Anton Ažbe

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Anton Ažbe (1904)

Anton Ažbe (born May 30, 1862 in Dolenčice , municipality of Gorenja vas-Poljane , Upper Carniola , Austrian Empire ; † August 6, 1905 in Munich ) was a Slovenian painter . He ran a painting school in Munich, where prominent artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej von Jawlensky were later trained .

life and work

Anton Ažbe: Study of an Old Man , 1886
Anton Ažbe: Half-Naked Woman , 1888
Anton Ažbe: Black Woman 1895
Anton Ažbe: The village choir , around 1903
Anton Ažbe: The Harem , 1903
Anton Ažbe: Old Man with a Cross , before 1905
Anton Ažbe: Allegorical Composition , before 1905

Artistic beginnings

Anton Ažbe was weak from childhood and, due to a spinal injury, was unsuitable for work in agriculture. After breaking off a business apprenticeship, he began his artistic training as a student of Janez Wolf in Ljubljana (Laibach).

Studied in Vienna 1882–1884

In autumn 1882 he moved to the art academy in Vienna , where he studied for four semesters. His teachers were u. a. Siegmund L'Allemand , August Eisenmenger and Christian Griepenkerl , in whose class he met the young Serbian painter Uroš Predić .

Studied in Munich 1884–1891

In 1884 he decided to continue studying at the Munich Academy . From October 10th he attended the class of antiquities and initially oriented himself towards Gabriel von Hackl , who came from Maribor an der Drau . Together with his Slovenian compatriot Ferdo Vesel , he switched to Ludwig von Löfftz's general painting school in 1885 . Jawlensky tells us that the Slovene visited the Werefkin salon as early as 1899 . In his memoirs he wrote: “Once in 1899, in April we went Werefkin, Grabar , Kardowsky , Ažbe and I to Venice.” In 1900 Franz Joseph I made Ažbe a Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph . After attending the special class with Sándor Wagner , Ažbe was encouraged by his compatriots Ferdo Vesel and Rihard Jakopič to open his own studio, in which one could draw from the model and where he would give and correct lessons.

Foundation of the Ažbe School in 1891

Wassily Kandinsky remembered his school days with Ažbe and reports: “Anton Azbe was a very small man with a large, combed mustache, a large hat and a long Virginia in the mouth, which often went out and with whom he sometimes corrected the drawings. Outwardly he was very small, inwardly very gifted, clever, strict and kind across all borders. ”Ažbe's drawing school was particularly well known in Russia and enjoyed“ a high reputation. ”Ažbe must have had an unusual charisma for his students. His reputation for being an extraordinarily good and understanding person and educator is borne out by letters and memories from many of his students. Grabar z. B. reported about his beginnings with him: "Azbe himself was the best of all as a teacher and person, and allegedly nobody in Munich drew better than him." He was so well known and loved that he attracted students from all over the world, Germans, Russians, Poles, Romanians, French, Hungarians, Czechs, Americans, Swiss and Austrians. In Munich he was friends with many artists and writers. As a regular in the restaurant “Simplicissimus” he was nicknamed “Professor Namely” because of the frequent use of the word “namely”. “In the spring of 1891, his small school with around twenty students started work on Türkenstrasse. Since the students flocked to him in droves and their number reached more than one hundred, he soon had to move to a separate building at Georgenstrasse 16, the garden house of the architect Friedrich von Thiersch and later the seat of the Bremen press . "

The Ažbe School in the Crisis of 1903

In 1904 Ažbe was recognized by the Serbian King Petar , who awarded him the Order of St. Sava . However, that happened at a time when Ažbe was no longer taken so seriously in Munich. Because with Ažbe, who was now very fond of alcohol, things slowly went downhill. Kandinsky was shocked: “How he looks! The nose swollen bluish red, with yellow pimples; Dark blue sacks hang under the eyes, and the sleepy eyes look even sadder than before. The rumors about the demise of his school increased [...] What a shame for him. ”Also regretting Ažbe's decline, Werefkin wrote:“ Ažbe, his badge in the buttonhole, dirty pants on his legs and wine in his head. He feels like a gentleman. A remarkable figure, a personality of great comedy. It is not his position, but the combination of great merits that make him likeable and an indescribable buffoon. ”Some Ažbe students saw their initially beloved teacher only as a caricature, others remained loyal to him in style and technique for a lifetime, returned back to their homeland, remained in Impressionism and hardly noticed how time passed by them. Some, and this is very noticeable in several artist biographies, were suddenly disappointed in Ažbe and left his school. They complained that he couldn't offer them anything new and went to Paris. The reasons that drove him to drink are known today: “In the last two years of his life, Ažbe suffered from throat cancer , to which he, utterly exhausted, succumbed after an operation on August 5, 1905, at the age of 43.” Werefkin wrote in her diary: “A few days ago we buried Azbe. I cried at his grave for my memories and so many hopes. ”Years after Ažbe's death, the education at his school had an excellent reputation. So it is to be understood that at least his studio could be continued as the "Ažbe school" for painting and graphics until 1913 in Munich by Paul Weinhold and Felix Eisengräber .

