Carl Lohse

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Carl Lohse (photograph from 1963)

Carl Lohse (born October 24, 1895 in Hamburg , † May 3, 1965 in Bischofswerda ) was a German expressionist painter . For a long time he received less attention from art critics . For several decades his work has received increased interest and high recognition. Today he is considered to be one of the most important representatives of German Expressionism after the First World War . Carl Lohse dealt primarily with portraits and nudes , but also with landscape painting and depictions of architecture and working life. In addition to his expressionist work, there are also factually influenced works. With his idiosyncratic landscape depictions of Upper Lusatia , Lohse's work is also considered an important contribution to German landscape painting after 1930.

life and work

Carl Lohse was born in Hamburg on October 24, 1895. With the support of Alfred Lichtwark , he was able to attend the state trade school and Arthur Siebelist's painting school in Hamburg from 1909 to 1910 . In 1913 Lohse studied at the Academy in Weimar with Albin Egger-Lienz and Fritz Mackensen . At this time he also met Otto Pankok , with whom he had a long friendship. Lohse then visited his friend Pankok between 1913 and 1914 in the countryside in the Oldenburg village of Dötlingen . Otto Pankok writes about it: “A wonderful year began in Dötlingen in immense loneliness, indulging in coal and paper, a search for the essence of the human. I tried to be as close to nature and the elements as these simple people in their huts and in their fields, to whom my instinct drove me. "

It is very likely that Lohse found inspiration for a number of his rural motifs in Dötlingen. During this time he also visited galleries in Holland and experienced, among other things, the works of Vincent van Gogh , which influenced his work.

In 1915, Lohse went to northern France for military service. There he witnessed the battles on the Somme , was buried and barely escaped death. In 1916 he was captured by the English and had to work in the Calais quarries . In 1919 Lohse was released from captivity, most recently in the Hammelburg camp in Bavaria, and returned to his mother in Hamburg. Then he went to work in Bischofswerda, where he spent most of his life. He stayed there until 1921. This period is referred to as his first creative period in which his early expressionist works were created. The early work produced here between 1919 and 1921 is particularly noteworthy. Abstraction and simplification are taken to extremes at Lohse. During this time, in 1920 to be precise, he took part in an exhibition by the Dresden Secession Group in 1919 in the Ernst Arnold Gallery in Dresden. He was then able to hold a personal exhibition in the Emil Richter Gallery in Dresden in April 1921 . In the early summer of the same year, however, he returned to Hamburg to earn a living doing freelance and casual work.

In 1925 he married Johanna Scheumann (1894–1977). The daughters Maria married came from the marriage. Gundlach (1928–2018) and Gerda married. Sieber (1931-2016).

His second creative period began when he moved to Bischofswerda in 1929. In 1931 a personal exhibition followed at the art exhibition Kühl in Dresden. He lived in Bischofswerda until 1965, interrupted by painting studies in the summer of 1935, 1936 and 1937 on the Baltic Sea. In 1938 he created his oil painting Surf (Ahrenshoop) with bathers (owned by Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop ).

Self-portrait in a painter's smock around 1950

Between 1939 and 1945 he had to interrupt his artistic work. He exercised commercial activities and was drafted into the Volkssturm . Already in 1946 he was involved in the 1st General German Art Exhibition in Dresden. At this point in time his third creative period began. This lasted until his death in 1965. During this time he was involved in exhibitions in Dresden, Bautzen and Görlitz. A personal exhibition in Zittau in 1951 meant that Lohse was exposed to the attacks of the formalism debate.

Between 1958 and 1959 he was studying with Erhard Hippold at the Baltic Sea and in 1960 he had another personal exhibition at the art exhibition Kühl in Dresden.

Carl Lohse's grave in the old cemetery in Bischofswerda

Carl Lohse died on May 3, 1965 in Bischofswerda and was buried in the old cemetery on Bautzener Straße.

After Carl Lohse's death

In 1966, a commemorative exhibition in honor of Carl Lohse was held at the art exhibition in Kühl and the “ Kunst der Zeit ” gallery in Dresden. In 1980 and 1981 there was an extensive exhibition at the Council of the Bischofswerda District , in the Galerie Neue Meister ( Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden ) and then in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Cottbus , with the publication of a small catalog. The New Masters Gallery constantly shows several paintings by Lohse. The Carl Lohse inventory catalog also shows that the Neue Meister gallery owns a large number of paintings by Lohse. On the occasion of his 90th birthday, an exhibition took place in 1985 at the art exhibition Kühl in Dresden.

In 1990 the "Carl Lohse" interest group was founded in Bischofswerda. Three years later the "Galerie Carl Lohse" was opened in the former bishopric in Bischofswerda. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister in Dresden held another exhibition in 1995.

Much of Lohse's work is privately owned. The museum in Bautzen has the largest public collection of Lohse's important early work. These 32 works were acquired from private property in 2005 for 270,000 euros (40,000 euros of which were provided by the city itself, the rest from sponsors and donors) in coordination with the Carl-Lohse-Galerie in Bischofswerda, as they themselves did not have the financial means decreed to buy the works. An important part of Lohse's work has thus returned to the region where it was created.

The Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich are showing two main works by Lohse with the pictures Reifes Korn from 1914, donated by Hartwig Garnerus in 2003 and reading from 1919 , donated by the Theo Wormland Foundation in Munich.

From November 2017 to April 2018 the special exhibition “Carl Lohse. Expressionist ”from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in the Albertinum .

literature

  • Frank Tiesler: Carl Lohse . Series painter and work , Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1978
  • Carl Lohse. Force fields. The pictures 1920/21, ed. by Karsten Müller, Ernst Barlach Haus Hamburg, Sandstein Verlag Dresden, ISBN 978-3-9549831-3-1 , 136 p. (catalog for the exhibition)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ leaflet Carl Lohse.Expressionist (accessed on 20 December 2017)
  2. ^ Exhibition Carl Lohse (accessed December 20, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Lohse, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German expressionist painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 1965
Place of death Bischofswerda