Dieter Masuhr

Dieter Masuhr (born March 11, 1938 in Rosenberg , West Prussia ; † January 24, 2015 in Berlin ) was a German painter , writer , typographer and translator of Latin American poetry.

biography

Dieter Masuhr was born on March 11, 1938 in Rosenberg (West Prussia) and grew up in Rengsdorf in the Westerwald . In 1954/55 he visited the city of Pittsburgh in the USA on a student scholarship . Between 1956 and 1958 he completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter with a subsequent journeyman's examination, and in 1957 he made up his Abitur. For Masuhr he studied painting with Herrmann Kasper in Munich and Hann Trier in Berlin, at the same time he studied architecture, which he graduated as a qualified engineer - then he worked as a freelance painter.

From 1960 to 1965 he and his brother Karl Friedrich Masuhr organized the scene 60 , annual culture weeks, where, among other things, theaters by Frisch, Ionesco and Moliere were presented, new art was exhibited and author readings were held. In 1965 Masuhr worked as an assistant for the sculptor David Slivka in New York, and he also traveled to Mexico, where he learned Spanish. In 1967 he joined the Rote Nelke artists' association . Two years later he traveled to Indonesia , where he learned the local language and where he had his first encounter with Chinese calligraphy in Singapore (which would influence his later work). In 1971 he published the group portrait of Friends Discussing! about a debate regarding Mao Zedong . In 1972 and 1973 he was responsible for the illustration of two works by Nicolas Born, followed by the illustration of other books, the draft of their typography and the overall equipment.

In 1973 he was a prize winner in the Art in Schools competition in Berlin, and until 1976 he was responsible for running school calendars in five schools (on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior). In 1974 he was responsible for the exhibition management of the Free Berlin Art Exhibition , he remained a member until 1989. At the same time he was spokesman for the Realism Studio of the New Society for Fine Art from 1972 to 1979 and was represented on its board. From 1976 on he worked on the magazine for culture and politics Berliner Hefte . From 1976 to 1980 he was on the board of the professional association of visual artists.

From 1980 Dieter Masuhr translated Latin American poetry ( Gioconda Belli , Lezema Lima, Gonzalo Rojas , Nicanor Parra ). In 1981 he made the group portrait OH 45 of the squatters of the house at Oranienstrasse No. 45. In 1985 he started a series of paintings on the theme of love. A year later, 150 subjects followed for the world exhibition in Vancouver - they were portraits of well-known Germans for a wall calendar on behalf of the federal government. In 1987 he visited Riga at the invitation of the Latvian Artists 'Association Artist in residence , and one year later an international artists' meeting in Estonia.

In 1989 he furnished the book The Discovery of West India with original graphics using film scribing technology, and in 1990 he made the picture Tanzen I and II about the opening of the Berlin Wall. In 1991 he also illustrated the reading book Fidibus and Übermut as well as the work The trace of your blood in the snow . In 1992 he moved from Berlin to Falkensee in Brandenburg. In 1994 he worked as a driver of aid transports to the besieged Bosnian province of Bihać. There he made pen drawings of Bosnians and Serbs, together with the story A trip to Bihac in Rotpunktverlag were published. In 1996 he founded the Falkensee Cultural Society. In the following three years Masuhr made 28 portraits of actors from the German theater. During a trip through the Mark Brandenburg in 1998, he portrayed today's Brandenburg nobility with pen and ink. A year later Masuhr made a group portrait of 16 actors under the title The Blue Bird . In 2000 he participated with a basic concept for a wayfinding system and sculptures (art in architecture) for the residential area Neudöberitz-Dallgow-Döberitz. In the following year he made the set for the play Glatzer or the hectic standstill for the theater of the city of Brandenburg. In 2005 he was responsible for the children's book Zille or the secret of the blue woman .

Masuhr visited abroad several times, e.g. B. 1961 and 1962 East Africa, where he learned Swahili, among other things . From 1973 to 1978 he toured Korea , Taiwan , Indonesia , Burma , Bhutan , New Guinea and Mexico . In 2003 he traveled to Palestine and Israel , which resulted in the book People in Palestine, Drawn by the Intifada , and a year later he made ink portraits of the local population on a trip to Cuba. In December 2004, when he was in Ukraine, he finally made 100 portraits of the Orange Revolution .

