Conrad West Stake

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Conrad Westpfahl (born November 23, 1891 in Berlin , † July 23, 1976 in Wetzhausen ) was a German painter . He is considered an important representative of German informal art and was a guest of the group ZEN 49 . His work exemplifies the extent of the cuts that the Third Reich left in the life of the avant-garde : suppression of the recently found abstraction in 1933, turning to the figure in the years of exile in Greece, “illegal” portrait commissions during the period when painting was banned. Despite everything, after the end of the Second World War he continued his non-representational work and found a lyrical form of Informel in 1958/1959.

Life

Conrad Westpfahl studied from 1911 to 1913 at the teaching institute of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin under Emil Orlik and in the following year switched to Hugo von Habermann at the Munich Art Academy . In the same year he studied with Félix Vallotton at the private Académie Ranson in Paris . After the end of the First World War , Westpfahl returned to Berlin in 1918 and processed his war experience as a pilot in figure studies. Large figurative canvases on Greek mythology were created for the first time in 1921 . Two years later he married the poet Inge von Holtzendorff , who shared and encouraged his interest in Greek culture. At the time, Westpfahl earned the couple's livelihood by taking private lessons in art history and selling prints . In 1925/1926 he took part in one of the group exhibitions of the Berlin Secession and was able to exhibit his drawings in the Prussian Academy of the Arts . During these years he began to travel extensively, which enabled him to escape from the German art scene, which was perceived as conservative, and to receive international impulses. In 1927 a first solo exhibition followed in the Munich Galerie Neue Kunst - Hans Goltz . Westpfahl's interest in abstract art was aroused in 1928 by reading the book "Art" by Amédée Ozenfant . Only two years later he emigrated to Paris, where he met Max Ernst and Pablo Picasso and made the acquaintance of Georges Braque and Fernand Léger . Due to the formative impressions of avant-garde Paris, the first abstract compositions were created in 1932 as “collages” from waste papers on the pages of an old church history. He continued this work phase in 1933 after returning to Berlin. This resulted in a total of around 40 collages, the shape of which heralded the later Informel.

After the National Socialists closed an exhibition of his in Stuttgart in 1934 , Westpfahl emigrated to Greece with his family. Because of his mother's Jewish descent, he feared further reprisals. In fact, the professional ban followed in 1936, so that Westpfahl did not dare to continue the abstraction he had just found in Greece either. Instead, figurative works were created again, which were probably easier to sell in Greece and were shown in regular exhibitions in Athens, among others. In 1939/1940, Westpfahl was forced to return to Germany due to a German-Greek agreement; he moved with his family to Pöcking near Munich. Immediately after returning home, the National Socialists were banned from painting, which Westpfahl did not adhere to and secretly commissioned portraits from friends and acquaintances to support the family. In 1944 he began contact with the gallery owner Günther Franke , the art historian Franz Roh and the painter Ernst Wilhelm Nay , from whom a close friendship developed.

Westpfahl began his theoretical publications on art in 1946 with the manifesto for the establishment of a “Werkbund” for teaching and learning forms. They were held in high regard in the 1950s. In 1950, during the 1st Darmstadt Conversation , Westpfahl appeared alongside Willi Baumeister as one of the spokesmen for non-representational art. In the same year the family moved to Munich. In 1951/1952 the first exhibition of purely abstract works was shown in the local art association. This was followed by a lively exhibition activity at the Märkisches Museum Witten , the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen , the Biennale in Sao Paulo, the Städtische Galerie Würzburg and the Lenbachhaus in Munich. In 1954 Westpfahl was appointed as a guest lecturer at the State Art School Hamburg . From 1955 to 1957 he took part as a guest in the exhibition of the Munich Zen 49 group, which is so important for West German art development. During this time he also became a member of the re-established German Association of Artists , in whose annual exhibitions he took part in 1956 (in the Ehrenhof in Düsseldorf), 1957 (in the University of Fine Arts , Berlin) and 1960 (in the Haus der Kunst , Munich).

After visiting the “Action Painting” exhibition in Basel in 1959, his color became dynamic and accentuated. He took part in the Marzotto Prize exhibition in Milan, Munich and Paris with his first large-format oil paintings. In 1960 he moved to Birnfeld Castle near Stadtlauringen in Lower Franconia. Just one year later, at the age of 70, he was accepted as a guest of honor at the Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo in Rome , where his palette brightened. In 1962 he was given the opportunity to stay at the Villa Romana in Florence . At the invitation of the Greek Minister of Culture, Westpfahl was able to work again in Greece in 1963.

Nine years later, in 1972, he began the series of his album pictures, small-format works that can be considered the essence of his previous artistic work. He continued this work phase until his death. He died on July 23rd in Wetzhausen, only two months after staying at Villa Massimo again.

Works

Until his death, Westpfahl published more than 40 essays, including in the important art magazines of the time, such as the Artwork

  • 1946/1947: Degenerate Art
  • 1947: To abstract art
  • 1947: For art education
  • 1953: My turn towards non-objectivity
  • 1955: ornament or emblem?

The publication was also created as an anthology of various essays

  • On the interpretation of the pictorial in art. Aegis, Ulm 1948.

Prices

literature

  • Hans Dieter Mück : Conrad Westpfahl. Abstract works 1932 to 1976 (catalog raisonné) Artefact, Frankfurt / Stuttgart 1997.
  • Westpfahl, Conrad , in: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. Fifth volume (VZ / supplements AG) , EA Seemann, Leipzig 1999 (study edition). ISBN 3-363-00730-2 (p. 119)
  • Ulrich Bischoff (Ed.): Conrad Westpfahl 1891–1976. A picture monograph. Wienand, Cologne 2000.
  • Conrad West Stake. A network of a thousand breathing details. (Exhibition catalog) Galerie Maulberger, Munich 2008.

Individual evidence

  1. s. Art report: nineteen hundred three | nineteen ninety-five. An overview of the German Artists Association , special edition Winter 1994/95, Bonn 1995. ISBN 3-929283-08-5 (p. 135)

Web links