Curt Stoermer

Curt Stoermer (actually Kurt Karl August Störmer , born April 26, 1891 in Hagen , † January 29, 1976 in Lübeck ) was a German painter and representative of Worpswede Expressionism .

Life

As a teenager in Hagen, Stoermer saw the founding of the Folkwang Museum by Karl Ernst Osthaus and got to know Christian Rohlfs . Inspired by them, he began studying at the Düsseldorf Academy in 1908 and went to Paris in 1909 . Here he studied at the Academy Cola Rossi and the Académie Julian . In his first year in Paris, he visited Amedeo Modigliani in his studio and later gave an impressive description of his way of working.

At the academy he met Heinrich Vogeler , with whom he went to Worpswede in 1912 . He cataloged the estate of Paula Modersohn-Becker and published his first woodcuts , including in the magazine Der Sturm , and paintings. In October he received his first exhibition in the Folkwang Museum .

After military service with the Oldenburg Dragoons and brief participation in the Bremen Council Republic as secretary of a workers 'and soldiers' council, he came wounded from fighting with the Reich troops, initially via Lübeck to a cottage on the beach of Hohwacht in Schleswig-Holstein, where he made contact with a district Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , consisting of his biographer Rosa Schapire , Heinrich Vogeler , Bernhard Hoetger and the art historian Biermann. With Schmidt-Rottluff, whom he had met during the war in the unit under Richard Dehmel in Kowno in 1917 , he remained in friendly contact for life. Stoermer's pictures from this time in 1919 in Hohwacht have been lost except for “Brandung” ( Gottorf Castle ). They were exhibited at the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim in Düsseldorf and were all sold by him in 1920. From 1921 Stoermer lived and worked in Lübeck, interrupted by two trips to East Asia due to financial difficulties in 1923 as a seaman in the merchant navy. Encouraged by Ervin Bossányi and supported by master glazier Carl Berkentien , he turned to glass painting . Glass windows were created for the Aegidien Church memorial chapel (inspired by Wilhelm Jannasch , destroyed in 1942 by a pressure wave from an air mine), the council cellar , the Holy Spirit Hospital and the St. Andreas Fisherman's Church in Lübeck-Schlutup.

In 1931 a Villa Massimo scholarship from the Prussian Academy of the Arts enabled him to travel extensively to Dalmatia and Rome , during which he became friends with Werner Gilles and gave him decisive impulses for the development of his artistic style. In the following year he was one of the founders of the artist group Werkgruppe Lübeck , together with Harry Maasz , Wilhelm Bräck , Alfred Mahlau , Hans Peters , Alen Müller and Emil Steffann . Through the advocacy of Asmus Jessen , he still received public commissions during the Nazi era , although four of his woodcuts from the Folkwang Museum were confiscated as degenerate art .

Modern version of the Lübeck city seal as art in building at Lübeck Police Station I in Mengstraße, Lübeck

After his studio in Lübeck was destroyed in the bombing raid in 1942, he withdrew to a piece of land near Utecht on Lake Ratzeburg . In the post-war period he received extensive commissions to decorate public buildings , for example in 1959 for the Thomas Mann School , the State Insurance Institute and the Police Station I in Mengstrasse . His sgraffito depictions adorn numerous apartment blocks in Lübeck-Eichholz built in the early 1950s, as well as Chapel I of the Vorwerk cemetery ( resurrection frieze , 1958). Stoermer created a wealth of watercolors and drawings, especially from his numerous trips to the Mediterranean. In addition, he worked as a critic for the social democratic Lübeck Free Press .

Works

Museum holdings (selection)

