Curt Großpietsch

Curt Großpietsch (born June 21, 1893 in Leipzig , † September 26, 1980 in Dresden ) was a German painter and graphic artist . Großpietsch was a member of the Dresden artist group Die Schaffenden , was involved in the board of the Dresden Art Cooperative and was the only SPD member of the Dresden local group of the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists .

Life

Curt Großpietsch was born in Leipzig in 1893 as the son of the master painter Bruno Großpietsch. After attending secondary school , he began an apprenticeship as a painter and varnisher in his father's company and, from 1905 to 1911, attended courses at the arts and crafts school in Leipzig. From 1911 to 1914 he studied at the Dresden Art Academy with Richard Müller , Robert Sterl , Johannes Raphael Wehle and Oskar Zwintscher . Großpietsch was studying friends with George Grosz and Otto Dix .

On September 12, 1914, Großpietsch was drafted into the First Replacement Battalion of the 107 Infantry Regiment in the First World War . On May 11, 1915, he was seriously wounded by a shot in the stomach while on duty on the Western Front in Neuville. After recovering, he served again as a soldier on the Eastern Front . In 1919 he returned to Dresden and, like Otto Dix, continued his studies until 1923 as a master student with Otto Gußmann .

In 1921 Großpietsch became a member of the artist group Die Schaffenden , who u. a. also the painters Erich Fraaß , Wilhelm Lachnit , Willy Illmer and Fritz Skade belonged. In 1924 Großpietsch became a member of the Dresden Art Cooperative. In 1925 he became a member of the SPD and worked as a draftsman for the Dresdner Volkszeitung , the Fliegende Blätter and other satirical magazines.

On August 2, 1927, he married Dora Franke. On September 11, 1929, their son Peter Großpietsch was born. Curt Großpietsch took part in the preparations for the International Hygiene Exhibition Dresden 1930 . From 1930 to 1933 he was a member of ASSO Dresden . A conflict arose because of Lea Grundig's approval of the art cooperative. His murals in the artists' cellar of the art cooperative were hung up and some of his pen drawings were branded as degenerate . In 1933 he became a nominal member of the NSDAP , a stigma which, according to his own statement, he never got rid of. Like Otto Dix, Großpietsch was demoted to a landscape artist during the Nazi era and only exhibited flower paintings. Since open resistance was no longer possible, Großpietsch, as a consultant for the Kunstkammer , tried to protect his colleagues from persecution by making incriminating files disappear.

In 1944 Großpietsch was drafted into the Volkssturm and was seriously wounded by a shot in the chest on April 21, 1945 during the fighting for Berlin in Spandau. After the war, in addition to his ongoing work as a painter, he also carried out commissions as an exhibition designer and construction-related work, such as the design of the Hotel Astoria in Bad Gastein and the fresco paintings in the Forestry Academy in Tharandt . He was awarded a pension for his work in the ASSO, but was only tolerated in the GDR's art business . Curt Großpietsch died at the age of 87 on September 26, 1980 after a short hospital stay in Dresden. He was buried there in the Inner Matthew Cemetery.

Artistic creation

The early work clearly shows Curt Großpietsch's contribution to Dresden's verism as a representative of the New Objectivity . Throughout and in parallel, he continued his graphic work, with a grotesque and surreal- related romanticism. His graphic work is populated by animal-human hybrids, water spirits, demons, devils and outsiders such as cripples, beggars, whores and clowns. Curt Großpietsch was regarded as a misunderstood artist until the 1960s.

Exhibitions (selection)

