Bert Hunter

Albert Jäger, called Bert Jäger, (born January 11, 1919 in Karlsruhe , † May 2, 1998 in Freiburg ) was a German painter, commercial artist, photographer and writer.

Bert Jäger in Pietrabruna 1988

Life

Bert Jäger went to school in Karlsruhe and studied at the Karlsruhe Art Academy from 1934 to 1939, with Hermann Goebel and Siegfried Czerny , among others . In 1939 Jäger was drafted into the Wehrmacht, a year later he was wounded in a hospital in Vienna. Here, on the recommendation of a doctor, he was able to study for a short time at the academy with Herbert Boeckl and made the acquaintance of the Karlsruhe composer Hans Erich Apostel and the expressionist painter Emil Nolde . In 1944, after deployments in Bunzlau and Görlitz, he settled in Freiburg i. Br. Down. At the front near Aris he was then taken into Soviet captivity, from which he was released in 1949. From then on, Jäger lived in Freiburg, where he died of lung failure in 1998.

plant

After his return from captivity, Bert Jäger resumed his artistic activity. He became a member of the “Professional Association of Visual Artists” (BBK), the “Young Baden Group” around Willy Kiwitz and the “Young Freiburg Group” and met Rainer Maria Gerhardt , among others , who introduced him to modern literature. On his numerous trips to France and Italy, around 3,500 black and white photographs were taken, and the French avant-garde had a lasting influence on hunters. He became a member of the "Free Upper Rhine Group" around Günter Fruhtrunk and was involved in the Freiburg Art Association . In the following years he received numerous public commissions, among other things he designed a mural for the Interior Ministry in Stuttgart in 1958 and a year later, together with Richard Bampi, a ceramic wall in the employment office in Freiburg.

Caritas logo ("Flame Cross")

Jäger also worked as a commercial artist: he designed postage stamps, illustrated books, including for HAP Grieshaber and Wystan H. Auden , and worked as a photographer. In 1956, for example, he designed four postage stamps for the series of the Deutsche Bundespost “Helfer der Menschheit” and in 1962 the “Flammenkreuz” emblem of the German Caritas Association .

In the early sixties Bert Jäger - influenced by Abstract Expressionism and Informel - made the switch to gestural painting. His versatile activities as a photographer, graphic artist and writer flowed into Jäger's working method and shaped his collage-like style between color fields and figuration. His role models were among others Wassily Kandinsky , Franz Kline , William de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg . In 1960 he co-founded “Galerie 61” and a year later he had his first major solo exhibition at the Freiburg Art Association.

Around 1970 Bert Jäger's artistic activity shifted from painting to color photography and literary writing. After several operations on the hip joint and eyes, he resumed drawing and painting in 1987, including in his studio in Pietrabruna, Liguria . Jäger's late work can be seen as a consistent further development of his previous themes: the tensions between drawing and painting, image and language, color surfaces and lines.

In 1994 Bert Jäger received the Maria Ensle Prize from the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation .

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

• 2015 Bert Jäger - Painting 1987–1998 , University Heart Center Bad Krozingen; Bert Jäger - photography and painting , Städtische Galerie Iserlohn; Bert Jäger - drawings and photographs , Linda Driver Gallery, Ettenheimmünster
• 2014 Bert Jäger - painting from the 1960s, Walter Schelenz - sculptures , Sparkasse Staufen
• 2013 Bert Jäger - painting and photography , Galerie am Klostersee, Kloster Lehnin
• 2012 Bert Jäger. Photography and drawings , Singen Art Museum; Heike Endemann - sculpture, Bert Jäger - painting , Villa Bosch, Radolfzell
• 2010 Bert Jäger. Painting, works on paper, photography , Galerie Voegtle, Karlsruhe
• 2009 Bert Jäger. Photography , Former Synagogue Sulzburg; Bert Hunter. Works on paper , painting, Markgräfler Museum Müllheim
• 2006 Bert Jäger. Painting and drawing , Galerie am Klostersee, Lehnin Monastery
• 2001 Bert Jäger. Works on paper 1961–1998 , Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
• 1999 Bert Jäger in memoriam , Kunstverein Kirchzarten
• 1998 last work , galerie pro arte, Freiburg i. Br.
• 1995 Linda Driver Gallery, Ettenheim Munster
• 1994 Pierre Rippstein Gallery, Basel; Bert Hunter. Retrospective 1940–1994 , Kunstverein Freiburg i. Br .; Bert Hunter. Painting , Morat Institute for Art and Art History, Freiburg i. Br .; Bert Hunter. Works on paper , Kunstverein Kirchzarten
• 1993 Municipal Gallery Tuttlingen; Galerie Wolf, Düsseldorf
• 1992 New works , galerie pro arte, Freiburg i. Br .; Galerie Fahlbusch, Mannheim
• 1991 Linda Driver Gallery, Ettenheimmünster; Gallery Rolf Ohse, Bremen
• 1990 Pierre Rippstein Gallery, Basel
• 1988 Rolf Ohse Gallery, Bremen
• 1986 Photographs 1978–1985 , Augustinermuseum, Small Gallery, Freiburg i. Br .; Pictures 1961–1964 , Museum of New Art, Freiburg i. Br .; Spiegelhalter Gallery, Freiburg i. Br.
• 1962 Galleria XXII Marzo, Venice; Galerie Lutz and Meyer, Stuttgart
• 1961 Art Association Freiburg i. Br.

