Ekkehart Stark

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Ekkehart Stark, 2013

Ekkehart Stark (born February 28, 1947 in Waldheim ) is a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Ekkehart Stark grew up in Kriebstein and completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Waldheim from 1961 , followed by studies in Dresden at the University of Fine Arts . From 1973 he was the first theater painter at the opera house in Karl-Marx-Stadt (Chemnitz) . In addition to free painting and graphics, the focus of his commercial work since 1980 has been on product design for Florena Cosmetic Waldheim , as well as the design of logos for companies as well as numerous church seals for the Saxon regional church and coats of arms for cities and communities, as well as the François Maher Presley Foundation for art and culture or the Telemann Foundation in Hamburg. In 1989 he was accepted into the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR . In 1990 Ekkehart Stark joined the Association of German Graphic Designers. He has been working as a freelance artist since 2005. In 2005, Stark founded the Kriebstein Art Circle. He is a sponsor of the François Maher Presley Foundation for Art and Culture and was the Foundation Ambassador from January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2019.

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A graphic by Ekkehart Stark: Coat of arms of the Kriebstein community

William Turner is one of the models of the painter Ekkehart Stark. But there are big differences between the role model and the Stark. In contrast to Turner, Stark leaves the "original". He doesn't change the landscape; In his views of cities he does not shift or distort any buildings, he only abstracts to the extent that the watercolouring itself brings about a change, an abstraction, which he later tries to keep in check - with precisely placed lines. The depiction of empty and old barns, houses or harbors shows - despite the rather free technology - the proximity to reality and its dimensions.

His basic attitude, however, remains to see the world, not to create it anew or to show possibilities to shape it, but to choose the language that creates connections between representation and feeling in the viewer of his works. Stark sees this connection between the artist and the environment, between himself and other people, as a social process that relies more on the security of one's own emotional world than on risk and departure.

This may be due to the vita of the artist, whose life was shaped in the GDR and the system that ruled there. If a new beginning had been possible at the turn of the century, it would have been the living conditions that brought the economic to the fore, although the thousand images of a "new" world were tempting, but just as strange and not conveying any security - especially not for those People who made commitments, not just to themselves, but to their families as well. Already in the SED state, Stark got to know the "hope" for improvement and change, and it sometimes had a lot to do with the democratic promise that is now reflected in many colorful images and alleged possibilities - both of which are hardly tangible, not really, very often very abstract, often enough unreal and unfulfilled - overwhelming, but still unfulfilled. Strong the observer, sometimes the one who only observes from the outside, sometimes the uninvolved, the withdrawn, the lonely, but also - the one who secures on his own way. His promise of a here and now is instantly fulfilled. He immediately records his feelings for this in his work. But with the change came the change for Stark's painting as well. Now it was possible to discover centuries-old cities while traveling, to visit architecture and museums, to understand man-made works of art in them, even retrospectively the developments in painting, to orientate oneself and thus to get closer on the way, to meet one's security needs, but not to seek external security, but to find internal security.

Ekkehart Stark is not only inspired by man-made things. It is also the perfect creative power of nature - birth, life, death, the blooming of flowers and their withering, their decay, the faces of young people, their development and the many wrinkles in old age that authentically trace a life, often give much more information than words could. Strongly likes age, the decay, which he regards as a natural and therefore also beautiful, interesting process, whether the autumn landscape with its great play of colors, the fading of a flower, the expressive faces of old people or the decay of buildings that are new originated, used, revitalized and now become unnecessary, abandoned, decayed and whose "slow death" also gives birth to new things - new insights and views, different colors, changing material, later forming a unit again - with the one that takes over them Nature, - as the basis for a new creation - a return.

Ekkehart Stark does not want to overload his painting, rather he tends to underwhelm his viewer. So he renounced a social or political message. That was different once; In the period between 1962 and 1989 the artist ventures into his works, he contradicts as far as it was possible in the GDR, he questions and leaves his aversion to the system, which he understands as an unjust regime, one that is not alone wants to determine his life, even his thoughts and actions, run free in his art. This behavior had consequences for the exhibitions at that time, but it was also important for Stark, despite the constant external pressure to remain himself, to be true to his natural resistance. Ekkehart Stark did not fit into the socialist petty bourgeois muff, and that was not what he wanted either. This stranger in his own country later led to his participation in the demonstrations against the regime, against the system, against the lack of freedom of the mind. He felt the following turning point as "putting the world in order". His fight seemed won. His goal was achieved. His work is now dedicated to freedom - the freedom to travel the world, to see it, to look at it critically, but also to look at it openly and to feel great pleasure in what he saw for the first time in his life.

But again the statements of his work have changed since 2015, especially his drawings - develop back to the beginning, not representational, but nevertheless with regard to the intention. Again Ekkehart Stark feels a stranger in his country. Again he wants to vent. Again he opposes the system, asks, underlines, demands. And again he knows that he will be deprived of the fact that systems simply do not provide for them to be changed, certainly not as an individual and that it will take many decades to do so.

The cover picture of the book Waldheim Top 25 , on which Stark worked, is owned by the Stadt- und Museumshaus in Waldheim, in whose collection it is on display.

Exhibitions

  • 1975 Schauspielhaus Chemnitz
  • 1985 Kriebstein Castle
  • 1986 Hainichen cultural center
  • 1989 Kriebethal cultural center
  • 1995 Waldheim Town Hall
  • 2002 Old rectory in Mittweida
  • 2006 VHS Mittweida
  • 2007 Buch monastery
  • 2009 Small Gallery Döbeln
  • 2010 Altenhain Castle
  • 2011 Gut Haferkorn Dobernitz
  • 2011 Kunsthof Sobrigau
  • 2011 Small Gallery Döbeln
  • 2012 Freiberg District Office
  • 2013 Hartha City Library
  • 2014 Triebe Lichtenwalde Gallery
  • 2014 Roßwein town hall
  • 2015 cultural industry Schlawutzke Döbeln
  • 2017 Waldheim Town Hall
  • 2017 Small Gallery Döbeln

Group exhibitions

  • 2013 Kunstschranne Weißenburg (By)
  • 2016 Rochlitz Town Hall
  • 2016 Centro Arte Monte Onore eV Ehrenberg
  • 2018 Gallery of the François Maher Presley Foundation for Art and Culture, Waldheim

Publications

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ekkehart Stark - Watercolors & Painting. Weißenburg in Bavaria
  2. ^ François Maher Presley Foundation for Art and Culture
  3. ↑ Telemann Foundation ( Memento of the original dated August 24, 2017 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.telemann-stiftung.de
  4. ↑ We would like to thank the supporters of the foundation ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2016 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. . François Maher Presley Foundation for Art and Culture  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.francois-maher-presley.com
  5. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung: Spendable Waldheimers enrich Presley Foundation for Art and Culture. 10/26/2016
  6. ↑ Ekkehart Stark: watercolor, oil, drawing. Foreword by François Maher Presley , Kriebstein / Waldheim 2016, published by in-Cultura.com , Hamburg 2016. ISBN 978-3-930-727-70-4
personal data
SURNAME Strong, Ekkehart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Waldheim