• formerly Folkwang Museum, Essen:
  • Saint Sebastian (1911), confiscated as degenerate art in 1937, destroyed
  • Angst (1911), confiscated as degenerate art in 1937, destroyed
  • War campaign (1911), confiscated as degenerate art in 1937, destroyed
  • This one blasphemed God (1912), confiscated and destroyed it as degenerate art in 1937
• formerly Magdeburg , Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum :
  • Study head , confiscated as degenerate art in 1937, destroyed
  • Fear , confiscated as degenerate art in 1937, destroyed
• Untitled (1913), woodcut from Der Sturm 4 (1913), p. 53; Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies
• Untitled (1913), woodcut from Der Sturm 4 (1913), p. 97; Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies
• Surf (1919), Gottorf Castle , Schleswig
• Women at the fountain (1931), Behnhaus , Lübeck (inv. No. 1948/100)
• Dalmatian Landscape (1931), Behnhaus, Lübeck (Inv. No. 1971/26)
• Karst Mountains (1954), Behnhaus, Lübeck (Inv. No. 1955/81)
• City in Spain (around 1955), Behnhaus, Lübeck (Inv. No. 1956/45)
• The blind fisherman (1970), Behnhaus, Lübeck (Inv. No. 1970/39)
• Big Haystack (1935), Altona Museum
• The Battle of Bornhöved (1940), oil on canvas, 150 × 200 cm, Bornhöved Heimatarchiv

Book art

• Charles Baudelaire : The rejected one. Re-seals by Hans Havemann . With six original wood cuts by Curt Stoermer. Zweemann, Hannover 1920. In it the woodcuts:

The Destruction , p. 9

Corpse Dance , p. 21

The Vampire , p. 33

Confidence , p. 45

Song on the Falling Day , p. 57

The Abyss , p. 69

• Alfred Richard Meyer : The maer of the musa expressionistica. At the same time, a short quasi-literary history with over 130 practical examples. Die Faehre, Düsseldorf 1948. Illustrated cardboard volume after EL Kirchner and Curt Stoermer.

Fonts

• The exhibition of works by Paula Modersohn in the Folkwang Museum. in: Der Cicerone 5 (1913), p. 179 and p. 593
• Paula Modersohn. In: Der Cicerone 6 (1914), pp. 7-15
• P. Becker-Modersohn, catalog of their works. Paintings, studies, drawings and etchings. Worpswede: Horenverlag 1913
• The fate of the works of Paula Modersohn. In: Die Güldenkammer , 4 (1913), H. 1
• Memory of Modigliani. In: The Cross Section . 1931, pp. 387-390.

literature

• Abram B. Enns : Curt Stoermer - In search of one's own identity. In: Art and the bourgeoisie. Lübeck 1978, ISBN 3-7672-0571-8 , pp. 248-265; Bibliography Stoermer pp. 308-310.
• Horst Hannemann: Curt Stoermers watercolors. In: The car . 1986, pp. 184-196.
• Horst Hannemann: Stoermer, Curt. In: Alken Bruns (Ed.): Lübeck resumes. Wachholtz, Neumünster 1993, ISBN 3-529-02729-4 .
• Ursula Hannemann: The church window of St. Andreas in Schlutup. In: The car. 2006, pp. 110-120.
• Wulf Schadendorf : Museum Behnhaus . The house and its rooms. Painting, sculpture, handicrafts (= Lübeck museum catalogs 3). 2nd expanded and changed edition. Museum for Art a. Cultural history d. Hansestadt, Lübeck 1976, pp. 117–119

Web links

Commons : Curt Stoermer  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Curt Stoermer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Curt Stoermer  in the German Digital Library
• Search for Curt Stoermer in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation

Sources and Notes

1. ↑ But that was just adventure and an escape from an evil presence. quoted from Enns, p. 257
2. ↑ Illustration in Der Wagen 1931, p. 96 ff.
3. ↑ Entry in the database of Nazi confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art"
4. ↑ Entry in the database of Nazi confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art"
5. ↑ Entry in the database of Nazi confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art"
6. ↑ Entry in the database of Nazi confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art"
7. ↑ Entry in the database of Nazi confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art"
8. ↑ Entry in the database of Nazi confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art"
9. ↑ Entry in the online catalog
10. ↑ Entry in the online catalog
11. ↑ Ursula Hannemann: The battle of Bornhöved - A picture by Curt Stoermer. In: Lübeckische Blätter 2001, Heft 7, p. 104f
12. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies; Entry in the online catalog ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
13. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies; Entry in the online catalog ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
14. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies; Entry in the online catalog ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
15. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies; Entry in the online catalog ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ↑ Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, entry in the online catalog ( memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
17. ^ Los Angeles County Museum of Art , The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies; Entry in the online catalog ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.