Nicaragua and the civil war there were of great interest to Masuhr . After a trip to the rebellious country in 1978, he then worked on a television film about President Somoza . In 1979 he portrayed several Sandinista guerrillas , which resulted in the book Die Augen der Guerrilleros , which was also published in 1984 as a Spanish edition in Managua and in 1989 in Japanese in Tokyo . Also in 1979 he worked on the establishment of Sandinista television. The picture Masked Ball at the Shah was also created - an allegory of the dictatorship. From 1982 to 1983 he was a lecturer in painting, art theory and history at the Art School in Managua, at the same time he was in the service of the Foreign Office for two years. In 1983 he published the group portrait Nine Nicaraguan Poets , followed a year later by No pasaran I-III , large-format pictures about the Nicaraguan revolution.

From 1973 onwards, he was a public relations consultant for the Rengsdorf council (where he grew up) for several years . From 1992 to 2005 he gave free painting courses for young people in his studio on Sundays. From 1993 onwards (also until 2005) there were monthly invitations from guests to the stove in the garden for philosophical, artistic and political discussions.

After falling ill in 2006, he died on January 24, 2015 at the age of 76 in Berlin. His urn was buried on February 20, 2015 in the Luisenstadt cemetery in Berlin-Kreuzberg .

painting

The two guiding principles of the painter Masuhr are Sensuous Painting and sensuous painting .This he sits with tight strokes around. Masuhr also portrayed prominent writers ( Isabel Allende , Gioconda Belli , Sergio Ramírez , José Coronel Urtecho , Kenzaburō Ōe ), scientists ( Joseph Weizenbaum ) and politicians ( Antje Vollmer and Anke Martiny ).

Exhibitions

• 1960 Scene 60, Neuwied
• 1967 Natubs Berlin Gallery
• 1967 Apex Gallery, Göttingen
• 1968 shop gallery, Berlin
• 1975 Middle Rhine Museum, Koblenz
• 1976 Hülsch-Eisbrüggen Gallery, Berlin
• 1977 Gallery at Savignyplatz, Berlin
• 1977 Nuremberg
• 1978 Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
• 1979 Rudkobing, Denmark
• 1979 NGBK realism studio, Berlin
• 1980 Kunstverein Zürich, Bremen, Heidelberg
• 1980 Galerie Mehring, Berlin
• 1981 New Society for Fine Arts, Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin
• 1983 Casa F. Cordillo Managua, Nicaraguan Artists Association
• 1984 APEX gallery in Göttingen, Berlin, Stuttgart, Heilbronn, Singen
• 1985 house on Lützowplatz, Berlin;
• 1985 House in Körnerpark, Berlin
• 1986 Off Gallery, Berlin
• 1987 Evmaros Gallery, Athens with Goethe Institute
• 1988 Telnieku Nams, Riga; Berlin
• 1988 Bridge Gallery Traben-Trarbach
• 1988 Galerie Fischer-Reinhardt, Berlin
• 1989 Medart Gallery, Zell
• 1991 Galerie Fischer-Reinhardt, Berlin
• 1992 Falkensee Museum, Berlin
• 1993 Galerie Fischer Reinhardt, Berlin
• 1993 Wallufer Sternhaus, Walluf
• 1994 Falkensee Museum
• 1995 Municipal Gallery Mennonite Church, Neuwied
• 1996 Trinkhaus & Burkhaus, Berlin
• 1997 Galerie Fischer-Reinhard, Berlin
• 1998 Falkensee Museum
• 2000 TSB Technology Foundation, Berlin
• 2001 EP gallery Düsseldorf, gallery Linienstraße, Berlin
• 2002 Galerie Goerz, Luxembourg
• 2003 Galerie Thea Fischer Reinhardt, Berlin and MedArtForum, Zell, Schloß
• 2005 Nauen cultural center
• 2006 Municipal Gallery Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, Berlin, work show
• 2007 Museum Waldemarturm, Dannenberg, Lüchow
• 2009 Art Association Dorsten
• 2010 Museum Kleve, Art Association Emmerich

Participation in group exhibitions (selection)

