Elisabeth Naomi Reuter

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Elisabeth Naomi Reuter: Self-Portrait
(Oil on Canvas Board 40 × 50 cm, 2014)

Elisabeth Naomi Reuter (born July 4, 1946 in Celle ; died November 8, 2017 in Berlin) was a German painter , illustrator and children's book author.

Career

Elisabeth Naomi Reuter studied graphics and painting at the Werkkunstschule Hannover with a scholarship from the city of Hannover . Her teachers included Umbo (Otto Maximilian Umbehr), Raimund Girke and Friedensreich Hundertwasser . Study trips took her to Amsterdam ( Rijksmuseum ), where she studied works by Old Masters in particular, as well as to Vienna and Paris. After graduating, she worked as a freelance artist. She worked as an illustrator for school and picture books, among others for Schroedel Verlag , Friedrich Verlag, and the magazine Spiele und Lern .

From 1974 to 2004 she lived in Oldenburg . In 1976 and 1977 she was a tutor for illustration at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg . From 1981 to 1985 she was in charge of the "Werkstattgalerie" on Bergstrasse in Oldenburg. From the mid-1980s she was a member of the Jewish group in Oldenburg and in 1992 a founding member of the Jewish community in Oldenburg .

Elisabeth Naomi Reuter has lived in Berlin since 2004 and has since worked exclusively in the field of freelance painting. In 2015 the Berlin publishing house Hentrich & Hentrich published a catalog for their work In the Center of Man . Also in 2015, her daughter Sarah Nemtsov and her husband Jascha Nemtsov opened the gallery and the space for art and discourse in Berlin-Charlottenburg, which presents Reuter's works in changing exhibitions.

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Children's books

From 1988 Elisabeth Naomi Reuter began creating illustrated books for children and young people as well as picture books with her own texts. First, Judith and Lisa ( Verlag Heinrich Ellermann , 1988) appeared about a friendship between a Jewish and a German girl during the National Socialist era . The book conveys current affairs to children aged six and over. It was one of the first picture books on this subject, has been translated into several languages ​​and has received a number of awards (including the English-language edition entitled Best Friends 1994 the Children's Book Council Prize ). Judith and Lisa can still be found in excerpts in some German school books.

Reuters book Christian (Verlag Heinrich Ellermann, 1989) tells of a boy suffering from leukemia and his fight against cancer. Marie and her mother ( Carlsen Verlag , 1991) discusses violence perpetrated by parents against children. Soham, a story of being a stranger (Verlag Heinrich Ellermann, 1993) addresses prejudice, exclusion and racism and, like Reuter's other books, is a stimulus for dialogue.

Free painting

Elisabeth Naomi Reuter's painting belongs to the New Objectivity , or Magical Realism . She is particularly interested in what she calls "literary images", which deal with the work and life of selected authors, including Franz Kafka , Bruno Schulz , Gertrud Kolmar , Edmond Jabès , Paul Celan , Thomas Mann , Virginia Woolf , Sylvia Plath , Walter Benjamin et al. Reuter is also concerned with whether and how the horror of the Shoah can be visualized, for example in her cycle Leerstellen (2010–2015). In her pictures of the last ten years, the focus is mostly on the person - a portrait, a face in different contexts.

Social grievances are discussed, the faces often lack a mouth as a sign of powerlessness and speechlessness, but the eyes are particularly expressive. There are only a few purely abstract works. Reuter works with different painting techniques : oil, colored pencil, pencil, pen, watercolor, tempera, acrylic, mixed media. Since 2007 she has mainly created oil paintings and drawings, and between 2012 and 2016 she created a number of sculptures made of wood glue and other materials.

“[...] precisely therein lies the mastery and size of these pictures. They attract us, they make us feel that we are really close to them. They create an aesthetic closeness, are our world - and this makes it clear that everything we see here in terms of strange, pain, loneliness and abyss is also and especially our own world. We walk through a mirror cabinet. The proximity of the images also shows that the alien, the unbearable, is also and precisely our own world. And as much as people love life, even if it is difficult and often terrible, we too have to love these images, even though they must stir us up and alienate us. "

- Karl Erich Grözinger

Publications (selection)

  • Elisabeth Naomi Reuter: The focus is on people - oil paintings and drawings. Publishing house Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2015.
  • Judith and Lisa. Ellermann Verlag, Munich 1988.
  • Best friends. Yellow Brick Road Press, New York / Jerusalem 1993.
  • Christian. Ellermann Verlag, Munich 1989.
  • Marie and her mother. Carlsen, Hamburg 1991.
  • Soham, a story of being a stranger. Ellermann Verlag, Munich, 1993
  • Merle without a mouth. Novel. Ellermann Verlag, Munich 1996.
  • Brain washing - power and arbitrariness in systemic psychotherapy according to Bert Hellinger. Antipsychiatrieverlag, Berlin 2005.
Illustrations for texts by other authors
  • And he called him Max. Text: Vera Leo-Straßer ua Eigenverlag, Oldenburg 1978.
  • The selfish giant. Text: Oscar Wilde. Coppenrath Verlag, Münster 1986.
  • Gnome nose. Text: Wilhelm Hauff. Coppenrath Verlag, Münster 1987.
  • Fly with the blue wind. Text: Christa Kerstiens. Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 1987.
  • Dragon, little dragon. Text: Rolf Krenzer. Real publishing house, Würzburg 1993.
  • Sebastian travels to Zanzibar. Text: Rolf Krenzer. Real publishing house, Würzburg 1995.
  • Carla - a story about epilepsy. Text: Silke Schröder. Ellermann Verlag, Munich 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary: Your art was a calling. In: Jüdische Allgemeine . November 16, 2017. Retrieved December 3, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The Jewish community has flourished for 25 years. Nordwest-Zeitung , August 9, 2017, accessed on October 29, 2017 .
  3. ↑ The new salons. In: Jüdische Allgemeine . June 11, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Picture book: Lost Friendship. Die Zeit , April 7, 1989, accessed October 29, 2017 .
  5. ↑ Elisabeth Naomi Reuter: The focus is on people. Verlag Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2015, p. 6.
personal data
SURNAME Reuter, Elisabeth Naomi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, illustrator and children's book author
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Celle
DATE OF DEATH November 8, 2017
Place of death Berlin