Edmund Kesting

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Edmund Kesting (born July 27, 1892 in Dresden ; † October 21, 1970 in Birkenwerder ) was a German painter , graphic artist , photographer and art teacher . He is one of the representatives of informal painting .

life and work

Born in Dresden in 1892 as the son of a municipal police secretary, Kesting studied painting and sculpture in his hometown from 1911 at the arts and crafts school under Friedrich Erich Kleinhempel , Ermenegildo Antonio Donadini and Richard Guhr . From 1915 he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts with Richard Müller . From 1915 to 1918 he took part in the First World War in France. He then continued his studies as a master student of Otto Gussmann . In 1919 Kesting founded the private art school Der Weg - School for Design . Temporarily studied there a. a. Lea Langer . In 1921 he met Herwarth Walden and began to work in the storm .

Constructivist works and cut collages have been created since 1920 . He made oil paintings , watercolors and gouaches . In 1922 Kesting married his student Gerda Müller. There were close contacts with avant-garde artists such as Kurt Schwitters , László Moholy-Nagy , El Lissitzky , Alexander Archipenko and others. Kesting was particularly impressed by Schwitter's work. From 1923 on he took part in the exhibitions of the "Sturm" group.

From around 1925 he was more intensively involved with photography. He tried out experimental photo techniques such as multiple exposures , photograms and negative montages; Kesting used cameras with large screen formats. In 1926 the Berlin school Der Weg and the Society of Storm Friends were founded in Dresden. Kesting was now also internationally successful. He took part in exhibitions in Moscow and New York. The Museum of Modern Art purchased cut collages from him. He began with the multiple exposures, in which he explored the expressive possibilities of photography. Since 1930 Kesting has been taking portraits and dance photography. At the beginning of the 1930s he joined the German Werkbund . His first house searches were carried out in 1933; Kesting then destroyed some of his works. In the following years he worked as an advertising photographer for photo and car companies. In 1936, Kesting was banned from painting and exhibiting, which did not affect photography. In the following year twelve of his works were removed from museums as " degenerate art "; In the following years he photographed architecture in Dresden and documented the art treasures in the Green Vault . Kesting developed a technique of "chemical painting" in which he experimented with photographic substances on light-sensitive paper using various painting and scratching techniques.

Together with Karl von Appen , Helmut Schmidt-Kirstein , Hans Christoph and others, Kesting founded the artist group der ruf - Liberated Art in Dresden in 1945 . In 1945/46 after the destruction of Dresden, a series of experimental photographic works was created with the title Dresdner Totentanz , which is based on the famous Renaissance relief . Kesting was appointed to the Academy for Werkkunst in Dresden in 1946; he took over the management of the photography and film training workshop. He was dismissed just one year later, whereupon he turned to Berlin and in 1948 became head of the photography class at the University of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee . In 1953 he was dismissed without notice as part of the formalism dispute . In 1955 he was appointed to the University of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg as a "lecturer for the camera department"; he was in 1960 emeritus . At the end of the 1950s he worked as a celebrity photographer, and in 1958 he published his book A Painter Sees Through's Lens .

1960 his seized works returned from the Soviet Union . He was commissioned to photograph the members of the Akademie der Künste . The construction of his summer house in Ahrenshoop , made famous by its artists' colony , began in 1961. Kesting stayed on the Darß and Fischland in the coming summers . The landscape inspired him to numerous works.

Edmund Kesting died in Birkenwerder near Berlin in 1970 , where he had moved in 1948. There was no exhibition of his works in the GDR between 1949 and 1959, and Kesting's work did not receive official recognition until around 1980.

