Aribert Gross

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Aribert Gross (born April 18, 1935 in Berlin ; † January 2007 there ) was a German carpenter, artist and educator. He was married to Brigitte Gross and had a daughter and a son.

Life

From 1950 to 1954, Gross completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Berlin. During this time he made his first trip to Italy, during which he studied the early Venetians and Sandro Botticelli . Art and traveling were his great passions - especially in combination. He lived for and with them throughout his life. So after his apprenticeship he hitchhiked through Germany and neighboring countries on his own, got to know many people and ways of life. A trip to Paris in 1956 made him fascinated by the works of Henri Rousseau .

1957 drove him to Greece and Yugoslavia. In Crete he became more and more interested in Greek mythology, inspired in the truest sense by Daedalus . He then studied at the master school for arts and crafts (today: Berlin University of the Arts ) and graduated as a designer. In his thesis he dealt with the sculptor and draftsman Henry Moore .

During his studies he made further trips, including to southern France and Spain. There he devoted himself to studying Gaudi's architecture . In Scandinavia he worked extensively with botany and ornithology.

After completing his studies, he worked as a modeller and graphic artist in Berlin for three years, from 1963 to 1966.

At the end of the 1960s he had several solo and group exhibitions in the legendary Kreuzberg “Malkiste” in Blücherstrasse. Christian Kandzia and Wolfgang Graetz were also involved .

In 1969, Gross moved into the Charlottenburg Künstlerhaus on Richard-Wagner-Strasse. He expanded his artist contacts and worked there with the sculptors Dietrich Arlt and Gerhard Koblauch as well as the photographer Christian Ibscher. He held an exhibition with the sculptor Marcel Niederhauser in the Modern Art Gallery in Berlin-Wilmersdorf.

In the mid-1970s, he trained as an educator at the 1st State College for Educators - Friedrich Fröbel-Haus - in Bismarckstrasse. in Charlottenburg. He then worked for the Charlottenburg District Office on the construction playground in Jungfernheide.

In 1979 he celebrated his demolition vernissage in the Künstlerhaus Charlottenburg. But he remained loyal to the district. In the years between 1980 and 1986 he had various exhibitions in the Charlottenburg pub gallery Kujambe. This was followed by exhibitions in the Stoodieck bookstore / gallery. Another highlight was another trip to Greece and the complete equipment of an entire fishing village with his works. This illustrates his special relationship with Greece.

Numerous works are in private collections and have been purchased by the Berlin Senate since 1968. The works from the mid-1970s (approx. 2000 pieces) are owned by Birga Hauptmann.

Works

Aribert Gross gave his idiosyncratic, fantastic art style the title KISS (causal-inspirational signal symbolism) in the mid-1970s.

More than three decades later, his work cycles can be assessed more precisely. They seem to be soul mates with the works of Friedrich Schröder-Sonnenstern or Ernst Fuchs and Friedensreich Hundertwasser . His curiosity about botanical and organic as well as human curiosities and peculiarities determined his work until shortly before his death.

Looking back on his childhood, he describes his early fascination for the metamorphoses of insects and amphibians and his dream of giant plants that consider and end all war events with wild growth. But in addition to this paradisiacal primal state, he also developed an interest in facial expressions, gestures and psyche of the individual, collecting characters in all situations and situations, be it in "beer mat portraits" or dense collages.

Events

Some of Gross' works were part of the 13th Festival of Lights . Various motifs were illuminated on the Palais am Festungsgraben . At the same time, the originals could be admired in a Schöneberg bar, the Barbiche.