Augusta Kaiser

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Augusta Kaiser, photograph around 1920;
Marsh Family Archives, London

Augusta (Gust) Kaiser (born January 16, 1895 in Niederbruch ; † September 27, 1932 in Wiesbaden ) was a German modernist sculptor and ceramist who also called herself Gust Kaiser from 1922; in connection with the Kiel art ceramics, it is also known under the name Gustl Kaiser.

Life

Monogram Augusta Kaiser

Augusta Theodora Priscilla Kaiser was the daughter of the elementary school teacher Peter Josef Kaiser and his wife Augusta Kaiser geb. Cutter. From 1906 the father worked in Wiesbaden, where Augusta attended the Schloßplatzschule, where she passed the matriculation examination in 1915. Then she attended the Mainz School of Applied Arts , to which a modeling school was affiliated. Due to her certificate "very good with distinction" and the special talent attested to by the Wiesbaden City School Board, she continued her artistic training at the Karlsruhe Art Academy .

There is much to suggest that as a master student in the neighboring Grand Ducal majolica factory, she acquired her considerable ceramic expertise, probably in the master's studios established there from 1921, headed by Max Laeuger , Ludwig König and Paul Speck . In 1922 she met the academic painter Hedwig Marquardt , who at the time was employed as a ceramic painter at the majolica factory. As their life partner, she went with her to Kiel in April 1924 to join the newly founded Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG, in which both worked as leading artists until March 31, 1925.

They then worked as freelance artists in Biere, near Magdeburg, in the workshop for applied arts they founded , which they had to give up in 1927 as it was not profitable. Afterwards Kaiser lived with her partner in Hanover, where she had accepted a job as an art teacher. She herself no longer emerged as an artist. After years of serious illness, she returned to her parents' house in Wiesbaden, where she died in 1932.

Kiel Art Ceramics AG

Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG, Meerreiter, 1924, height 42 cm. Design: Augusta Kaiser
Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG, Elefantenreiter, 1924, height 27.3 cm, design: Augusta Kaiser
Portal gable for the youth home in the Kiel-Gaarden shipyard park by Augusta Kaiser, 1924/1925

Augusta Kaiser was - like Hedwig Marquardt - an artist from the very beginning at Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG (KKK). During the short time she belonged to the Kiel manufactory, she designed most of the fine ceramics production, small figurative sculptures and pottery, based on the modern design language of Art Deco, even if still influenced by Art Nouveau, as well as works for the building ceramics department.

The artist's monogram "GK" (ligated) on fine ceramic objects from the KKK, designed by Augusta Kaiser at the end of August 1924, stands for "Gust Kaiser"; that's what she called herself in Karlsruhe since mid-1922. In September 1924, the KKK took part in the Grassimesse in Leipzig with numerous fine ceramic exhibits, which were mainly based on designs by Augusta Kaiser and Hedwig Marquardt.

In Kaisers Baukeramik, the colored entrance portal of the youth home in the Kiel-Gaarden shipyard park with the elaborate symmetrical gable relief as well as the colored clinker ceramic facade of the Milchhalle Hirte, Hamburg-Altona, both destroyed in the Second World War , should be emphasized . Contemporary specialist literature praised Kaiser's sculptural and painterly designs for the KKK and called her a highly talented artist.

In 2014, in the exhibition Degenerate Ceramics 1919 - 1939 exhibit - 1930s German ceramic art on display at the Lopez Library in Washington State Augusta (Gustl) Kaiser and her work for the Kiel manufactory was presented with the involvement of her partner Hedwig Marquardt and with reference to it that they were marginalized not only because they were women, but perhaps mainly because they were open and uncompromising as a lesbian couple.

Literature (selection)

