Else Lohmann

Else Lohmann (born August 29, 1897 in Bielefeld , † June 25, 1984 in Baarn , Holland ), full name: Elisabeth Emilie Lohmann-van der Feer Ladèr , was a painter of expressive realism .

Childhood and youth

Elisabeth Emilie Lohmann was born on August 29, 1897 in Bielefeld. Her parents were the manufacturer and founder Carl Lohmann (Lohmann Werke AG, a factory for vehicle lamps, bicycle saddles, auxiliary engines and suitcases) and his wife Fanny geb. Bensen. Else Lohmann grew up with four siblings in an artistically interested liberal family and started drawing as a child. After finishing school at the Ceciliengymnasium Bielefeld , she attended a daughter boarding school in Dresden, where an aunt lived. In Dresden she got to know the modern art movements and discovered the old masters like Rembrandt , Titian and Raffael in the city's museums . For a short time Else Lohmann returned to Bielefeld and attended the state-municipal craft school there . Only a little later she moved to Dresden again.

As a woman, she was denied regular studies at an art academy until the end of the First World War . So she only had to attend a private painting school . Like many other later artists ( Ilse Heller-Lazard , Florence Henri , Thea Hucke , Minna Köhler-Roeber , Karen Schacht ) she learned oil painting from 1916 with the landscape painter Johann Walter-Kurau (1869–1932) and then followed him at the end of the war from Dresden to Berlin. Although the master, who originally came from Jelgava in Latvia , had strongly influenced her painting style, from then on she developed her own expressive style, which was more based on Paula Modersohn-Becker or the painters of the artist group Brücke . Her apprenticeship in Dresden was short-lived because Walter-Kurau went to Berlin, where Else later followed him. She enjoyed her life as a painting student in Berlin: “It was a great time. I've seen the most beautiful exhibitions, experienced the most important artists of that time, they all sat in the Berlin Café des Westens. "

The concentration of Walter-Kurau's painting class was on landscape and portrait painting. Many small-format works were created en route on excursions into nature, mainly in the surrounding area and in Franconian Switzerland.

Marriage and life in the Netherlands

In 1921 Else Lohmann went on a trip to Italy with her mother. In Rome she met the Dutch art collector Cees van der Feer Ladèr, whom she married a little later. She brought a considerable dowry with her into the marriage, so that a representative good could be bought in Holland. Her husband Cees had little interest in modern painting, so raising their two children and running a large household took center stage. In the next few years only a few, less important works were created.

Second creative phase in the 1950s and rediscovery of her work

After her husband died in 1951, Else Lohmann experienced a second creative phase. Many of her pictures were taken on her travels in Holland and in southern Europe. In the Netherlands she exhibited in galleries and culture houses. She was discovered late in her German homeland. An exhibition of her works took place in Bielefeld in 1980 in the Jesse Gallery, to which she traveled herself. In 1983 pictures of her were shown in a group exhibition in the Kunsthalle Bielefeld . A year later Else Lohmann died on June 25, 1984 in Baarn in the Netherlands.

In the 1990s, many women artists of their generation were rediscovered. The Hidden Museum in Berlin dedicated a solo exhibition to her in 1991. On the occasion of the art exhibition for Johann Walter-Kurau's 140th birthday in 2009, in addition to his work, pictures by his painting students Else Lohmann, Minna Köhler-Roeber, Ilse Heller-Lazard and Eva Langkammer were shown in Jelgava / Latvia and Berlin.

She leaves behind an extensive, non-cataloged work of several hundred pictures and sketches that are distributed all over the world. Some important pictures from their estate have remained in the possession of the Lohmann / Heise family.

Works (selection)

• 1919: woman with hat
• 1919: female nude

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1977: Baarn painters' circle, Holland
• 1981: Galerie Jesse, Bielefeld
• 1983: Painting and graphics 1900–1933 , Kunsthalle Bielefeld

(posthumously)

• 1986: Retrospective solo exhibition: Else Lohmann , Museum Waldhof (Bielefeld)
• 1991: Else Lohmann: The Berlin years 1917–1921 , Women's Research, Education and Information Center eV ( Berlin )
• 2011: I am on the move. 50 painters of expressive realism , municipal gallery ada ( Meiningen )
• 2016: A painter from Bielefeld: Else Lohmann, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, November 17, 2016 - March 30, 2017
• 2017: Else Lohmann, gouaches, drawings, sketches, Galerie Kunstraum Rampe, Bielefeld, 12.2. - 5.3.2017

literature

• Nicole Seidensticker-Delius: Else Lohmann - color confessions. The painterly work of the Bielefeld artist. Westfalen-Verlag, Bielefeld 1991, ISBN 3-88918-066-3 .
• Christina Wittler: Late recognition. The painter Else Lohmann (1897–1984). In: Bärbel Sunderbrink (Ed.): Women in Bielefelder History. Publishing house for regional history, Bielefeld 2010, ISBN 978-3-89534-795-5 , pp. 233-240.
• Bielefelder Kunstverein (ed.): Else Lohmann (1897–1984). Paintings, drawings. Exhibition catalog, Bielefeld 1986.
• Gisela Breitling : The glow and coolness of the landscape. The expressionist painter Else Lohmann. In: MuseumsJournal, 5, 1991, No. 4.
• Ingrid von der Dollen: Painters in the 20th Century. Visual art of the "lost generation". Years of birth 1890–1910. Munich 2000.
• Ralf Hartmann: Between the Baltic States and Berlin. The painter Johann Walter-Kurau (1869–1932) as an artist and teacher. Halle / Saale 2009.
• Hans-J. Lohmann, Dr. Michael Wilde: Else Lohmann, paintings, drawings, sketches 1915–1980, 106 pages, for the exhibition Bielefelder Kunsthalle 2016

Web links

• Personal entry (GND) for Else Lohmann DNB 11906586X in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials on Else Lohmann in the Internet portal `` Westfälische Geschichte '' (accessed on October 3, 2012)
• www.hjloh.net - website of Else Lohmann Freunde eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Flyer of the ada exhibition with picture woman with hat, 1919 (accessed on October 3, 2012; PDF; 1.7 MB)
2. ↑ Exhibition poster in the FFBIZ archive (accessed on October 3, 2012)