Bernhard Sopher

Pieta , stone cast around 1923

Bernhard (Burnat David) Sopher (born June 15, 1879 in Safed , Palestine , † June 18, 1949 in Hollywood , Los Angeles ) was a German -American sculptor.

Life

Letter from the art collections of the city of Düsseldorf to the mayor of February 5, 1937 with the request for a fundamental decision as to whether the figures can remain because the artist is non-Aryan. The letter is attached as a memorial to the former location of the sculpture in front of the entrance of today's Museum Kunstpalast .

Bernhard Sopher studied sculpture at the Berlin Art Academy from 1897 , and from 1905 to 1908 at the Weimar School of Crafts with Adolf Brütt in Berlin and Weimar . At the end of his studies, he was already involved in the realization of the monument to Grand Duke Carl Alexander on Karlsplatz in Weimar and in the work in the foyer of the Weimar National Theater. From 1908 Sopher lived as a freelance sculptor in Düsseldorf . In 1914, Sopher, who had been a Turkish citizen to date, applied for Prussian citizenship; he served as a volunteer for Germany in World War I. In the 1920s he became known as a member of the association Das Junge Rheinland . From 1929 to 1931 he was involved in the artists' association Rheinische Sezession . The Nazi regime banned him from working in 1934 and with the help of Ernst Gottschalk , Sopher emigrated to the USA in 1935 . He became a US citizen in 1943.

Sopher created u. a. Portrait busts of Sigmund Freud and Arnold Schönberg . His bronze sculpture Die Nubierin (also called The Water Carrier ), created in 1925, is preserved in the gardens south of the Rheinterrasse in Düsseldorf . Sopher's Pietà, created around 1923 in the park of Palais Spee , Düsseldorf , can also be viewed publicly . Around 1932, Sopher created the standing bronze figure of Johanna Ey , which is now in the possession of the Düsseldorf City Museum.

His estate was exhibited in the entrepreneur's villa Sack in Düsseldorf, and the exhibition has been maintained by the City Museum of the State of Düsseldorf since 2003 .

Exhibition catalogs

• Bernhard Sopher: Plastic . Berlin: Galerie Rudolf Wiltschek, October 12 to 31, 1925.
• War mothers : sculpture by Bernhard Sopher. New York City, NY: Associated American Artists, February 23-March 8, 1943.
• Bernhard Sopher, Art Collections of the City of Düsseldorf, 1951.

literature

• Sopher, Bernhard . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 31 : Siemering – Stephens . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1937.
• Sopher, Bernhard . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958.
• Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. ed. from the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .

Web links

Commons : Bernhard Sopher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: biography ) at City of Düsseldorf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rolf Purpar: art city Dusseldorf. Objects and monuments in the cityscape. 2nd Edition. Grupello Verlag, Düsseldorf 2009, ISBN 978-3-89978-044-4 , p. 98.
2. ↑ ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Johanna Ey standing ), website in portal duesseldorf.de (Stadtmuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf), accessed on March 2, 2014.
3. ↑ Works of art by Mother Ey: Photo of the sculpture Mother Ey by Bernhard Sopher, in the article Michael Kerst: Mother Ey died 65 years ago This is how artists painted the muse from the old town on August 26, 2012 ( photo , article ) on express.de.