  • Wilhelm Conrad Gomoll : New Schleswig-Holstein applied arts. In: The Book Community. Book 8, 1926, pp. 336-341.
  • Wilhelm Conrad Gomoll: Kiel art ceramics. In: Alexander Koch (Hrsg.): German art and decoration, Illustrated monthly books for modern painting, sculpture, architecture. Darmstadt 1926, vol. 58, pp. 389–394, with numerous illustrations
  • Thomas Habeck: The "Kieler Kunstkeramik AG" and its relationship to the architecture of the 1920s in Schleswig-Holstein. Phil. Diss. Univ. Kiel, Kiel 1981, pp. 54, 205-208.
  • Joachim and Angelika Konietzny: Augusta Kaiser - the Gustl Kaiser of Kiel art ceramics - and her life with Hedwig Marquardt. Epilogue: Laurence Marsh. Pansdorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-034515-9 .
  • Joachim and Angelika Konietzny (eds.): Hedwig Marquardt, Augusta Kaiser: an artist couple; Letters to Lotte Boltze from 1922–1931. With an essay by Laurence Marsh. Pansdorf 2013, ISBN 978-3-00-042262-1 .
  • Joachim and Angelika Konietzny (eds.), Ostholstein-Museum Eutin (ed.), Exhibition publication Kieler Kunst-Keramik 1924-1930. Augusta Kaiser, Hedwig Marquardt and other artists , Eutin 2015, ISBN 978-3-00-047621-1 .
  • Joachim and Angelika Konietzny (eds.), Augusta Kaiser, sculptor and ceramicist. Your work for the Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG. Essay by Laurence Marsh. Reprint of the net price lists of Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG as a separate supplement. Pansdorf 2017, ISBN 978-3-00-055613-5
  • Bärbel Manitz, Hans-Günther Andresen: Kiel art ceramics. Neumünster 2004, ISBN 3-529-02662-X .
  • Christel Marsh: Ends and Beginnings. London 2004, pp. 277-284 and pp. 292 u. 293, ISBN 0-9549274-0-0 .
  • Richard B. Parkinson: A Little Gay History: Desire and Diversity Across the World. British Museum Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-7141-5100-7 .
  • Otto Riedrich: New building ceramics in Schleswig-Holstein with an insight into contemporary architecture. In: Schleswig-Holstein Yearbook. 1927, pp. 23-38.
  • Ernst Sauermann: New ways. In: Schleswig-Holstein Yearbook. 1925/26, p. 105 ff.
  • Konrad Strauss: German ceramics of the present. Halle / Saale 1927, p. 21 u. 22 and fig. P. 7 u. 8th
  • Maria-Gesine Thies: The Kieler Kunst-Keramik AG: Ceramics of the 1920s in Kiel. Phil. Diss. Univ. Kiel, Kiel 1988.

Museum property

  • Kiel City Museum, Kiel
  • Schleswig-Holstein State Museum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig
  • The British Museum, London
  • Grassi Museum for Applied Arts, Leipzig
  • Bröhan Museum, Berlin

Exhibitions

  • 2013/2014 Augusta Kaiser and Hedwig Marquardt - an artist couple. Women's Museum (Wiesbaden) , November 3, 2013 to May 31, 2014.
  • 2014 Degenerate Ceramic 1919 - 1939 exhibit. 1930s German ceramic art on display at the Lopez Island Library, WA; February 14th to March 31st, 2014.
  • 2015 Kieler Kunst-Keramik 1924 - 1930. Augusta Kaiser, Hedwig Marquardt and other artists. Ostholstein Museum Eutin , February 27 to April 26, 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv, file section 650 / B No. 2525
  2. ^ Wilhelm Conrad Gomoll: New Schleswig-Holstein Arts and Crafts. In: Die Buchgemeinde , year 1926, issue 8, p. 340.
  3. ↑ Biographical data in: Christel Marsh: Hedwig Marquardt (1884 beers - 1969 Hanover), introduction to the exhibition catalog 1989. John Denham Gallery, London 1989, p. 1 u. 8th
  4. ^ Letters from Hedwig Marquardt and Augusta Kaiser from 1922 to 1933, kept in the Marsh family archive, London, evaluated in: Joachim and Angelika Konietzny: Augusta Kaiser. The Gustl Kaiser of Kiel Art Ceramics and their life with Hedwig Marquardt.
  5. ↑ Dieter Zühlsdorff: Ceramic Brands Lexicon, Porcelain and Ceramic Report 1885–1935. Stuttgart 1994, p. 533.
  6. ^ Dörte Beier: Kiel in the Weimar Republic. Urban development under the direction of Willy Hahn, Kiel 2004, pp. 218, 219, Fig. 85
  7. ↑ Milchhalle Hirte Hamburg - Altona-Altstadt (online at: bildindex.de )
  8. ↑ E. Rich. Schubert: Why brick building? An answer from the history and performance of the brick industry. Advertising book for the brick industry, Vol. I, Berlin 1926, ill. P. 50.
  9. ^ Announcement on the exhibition , accessed on August 5, 2014
  10. ↑ 1930s German ceramic art on display at the Lopez Island Library ( Memento of the original from May 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 4, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / sites.google.com
  11. ↑ Kieler Kunst-Keramik 1924 - 1930. Augusta Kaiser, Hedwig Marquardt and other artists , accessed on December 4, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Kaiser, Augusta
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaiser, Gustl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and modern ceramist
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Breaking down
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1932
Place of death Wiesbaden