Dieter M. Weidenbach

Dieter Morales Weidenbach (born October 22, 1945 in Stendal ) is a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Dieter M. Weidenbach grew up in the first years of his life on the edge of the town of Stendal, which was spared from the war. In 1951 his father was released from captivity and the family returned to their ancestral home in Weißenfels . A year later his father died. As a student, Weidenbach was a competitive athlete, but had to give up this career due to a sports equipment accident. Since then he has focused his interest primarily on art.

Weidenbach attended advanced secondary school , passed his Abitur in 1964 and began studying history and art history at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig . In 1966 he was deregistered there , worked the summer as an unskilled worker and began studying graphics, painting and book illustration at the Leipzig College of Graphics and Book Art in September . He spent the winter semester 1968/1969 as a participant in a study exchange program at the Polygraphic Institute in Moscow . After the birth of their daughter Claudia (* 1969), he married the painter Helga Melges in 1970 . In 1971 he finished his studies with a diploma as a painter and graphic artist and from then on worked as a freelance artist in Weißenfels.

A first highlight of his travels was a study trip to Egypt in 1974. Willi Sitte , professor at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle , accepted Weidenbach as a master student in 1977. In 1979 a study trip to France followed.

In 1980 his wife Helga did not return from a trip to Austria . In the years 1980–1982 Weidenbach held a teaching position at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Applied Sciences in Halle . After finishing this teaching activity, Weidenbach chose Weimar as a new place of work and moved with his daughter to Thuringia. Three years later, his application for permanent departure from the GDR was approved, so that Weidenbach left the former GDR in 1985 and moved with daughter Claudia to West Berlin on the immediate inner-German border . Now able to travel without restrictions, Weidenbach spent a long time in Italy in 1986 and in the south of France in 1988 .

After German reunification , Weidenbach moved back to Weimar in 1993, where the artist still lives today. In 2000 he was given a teaching position at the University of Applied Sciences in Erfurt , and in 2001 his second daughter Agnes Sophie Paola was born.

Artistic creation

His first exhibition took place in 1966 in the Kulturbund Weißenfels and brought Weidenbach attention. However, it not only attracted attention, accompanied by benevolence, but also the interest of the GDR State Security . In May 1980, a doctor treating him drew up an extensive protocol as an IM of the State Security about his visits to and discussions with Weidenbach, in which he described in detail Weidenbach's pictures and fears. The picture chivalrous pleasure from the etching sequence 10 chivalrous chants was described as follows:

"... a goose-step, naked, parading general, wrinkled old, depicted, somewhat stupid, erect penis and obvious pleasure in the display of his power ..."

The painting Unterwegs , created in 1976, describes the painter's path from village to town. He throws his gaze back at the village, where a grotesquely exaggerated fair and a wedding party take place. The figure of the scurrying painter seems to be influenced by Hieronymus Bosch . The painting was bought in 1978 by the Dresden State Art Collections for the Neue Meister gallery .

Weidenbach's works are largely nudes and landscape pictures, but the painter also often worked through his own life and the turning point of the GDR, which was in the process of dissolution. In 1998/1999 some of these works were exhibited under the title Wende - Reflections in the Kleinsassen art station . In general, Weidenbach's works are characterized by a broad spectrum, as an expression of the fact that the artist did not allow himself to be restricted and that he expresses his restlessness and wide range of thoughts.

In addition to numerous exhibitions in Weimar, the artist's work has been shown several times in exhibitions in Weißenfels as well as in Berlin, Cologne, Aachen, Dresden and Saarland, among others.

Works (selection)

• Self-portrait as a student , 1965, woodcut
• The temptation of the painter Mathias Grunewald , 1975, oil on canvas
• Unterwegs , 1976, oil on hardboard , owned by Galerie Neue Meister Dresden
• Etching sequence 10 Ritterliche Gesänge , 1977–1980, aquatint , line etching
• Titanic, a permanent fall , 1998, triptych, oil on canvas
• Girl with a mirror , 2000, oil on canvas

literature

• Hallescher Kunstverein (ed.): Dieter M. Weidenbach, Weimar, painting 1985–1995 . Hall 1995, DNB 946527350 .
• Ralf-Michael Seele (Ed.): Dieter Morales Weidenbach, associations, fragments, irritations, painting, prints, drawings 1976–1998 . Meiningen 1998, ISBN 3-930675-16-1 .
• Oda Beuschel (ed.): A painter friendship 1962–1980: "... and hide your pain ..." . Weißenfels 2005, DNB 989125033 .
• Christof Baier, Reimund Frentzel (ed.): On the way. Interpretations in the light of art criticism. Quintus-Verlag , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-947215-25-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Dieter M. Weidenbach in the catalog of the German National Library
• Web presence with works and biography on kunstmarkt.com
• www.dieter-weidenbach.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Angelo Brüning: Is he a Weissenfelser? in: Exhibition catalog Heinrich-Schütz-Haus Weißenfels 1994.
2. ↑ Biography on kunstmarkt.com ( Memento of the original dated December 7, 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. , As of March 2009.  
3. ↑ ^{a b} Protocol of an IM of the Ministry for State Security. In: Exhibition catalog Heinrich-Schütz-Haus Weißenfels 1994.
4. ↑ Virtual Gallery Dresden as of March 2009.
5. ^ Exhibition in the Kleinsassen art station as of March 2009.