Erich Elsner

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Erich Elsner (born March 16, 1911 in Grunau , Neisse district , Upper Silesia ; † April 23, 1985 in Ratingen , North Rhine-Westphalia ) was a German sculptor .

Life

Even as a child Elsner liked to draw and a lot. After an apprenticeship as a carpenter in Neisse , he completed further training at the Academy for Arts and Crafts in Breslau and at the Bad Warmbrunn wood carving school with the sculptors Cirillo Dell'Antonio and Walter Volland . After that he worked as a freelancer in Neisse. After a short study stay in Paris in 1937/1938 , he went to the Berlin School of Fine Arts . There he learned at Paul Wynand the sculptural works in Wilhelm tank drawing and anatomy . He was also based on his role models Georg Kolbe , Fritz Klimsch and Ernst Barlach .

During the Second World War , Elsner was taken prisoner , from which he returned in March 1946. He settled in Windischeschenbach in the Upper Palatinate and worked there as a freelance artist. During these years, in addition to plastic works, many drawings and watercolors were created . Elsner also dealt intensively with portrait painting . Through restoration work in smaller churches in the region, he also received larger orders for churches, schools and other public buildings.

Elsner managed to catch up with the international development of sculpture, which he had lost through the Nazi era and the war years. The human body was often the focus of his work.

Elsner married Ursula Pawlowsky in 1954 and had a son Thomas (* 1960) with her. Around 1957/1958 the couple moved to Ratingen, where Elsner began his work on the subject of "Mother and Child". In 1966 the family moved into the house at Am Waldrand 1 in Ratingen, which also housed his studio until the end.

In addition to commissioned work for public spaces , the artist also created a large number of small sculptures, reliefs , sketches , drawings and box sculptures. His preferred material was stone. Occasionally he used wood or bronze . Elsner designed the altar, cross, ambo and various candlesticks in bronze for the new Herz-Jesu-Kirche in Ratingen-Ost . Below, among others, five coats of arms and a Tablet for the memorial of the German East on emerged Schloss castle in Bergisch Land , the larger than life bronze sculpture of the mountain spirit Rübezahl in Goslar- Jürgenohl or bronze sculpture flying up birds for the city of Ratingen.

Exhibitions

  • February – April 2011: Erich Elsner: I smile, shine, wander…. , Special exhibition for the 100th birthday of the artist, Oberschlesisches Landesmuseum in Ratingen.

Awards

  • 1982: Culture Prize of the City of Nysa (Neisse)

literature

  • Erich Elsner. The Sculptor's Life and Work , Ratinger Museum Series (Volume 1), City Museum Ratingen, 1990, ISBN 3-926538-10-4
  • Erich Elsner: I smile, shine, hike…. , in: Schlesischer Kulturspiegel. No. 1/11, Volume 46, Stiftung Kulturwerk Schlesien, Würzburg 2011, p. 11

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Petra Hölscher: The Academy for Art and Applied Arts in Breslau , 2003, page 454 digitized
  2. ↑ Silesia . Quarterly journal for art, science and folklore, volumes 29–30, Kulturwerk Schlesien, 1984
personal data
SURNAME Elsner, Erich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Grunau
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1985
Place of death Ratingen