Participation in exhibitions

• 1922: Dresden, Die Schaffenden , Sächsischer Kunstverein
• 1923: Dresden, Die Schaffenden , Galerie Arnold
• 1924: Dresden Art Cooperative and Dresden Secession Group 1919
• 1926: Dresden, large watercolor exhibition , Sächsischer Kunstverein
• 1927: Dresden, graphic exhibition , Deutscher Künstlerbund , Dresdner Kunstgenossenschaft, Sächsischer Kunstverein
• 1928: Dresden Art Cooperative, Künstlerhaus
• 1929: Dresden Art Cooperative, Saxon Art Association
• 1931: Dresden, The Artwork in Space , Saxon Art Association
• 1933: Dresden, Die Kunst dem Volke , Brühlsche Terrasse exhibition building
• 1935: Dresden art exhibition of all associations , municipal art gallery
• 1936: Art exhibition Dresden, special show Flowers in Art
• 1938: Dresden, 100 years of the Dresden Art Cooperative, anniversary exhibition
• 1939: Dresden Art Exhibition, Municipal Art Hall
• 1940: Dresden, 1st exhibition of the Dresden Artists Association
• 1942: Great Dresden Art Exhibition , Saxon Art Association
• 1942: Krakow, German artists see the Generalgouvernement
• 1943: Dresden, soldier and artist , Brühlsche Terrasse
• 1943: Great Dresden Art Exhibition , Saxon Art Association
• 1946: Dresden, black and white art, graphic exhibition in the arts and crafts museum
• 1955: Dresden, the portrait , Albertinum
• 1957: 2nd district exhibition in Dresden
• 1969: Schkopau, art against fascism
• 1972: 8th district exhibition in Dresden , Pillnitz Castle
• 1975: Halle, Art in the Fight Against Fascism , Moritzburg State Gallery
• 1977: Dresden, brotherhood. ASSO artist during the war , ORBIS PICTUS 3 of the Comenius Gallery
• 1978: Berlin, Revolution and Realism , National Museums in Berlin, Altes Museum
• 1978: Neubrandenburg, antifascism - our style , house of culture and education
• 1980: Dresden, Art on the Move , Dresden State Art Collections
• 1980: Karlsruhe, resistance instead of adaptation , Badischer Kunstverein
• 1980: Prague, antifascism - our style , culture and information center of the GDR, Prague
• 1983: Dresden, I saw it. Dresden February 13, 1945 , ORBIS PICTUS 36 of the Comenius Gallery
• 1983: Neubrandenburg, painters build barricades , house of culture and education
• 1987: Düsseldorf, Die Dresdner Künstlerzene 1913–1933 , Galerie Remmert and Barth
• 1989: Dresden, Art Academy Dresden. Painting, graphics, sculpture by teachers and students in the 20th century
• 1989: Berlin, war and hunch , Otto-Nagel-Haus
• 2011: Dresden, New Objectivity in Dresden , October 1, 2011 to January 8, 2012, Kunsthalle im Lipsius-Bau , Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Solo exhibitions

• 1965: Dresden, Leonhardi Museum
• 1968: Dresden, Galerie Kunst der Zeit , for his 75th birthday
• 1978: Dresden, gallery in the cinema, Pragerstraße
• 1981: Berlin, support group Haus am Lützowplatz , cabinet in the Sachsenspiegel exhibition
• 1982: Dresden, ORBIS PICTUS 29 memorial exhibition in the Comenius Gallery
• 1983: Regensburg, East German Gallery
• 1984: Berlin, Galerie Kunsthandlung Reinhard Wolff
• 1985: Görlitz, Galerie am Schönhof
• 1994: Berlin, Galerie Hesselbach, Kurfürstendamm, on the 100th birthday
• 1995: Dresden, Early Drawings , Finckenstein Gallery
• 1996: Frankfurt am Main, Galerie Kunsthandlung HW Fichter
• 2000: Art Collection Gera , June 20 to September 10, 2000, Otto-Dix-Haus
• 2010: Struppen: Special exhibition Curt Grosspietsch (1893–1980) , July 17 to September 19, 2010, Robert-Sterl-Haus , on the 30th anniversary of his death

literature

• Curt Großpietsch . In: Birgit Dalbajewa (ed.): New Objectivity in Dresden . Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-942422-57-4 , p. 216 .
• Großpietsch, Curt (Kurt) . In: Martin Papenbrock, Gabriele Saure (Hrsg.): Art of the early 20th century in German exhibitions: Part 2. Antifascist artists in exhibitions in the Soviet Zone and the GDR . Publishing house and database for the humanities, Weimar 2000, ISBN 3-89739-040-X , p. 255-256 , doi : 10.1466 / 20061109.27 .
• Lothar Fischer : Curt Grosspietsch 1893–1980: paintings, watercolors, drawings, etchings. Art collection Gera , Otto-Dix-Haus , June 20 to September 10, 2000 . Art collection Gera, 2000.
• Lothar Fischer: Curt Grosspietsch. East German Gallery Regensburg. October 13, 1983 - February 26, 1984 . East German Gallery Regensburg , 1983.
• Großpietsch, Kurt . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 320 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lothar Fischer : Curt Grosspietsch. East German Gallery Regensburg. October 13, 1983 - February 26, 1984 . Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg , 1983, p. 8 .
2. ↑ Lothar Fischer: Reality in the twilight of time . In: Curt Grosspietsch 1893–1980: paintings, watercolors, drawings, etchings. Art collection Gera , Otto-Dix-Haus , June 20 to September 10, 2000 . Art collection Gera, 2000, p. 2-5 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Curt Großpietsch in the catalog of the German National Library