Ažbe student

His students included u. a .:

Awards

Monuments

In Leopoldpark (Munich) there is a monument to the painter Anton Ažbe in the form of a bronze bust. The Bavarian-Slovenian Society (BSG) financed the 3-meter-high monument, which was unveiled by the Slovenian minister of culture in 2004.

literature

  • Ažbe Anton. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1957, p. 39.
  • Katarina Ambrozic: Paths to Modernity and the Ažbe School in Munich . Bongers, Recklinghausen, 1988, ISBN 3-7647-0388-1
  • Bernd Fäthke: In the run-up to Expressionism. Anton Ažbe and painting in Munich and Paris . Verlag des Institut für Bildende Kunst, Wiesbaden 1988, ISBN 3-926899-01-8
  • Marijan Trsar: Anton Ažbe . Zalozba Park, Ljubljana 1991
  • Bernd Fäthke: Jawlensky and his companions in a new light , Munich 2004, pp. 36–42, 44–45, 64–67, ISBN 3-7774-2455-2
  • Bernd Fäthke: Genin's flying visit to the Ažbe school. In: exhib. Cat .: Robert Genin 1884-1941. Russian expressionist in Munich. Murnau Castle Museum, 2019, pp. 89 ff, ISBN 978-3-932276-59-0

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexej Jawlensky: Memorabilia , in: Clemens Weiler (ed.): Alexej Jawlensky. Heads-Faces-Meditations , Hanau 1970, p. 108
  2. ↑ Peter Zimmermann: Anton Azbe: Mensch-Maler-Lehrer , in: Literatur in Bayern, No. 71, March 2003, p. 39
  3. ↑ Katarina Ambrozic: The artist Anton Ažbe (1862–1905) , in exh. Cat .: Paths to Modernism and the Ažbe School in Munich, Museum Wiesbaden 1988, p. 43
  4. ↑ Wassily Kandinsky, Gesammelte Schriften, eds. Hans K. Roethel and Jelena Hahl-Koch, Bern 1980, p. 66
  5. ↑ Grigori J. Sternin, Das Kunstleben Rußlands at the turn of the century, Dresden 1976, p. 111
  6. ↑ Katarina Ambrozic: Nadezda Petrovic 1873-1915 , exh. Cat .: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich 1985, p. 14
  7. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Painting in advance of Expressionism. The School of Anton Ažbe , Circular of the Wiesbaden Museum, February 1986
  8. ↑ Emilijan Cevc: Slovenian Impressionists and their precursors , in exh. Cat .: Slovenian Impressionists and their predecessors from the National Gallery in Ljubljana, Oberes Belvedere, Vienna 1979, p. 35
  9. ↑ Katarina Ambrozic: The artist Anton Ažbe (1862–1905) , in exh. Cat .: Paths to Modernism and the Ažbe School in Munich, Museum Wiesbaden 1988, p. 43
  10. ↑ Katarina Ambrozic: Nadezda Petrovic 1873-1915 , exh. Cat .: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen in the Neue Pinakothek, Munich 1985, p. 59
  11. ↑ Gisela Kleine, Gabriele Münter and Wassily Kandinsky, biography of a couple, Frankfurt / M. 1990, p. 145
  12. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Marianne Werefkin , Munich 2001, p. 47
  13. ↑ Anton Ažbe in Niegova Sola, Narodna Galerija, Ljubljana 1962, p 30, 45, 90, 106, 109, 124, 126
  14. ↑ Bernd Fäthke: Before Expressionism. Anton Ažbe and painting in Munich and Paris , Wiesbaden 1988, p. 9 ff
  15. ↑ Katarina Ambrozic: The artist Anton Ažbe (1862–1905) , in exh. Cat .: Paths to Modernism and the Ažbe School in Munich, Museum Wiesbaden 1988, p. 43
  16. ↑ Clemens Weiler (Ed.): Marianne Werefkin. Letters to a stranger 1901–1905 , Cologne 1960, p. 48
  17. ↑ Diether Schmidt: Teaching-Painting-Silence , in exh. Cat .: Georg Muche. Saying quietly, Neue Galerie, Staatliche und Städtische Kunstsammlungen Kassel 1986, p. 8, 133
  18. ^ Ernst Wilhelm Bredt: Bärmann fairy tales and pictures . In: Hugo Schmidts Kunstbreviere Band . Hugo Schmidt Verlag, Munich 1922, p. 67 .

Web links

Commons : Anton Ažbe  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Ažbe, Anton
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Slovenian-German painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Dolenčice , Upper Carniola
DATE OF DEATH August 6, 1905
Place of death Munich