Group exhibitions

• 2007 6 DECADES. Sixty years of BBK Südbaden , Freiburg i. Br.
• 1998 From the holdings of the gallery , Galerie Fahlbusch, Mannheim; Soundtrack. To the pictures in the collection , Museum für Neue Kunst, Freiburg i. Br .; Artists Association of Baden-Württemberg. 44th annual exhibition , Mannheimer Kunstverein; Municipal Gallery Villa Aichele, Lörrach; Small formats , galerie pro arte, Freiburg i. Br.
• 1994 Art Frankfurt , Frankfurt a. M .; Art Cologne , Cologne; Small formats , galerie pro arte, Freiburg i. Br .; Art funding from the state of Baden-Württemberg. Acquisitions 1989 to 1992 , Kulturverein Zehntscheuer, Rottenburg am Neckar
• 1992 The art of the early years. Freiburg 1945–1960 , Museum of New Art, Freiburg i. Br .; Lithographs from 1895–1991 , State Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe
• 1989 picture and photograph , municipal gallery "Fähre", Saulgau
• 1962 Contemporary painting in the European Community , Premio Marzotto, Valdagno, Eindhoven
• 1954 Free Group Upper Rhine , Art Association Freiburg i. Br. (With W. Schelenz, G. Fruhtrunk, among others); Young Baden art. Spring exhibition , State Art Gallery Baden-Baden
• 1949 Young Group Baden , Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe

Literature (selection)

• Bert Jäger - Photography , ed. by Dieter Weber, Städt. Kunstmuseum Singen, with contributions by Julia Galandi-Pascual, Dieter Weber, Christoph Bauer, modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 2011. ISBN 978-3-86833-067-0
• Everyday life and ambience '. Contemporary art reflects the 1950s , ed. from Kunstverein Pforzheim, Pforzheim 2010.
• Bert Hunter. Painting - works on paper - photography , ed. von Former Synagoge Sulzburg, Markgräfler Museum Müllheim, with contributions by Gert Reising and Jost Grosspietsch, modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 2009. ISBN 978-3-86833-015-1
• Bert Hunter. Works on paper 1961–1998 , ed. from Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, with contributions by Klaus Schrenk, Gert Reising, Jochen Ludwig, modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 2001. ISBN 3-922675-73-5
• Soundtrack. On the pictures in the collection , ed. from the Museum of New Art Freiburg i. Br., Modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 1998. ISBN 3-922675-33-6
• Bert Hunter. Retrospective 1940–1994 , with a contribution by Stefan Berg, modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 1994. ISBN 3-922675-56-5
• Bert Hunter. Painting 1988–1991 , ed. by Ruth F. and Rudi Wolpert, with contributions by Wolfgang Heidenreich and Eva-Maria Schumann-Bacia, modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 1992. ISBN 3-922675-52-2
• Bert Hunter. Pictures 1961–1964 , ed. from the Museum of New Art Freiburg i. Br., With contributions by Jochen Ludwig and Margarita Jonietz, Freiburg i. Br. 1986.

Web links

• Literature by and about Bert Jäger in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website about Bert Jäger
• Website of the Bert Jäger estate