - the harmony in the very small. A micro-world - a game in the indefinite ... But the seriousness of life for me - now. "

In 1963 Alexandra Povòrina died of a stroke in Berlin after a long illness . She was no longer able to carry out an order for church windows for the chapel of the German military cemetery in Corsica . Her daughter Tatiana Ahlers-Hestermann realized this work. Povòrina's estate is owned by the Forum for Estates of Artists e. V. in Hamburg. Her grave is located with the graves of her husband and daughter in the Dankes cemetery in Berlin-Reinickendorf .

Memberships in artists' associations

Paintings (selection)

  • "Boy from the Urals", 1913 (estate)
  • "War Still Life", 1915 (estate)
  • "Summer bouquet", 1926 (private collection)
  • "Floating forms on a green background", early 1930s (estate)
  • "Eilendes", 1931 (estate)
  • "Ying and Yang", 1933 (estate)
  • “On the beach” ( Strandvision , Berlinische Galerie ), 1949
  • "Fragments of Memory" ( fragments , estate), 1950
  • "Silent Forces", before 1956 (estate)

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

Participation in exhibitions

  • Galerie Commeter, Hamburg 1915 and 1916
  • New Group Hamburg, Hamburg 1918
  • Works from Hamburg private collection. Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1925
  • German Association of Artists, House of States , Cologne 1929
  • Cologne artist, Kölnischer Kunstverein 1930
  • Women painted by women, Kunstverein Hamburg 1931
  • Alexandra Povòrina and Naum Slutzky, Kunstverein Hamburg 1932
  • Signs and images, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden a. Museum Folkwang,: Essen, 1932/1933
  • German Association of Artists, Hamburg 1933
  • Les Surindépendants, Paris 1933
  • A look at folk art, Altona Museum, Hamburg 1939
  • 1st post-war exhibition of the Hamburg Secession, Hamburg 1945
  • Symbol and myth in contemporary art, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1963
  • A. Povòrina, K. Flake, R. Lüder, Kunstverein Oldenburg 1968
  • F. Ahlers-Hestermann, T. Ahlers-Hestermann, A. Povòrina, Wilhelmshaven 1970
  • From Dadamax to Green Belt, Kunstverein Köln 1975
  • When the war was over, Art in Germany 1945–1950, Berlin 1975
  • International Women Artists, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin 1977
  • Abstraction-Création 1931–1936, Münster / Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris 1978
  • Between Resistance and Adjustment, Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1978
  • Persecuted and seduced, art under the swastika, Hamburger Kunsthalle 1983
  • Das Verborgene Museum, Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1987
  • Artists of the Hamburg Secession , Torhaus Elmshorn 1987
  • Women painters in Hamburg 1900–1930, Galerie Herold, Hamburg 1990
  • The Hermann-Josef Bunte Collection . German painting of the XX. Century. Hamburger Kunsthalle / Hamburger Sparkasse u. a., Hamburg 1999
  • Hamburg Secession 1919–1933, Galerie Herold Hamburg 1991
  • Art in Hamburg 1870–1950, Galerie Herold, Hamburg 1996
  • Art in Hamburg 1880–1950, Galerie Herold, Hamburg 1997
  • Hamburg Secession, Herold Gallery, Hamburg 2000
  • Alexandra Povòrina and Hannes Maria Flach , Flach-Archiv, Cologne 2000
  • Alexandra Povòrina, works from the estate, Hamburger Sparkasse, Hamburg 2002
  • "Exhibition premiere. The forum for bequests presents works by eleven artists. “Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg 2005
  • A Hamburg artist family. Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann - Alexandra Povòrina - Tatiana Ahlers-Hestermann. Forum for bequests from artists Künstlerhaus Sootbörn , Hamburg (April 18 to May 2, 2010)