• 1961 Form and Color, Koblenz
• 1962 shape and color2; KOBLENZ
• 1967 Great Berlin art exhibition
• 1971–1990 Free Berlin Art Exhibition
• 1971 German Association of Artists
• 1974 NGBK realism studio
• 1975 New Gallery, Aachen
• 1977 "30 years of BBK", Berlin
• 1986 German Association of Artists
• 1989 Ilmjärve, Tallinn, Estonia
• 1990 "War and Art", Berlin
• 1992 Interferences, Riga, St. Petersburg
• 1995 Döberitzer Heide symposium
• 2003 West Wendish Art Association
• 2005 Falkensee Museum

Catalogs

• Dieter Masuhr: Masuhr: pictures, drawings, poems. Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum of the city of Duisburg from July 14th to August 27th 1978
• Dieter Masuhr, Nicaragua: Hand drawings from the war and the victory over Somoza ; November 9 to December 14, 1979, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst e. V., Berlin 1979
• Ulla Frohne (edit.), Dieter Masuhr: Masuhr: beautiful pictures; [ed. for the exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien from June 30th to August 16th 1981 by d. Neue Ges. Für Bildende Kunst (Realism Studio) ud Künstlerhaus Bethanien] / NGBK , Berlin 1981
• Masuhr: Catalog for the exhibition of the municipal gallery Mennonite Church Neuwied with stories from 1995
• Dieter Masuhr: Portraits of the time for the exhibition of the municipal gallery Berlin, 2006

Illustrations

• Nicolas Born : the eye of the discoverer. Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1972, ISBN 3-499-25021-7 . (Drawings by Dieter Masuhr)
• Nicolas Born : Oton and Iton: Adventure in the 4th Dimension. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1973, ISBN 3-499-20042-2 . (Pictures by Dieter Masuhr)
• Sergio Ramírez : On the President's pleasure. Peter Hammer Verlag, 1981.
• Sergio Ramírez: The Trail of the Caballeros. Structure Verlag, 1981
• Peter Schultze-Kraft (ed.): The mountains behind the mountains: stories from Latin America. Beltz and Gelberg, Weinheim 1983, ISBN 3-407-80122-X . (Drawings by Dieter Masuhr)
• Martin Kurbjuhn: State guests. Mariannenpresse, Berlin-Kreuzberg 1988, ISBN 3-922510-43-4 . ('Portraits of Dieter Masuhr, one-time edition of 200 Arabic numbered and signed copies and 30 Roman numbered artist's copies )
• Gabriel García Márquez : The trail of your blood in the snow. Kiepenheuer and Witsch, Cologne 1992 (illustration by Dieter Masuhr)
• Theodor Fontane : The Stechlin. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-7632-4800-5 . (Drawings by Dieter Masuhr)

Publications

• Dieter Masuhr: The eyes of the guerrillas. Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-7632-2412-2 .
• Dieter Masuhr: Fidibus and high spirits. Faber and Faber, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-928660-04-7 ; Gutenberg Book Guild, Frankfurt am Main 1993
• Dieter Masuhr: A trip to Biha'c: a story with drawings. Rotpunktverlag, Zurich 1994, ISBN 3-85869-098-8 ; Müller, Salzburg 1994, ISBN 3-7013-0898-5 .
• Dieter Masuhr: People in Palestine: Drawn by the Intifada - drawings and reports of people and their lives in Palestine. Melzer, Neu-Ilsenburg 2005, ISBN 3-937389-54-7 .
• Dieter Masuhr: Zille or the secret of the blue woman. Traumland-Verlag, Schloß Holte-Stuckenbrock, ISBN 3-934555-15-2 .

He has also written short stories in various literary magazines (e.g. Die Countess Ciprano ), poems and essays, for example About the differences between photography and painting (Essay, 1997), Allegory (Essay, 1998), About film mezzotint and the book “The discovery West India " .

Web links

• Literature by and about Dieter Masuhr in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website by Dieter Masuhr
• Short biography and information on the work of Dieter Masuhr at Literaturport
• Dieter Masuhr archive in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Painter and author Dieter Masuhr is dead. In: Berliner Zeitung of February 7, 2015 (accessed on February 7, 2015).
2. ^ Obituary notice in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , February 14, 2015. Accessed February 18, 2019.