August Wilhelm Dressler

Grave of Wilhelm Dressler

August Wilhelm Dressler (born December 19, 1886 in Bettelgrün , Bohemia , † May 8, 1970 in Berlin ) was a German painter.

As a style-defining representative and advocate of the New Objectivity, August Wilhelm Dressler left behind a comprehensive oeuvre of painting and graphics , which captivates with an internalized representation in the classic painting tradition. His numerous portraits of women and nudes are of particular importance .

life and work

Dressler first completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Chemnitz . From 1907 he studied at the Dresden Art Academy with Robert Sterl , Raphael Wehle , Osmar Schindler and Richard Müller . Dressler made the acquaintance of Otto Dix and exhibited in the Emil Richter gallery . He got into conflict with his teacher Richard Müller and was de-registered . Dressler switched to the Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Industry in Leipzig . Contacts with the Dresden Secession Group in 1919 remained, however.

After training in Leipzig, Dressler moved to Berlin as a freelance artist, where he joined the November group. In 1924 he became a member of the Berlin Secession . Between 1925 and 1936 Dressler participated in various exhibitions at the Novembergruppe, the German Association of Artists and the Prussian Academy of the Arts ; Among other things, he took part in the first exhibition “ New Objectivity ” in the Mannheim Kunsthalle in 1925 and in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 1929 . In 1928 Dressler published also in the communist Eulenspiegel .

During this time Dressler received his first prizes for his works of art, namely in 1927 the Rome Prize of the "Prussian Academy of the Arts" and in 1928 the Dürer Prize of the city of Nuremberg . Between 1930 and 1931 he was awarded a scholarship in the Villa Massimo , Rome. From 1934 on, Dressler taught at the Berlin State School, from which he was, however , excluded again in 1938 as a “degenerate artist” . From 1956 to 1957 he had a teaching position at the “Master School for Arts and Crafts” in Berlin.

Many of his pictures were lost in World War II . Dressler repeated some of his earlier works after 1945 using photographs. He was married to the painter Käthe Knorr-Dressler . From July 1937 to February 1945 Dressler lived and worked illegally in his wife Käte's studio in the Klosterstrasse studio community .

August Wilhelm Dressler died in Berlin in 1970 at the age of 83 and was buried in the Old St. Matthew Cemetery in Schöneberg . His grave has been dedicated to the State of Berlin as an honorary grave since 1980 .

Exhibitions (selection)

1925 Neue Sachlichkeit, German painting since Expressionism , June 14th - September 13th 1925, the Kunsthalle Mannheim
1928 Saxon art of our time , Dresden
1929 New Objectivity , Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
1955 Large retrospective and art prize from the city of Berlin
1963 Special exhibition in the "Sudetendeutsche Galerie", Museum Regensburg
1967 Solo exhibition at Galerie Nierendorf , Berlin
1988 Group exhibition for the tenth anniversary of the Galerie Mitte , Berlin
1994 touring exhibition ( Käthe Kollwitz Museum , Cologne / Städtisches Museum ( gallery in the center ), Wesel / Academy of the Arts , Berlin / Angermuseum , Erfurt)
2006 Solo exhibition in the Lehner Gallery, Vienna
2007 Solo exhibition in the Nierendorf Gallery, Berlin
2011/12 New Objectivity in Dresden. Painting of the twenties from Dix to Querner , October 1, 2011 - January 8, 2012, Kunsthalle im Lipsius-Bau , Dresden

literature

August Wilhelm Dressler . In: Birgit Dalbajewa (ed.): New Objectivity in Dresden . Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-942422-57-4 , p. 201 .
Gudrun Schmidt: Ateliergemeinschaft Klosterstraße - On the silent struggle of artists , Galerie Mitte, Berlin 1988. (Catalog for the exhibition of the same name)
Atelier community Klosterstrasse - Berlin 1933–1945. Artists in the time of National Socialism , Academy of the Arts (Edition Hentrich), Berlin 1994. ISBN 3-89468-134-9

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Dressler, August Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German painter
DATE OF BIRTH	December 19, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH	Begging Green , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH	May 8, 1970
Place of death	Berlin