Publications

Exhibition catalogs

  • Alexandra Povòrina - paintings and collages 1913–1960, Tiergarten district office of Berlin, Office for Art, undated
  • Alexandra Povòrina, Alma del Banco, Anita Rée, Kunsthaus Hamburg 1966.
  • Alexandra Povórina, Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann, Tatiana Ahlers-Hestermann, Kunstverein Flensburg 1969.
  • When the war was over. Art in Germany 1945–1950, Akademie der Künste, Berlin 1972.
  • From Dadamax to the Green Belt. Cologne in the twenties, Kölnischer Kunstverein 1975.
  • The proportion of women in the art of the 1920s, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin 1977.
  • Alexandra Povòrina, works from the estate, Hamburger Sparkasse, 2002.
  • Forum for bequests from artists e. V. Exhibition premiere. Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg 2005.
  • Paintings, drawings and collages - the painter Alexandra Povòrina (1885–1963), forum for the estates of artists e. V. , Künstlerhaus Sootbörn, Hamburg 2006.

Own publications

  • Speech on the foundation of GEDOK in Cologne, 1929.
  • Copy from a letter to Alexander Dorner about her view of art, 1932.
  • Lectures on color theory in the Cologne GEDOK, 1933.
  • Article on Maria Slavona , FAZ.
  • Thoughts on collages, undated

Selection of literature and sources

  • Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann: Pause after the third act , Mann Verlag, 1949
  • Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann: Alexandra Povòrina 1885–1963 , in: Bilder und Schriften , Berlin, 1968
  • Maike Bruhns: Anita Rée , Hamburg, 1986. +
  • Maike Bruhns: Art in the Crisis , 2 vols., Hamburg, 2001
  • Roland Jaeger, Cornelius Steckner: Zinnober, Kunstszene Hamburg 1919-1933 , Hamburg, 1983, ISBN 978-3924225001
  • Käthe, Paula and all the rest . Female artist lexicon (edited by the Association of Berlin Female Artists and the Berlinische Galerie), Berlin, 1992, p. 129
  • Anke Manigold: The Hamburg painter Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann 1883–1973 , Hamburg, 1986, ISBN 978-3923356133
  • Anke Münster: Artists in Cologne and Düsseldorf from 1918 to 1933 , Master's thesis, Gießen, 1991
  • Anke Münster: Alexandra Povòrina and Lotte Prechner. Two artists in Cologne in the 1920s , in: Kölner Museums-Bulletin 1/1994
  • Anke Münster: Art is play and deep seriousness. The imaginist Alexandra Povòrina (1885–1963). Life and work. Dissertation, Giessen, 2004
  • New Society for Fine Arts e. V. (Ed.): Das Verborgene Museum , Berlin, 1987
  • Martin Papenbrock, Gabriele Saure (Hrsg.): Art of the early 20th century in German exhibitions, Part I: Exhibitions of German contemporary art in the Nazi era , Weimar, 2000
  • Letter AP to Emmi Ruben: Exhibition catalog “Art in the Ostracism. The Donation Emmi Ruben 1948 ”, Hamburger Kunsthalle, 1998
  • Jens Hauswedell (Ed.): Tatiana Ahlers-Hestermann. Artist in Hamburg . Berlin, 2003, ISBN 978-3891813522

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Povòrina, Alexandra ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed December 14, 2015)
  2. ^ Exhibition catalog Deutscher Künstlerbund 1950 , Berlin 1951, oil on canvas, 58 × 70 cm. (Figure, Cat.No. 172)
  3. ^ Anke Münster: Art is play and deep seriousness. The imaginist Alexandra Povòrina (1865–1963), life and work. Gießen 2004. Diss. 2003, p. 315 (accessed on January 1, 2016)
  4. ^ Catalog of the Deutscher Künstlerbund Cologne 1929. May – September 1929 in the State House , M. DuMont Schauberg, Cologne 1929. (p. 28: Povòrina-Hestermann, Alexandra, Cologne. Catalog No. 229 Small Still Life , 230 Still Life on the Terrace )
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personal data
SURNAME Povòrina, Alexandra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Povorinskaja, Alexandra Andrejewna (maiden name); Povorina-Ahlers-Hestermann, Alexandra; Ahlers-Hestermann, Alexandra
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-German painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1963
Place of death Berlin