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

During his lifetime

  • 1916 Kunsthandlung Emil Richter , Dresden (first personal exhibition after oral testimony)
  • 1919 Galerie Arnold , Dresden (together with Carl Piepho)
  • 1923 Galerie "der Sturm", Berlin (together with Bela Kádár and others)
  • 1931/32 art school "Der Weg", Dresden (together with teachers and students)
  • 1959 Art Exhibition Kühl , Dresden (60 watercolors 1919–1943)
  • 1960 Kunstausstellung Kühl, Dresden (drawings and watercolors rescued and returned by the Soviet Union)
  • 1962 Municipal art collections , Karl-Marx-Stadt
  • 1966 art exhibition Kühl, Dresden
  • 1964 Bunte Stube, Ahrenshoop
  • 1967 Town Hall, Birkenwerder
  • 1969 Municipal art collections , Görlitz

Posthumous exhibitions

  • 1972 Galleria del Levante, Milan and Munich (art school "Der Weg")
  • 1980 Gallery at Sachsenplatz, Leipzig
  • 1982 Art exhibition Kühl, Dresden
  • 1983 Galerie Stolz, Cologne (The founders of the "Weg-Schule")
  • 1983 Hans Marchwitza Culture House, Potsdam
  • 1988/89 Albertinum , Dresden
  • 1992 Döbele Gallery, Stuttgart
  • 2003 Kunstkaten, Ahrenshoop
  • 2005 Waldhof Gallery, Birkenwerder
  • 2012 Gallery of the Berlin Graphic Press, Berlin

Collective exhibitions

  • 1916 Galerie Arnold , Dresden (second exhibition of Dresden artists who are in the army)
  • 1920 and 1921 Lennéstraße, Dresden (Dresden Artists' Association summer exhibition)
  • 1924 1st General German Art Exhibition, Moscow and Leningrad
  • 1926 exhibitions in Moscow, New York and Berlin
  • 1930 The photograph. International exhibition, Munich
  • 1932 Sächsischer Kunstverein , Dresden (1st exhibition of the Dresden Secession 1932 )
  • 1936 Dresden art exhibition, Dresden
  • 1945 Green House, Dresden (the call - liberated art)
  • 1946 Nordhalle, Dresden ( First General German Art Exhibition )
  • 1949 Brandenburg State Art Exhibition , Potsdam
  • 1959 State Gallery Moritzburg , Halle (Artistic Photography in Dresden)
  • 1961 Orangery in Charlottenburg Palace , Berlin (Der Sturm - European avant-garde 1912–1932)
  • 1966 Kunstmuseum, Bern ( Nell Walden . Collection and own works)
  • 1967 Lenbachhaus , Munich (collage 67)
  • 1970 Tate Gallery , London (The non objective world 1914–1924)
  • 1975 State Museums, Berlin (The collage in the GDR)
  • 1979 Altes Museum , Berlin (companions - contemporaries. Visual arts from three decades)
  • 1980 Berlin exhibition center at the television tower (Berlin art. Retrospective. Painting, graphics, sculpture)
  • 1980 Berlinische Galerie (art in Berlin. Around 1930 to 1960)
  • 1985 Albertinum, Dresden (Dresden. Confession and commitment)
  • 1988 Country Museum of Art, Los Angeles

literature

Publications

  • Dresden as it was , Rembrandt-Verlag, Berlin 1955
  • A painter looks through the lens , Fotokino Verlag, Halle 1958
  • Chorin: Shape and history of a Cistercian monastery , St. Benno-Verlag, Leipzig 1962

Secondary literature

  • Klaus Werner (ed.): Edmund Kesting: A painter photographs , Fotokinoverlag, Leipzig 1987
  • Edmund Kesting: paintings, drawings and colored sheets, graphics, photographs; Exhibition in the Albertinum, November 1, 1988 - January 3, 1989 , Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden 1989
  • Guenter Roese (Ed.): Edmund Kesting, in the light of the north: Pictures from the seaside and coastal land , MCM-Art-Verlag, Berlin 2003
  • Short biography for:  Kesting, Edmund . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography of Edmund Kesting
personal data
SURNAME Kesting, Edmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1970
Place of death Birkenwerder