Erich Bödeker

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Erich Bödeker (born April 11, 1904 in Recklinghausen ; † February 21, 1971 there ) was a German naive sculptor .

life and work

After attending primary school, he was a miner for 41 years , 35 of them underground. As a part-time job he worked as a farmer and butcher . In 1959 he had to give up his job as a miner because of a silicosis and began to shape people and animals, friends, politicians and artists in wood and concrete and paint them with bold colors. In 1961, Thomas Grochowiak , then director of the Recklinghausen and Oberhausen museums, arranged for him to have his first public exhibition in Recklinghausen.

Bödeker's first figures were created as handicrafts from waste materials such as old cans, kitchen utensils, parts of decommissioned machines, etc. After these first attempts, he began to make his figurative sculptures from wood and concrete, which are stylized "after nature", reduced to basic forms. These figures are painted over a large area with strong colors and without further internal structures. His garden was often populated by more than a hundred colorful figures: miners and police officers, well-known athletes and anonymous bishops, film stars and politicians, all of them in the company of flowers and animals, both from their local homeland and from exotic countries.

His works have now found their way into many international museums, are sought-after by collectors and achieve considerable prices at auctions.

Erich Bödeker is regarded as an important naive sculptor.

Exhibitions (selection)

Large traveling exhibition in 1988/1989 with the publication of a catalog raisonné.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bödeker, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naive sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Recklinghausen
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1971
Place of death Recklinghausen