Emil Schulz-Sorau

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Emil Schulz-Sorau (born June 8, 1901 in Reinswalde near Sorau , Niederlausitz; † November 3, 1989 in Bad Salzuflen ) was a nationally known painter and graphic artist.

Life

Emil Schulz-Sorau was born on June 8, 1901 in Reinswalde near Sorau in Niederlausitz . His father recognized his son's talent at an early stage and encouraged him to the best of his ability. After attending elementary school, he switched to middle school, which he left after the 10th grade to study at the University of Textile Art in Sorau. Then he trained as a primary school teacher. After the first state examination, he did not find employment as a teacher. At the age of 20 he changed his name by adding Sorau as the place of his origin. As a budding artist, he probably wanted to distinguish himself from the numerous bearers of the same or similar name.

From 1921 to 1925 he studied at the Breslau Art Academy as a student of Otto Mueller and Oskar Moll . After completing his studies, he was employed as a primary school teacher in Steinseiffen in the Giant Mountains . In his spare time he worked as a freelance artist. In addition, the government of Lower Silesia entrusted him with the task of equipping the schools with works by local painters. Exhibitions of his own pictures and printed reproductions in specialist newspapers increased his level of awareness among interested art lovers. As a young artist he was invited to the Wiesenstein house of the writer Gerhart Hauptmann for his readings.

The Second World War began for Schulz-Sorau as a soldier in 1938 with the invasion of German troops into the Sudetenland. By the end of the war in 1945 he had seen many theaters of war and suffered several serious wounds. His family was expelled from the Giant Mountains and all his artistic work was lost. In May 1945 he became an American prisoner of war and came to Bad Salzuflen by chance. There he jumped near an English military truck that was supposed to take him further east. In Bad Salzuflen he built up a new existence in the form of his own painting school, and this began a new phase of life and work for him. The artist discovered the nature of the Lippe landscape, which he drew or painted on site.

From 1949 to 1968 Schulz-Sorau was chairman of the Lippischer Künstlerbund , and in 1952 he got a job as an art teacher at the Engelbert-Kaempfer-Gymnasium in Lemgo . In addition, he was active in the adult education center and at the Lippe University of Applied Sciences and can be considered one of the most important Lippe artists of the 20th century. The artist and committed educator was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on Ribbon in 1981 , and in 1986 he was a cultural prize winner from the Lippe Regional Association .

Schulz-Sorau died in Bad Salzuflen in 1989 at the age of 88.

plant

His work is characterized by striking contours, contrasting colors and the use of light. As with the Impressionists , light plays an important role in his pictures. He mastered the most diverse painting techniques and materials, such as pencil , charcoal , etching , linocut , watercolor , oil and pastel .

Landscape pictures played a major role in his artistic work. He himself later said about it:

... and I have found that the landscape of the Lippe is extraordinarily beautiful, and this again especially in the north of the Lippe, which was hardly affected by tourism at the time. I was not satisfied with painting the external appearance of the landscape in a decorative sense, I always tried to find its content. I tried to give the landscapes a special character by waiting for a thunderstorm to approach over yellow cornfields or by seeing a particularly exciting and interesting sky over the Lippe landscape ...

Schulz-Sorau's work was largely shaped by his teacher Otto Mueller. Many characteristics of impressionism can be found in his color compositions, drawings and graphics. However, Schulz-Sorau always emphasized the fact that he also had other teachers to whom he owed a lot, such as Edvard Munch , Pablo Picasso , Fernand Léger and others.

The Lippisches Landesmuseum owns a steadily growing collection of Schulz-Sorau's works, to which national exhibitions in Lemgo, Oerlinghausen , Schwalenberg , Hamm and Greetsiel have been dedicated.

literature

  • Vera Scheef: The lovers by Emil Schulz-Sorau - new acquisition in the Lippisches Landesmuseum in Detmold . In: Heimatland Lippe . Issue 4/1996, p. 125-128 .
  • Ralf Noske: Emil Schulz-Sorau - a painter of our time . In: Heimatland Lippe . Issue 9/2001, p. 151 .
  • Vera Scheef: nature and originality . In: Heimatland Lippe . Issue 1/2007, p. 26 .
  • Mayari Granados: Emil Schulz-Sorau, painter and draftsman in Lippe . In: Heimatland Lippe . Issue 8/2007, p. 244 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Vera Scheef: "The lovers" by Emil Schulz-Sorau. In: Lippischer Heimatbund. April 1996, pp. 125-128.
  2. ↑ a b Ralf Noske: Emil Schulz-Sorau - a painter of his time. In: Lippischer Heimatbund. September 2001, p. 151.
  3. ^ Fritz Bartelt, Brigitte Kühling-Sandhaus: Emil Schulz-Sorau. Painter and draftsman in Lippe. Detmold 1979, p. 20.
personal data
SURNAME Schulz-Sorau, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and graphic designer
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Reinswalde near Sorau
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1989
Place of death Bad Salzuflen