Erich Martin (painter)

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Erich Gustav Christian Martin (born October 14, 1905 in Büdingen ; † May 6, 1977 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German painter from Offenbach am Main . He is a representative of classical modernism and was the first painter to live in Offenbach to devote himself to abstract art.

Life

Erich Martin was born in Büdingen as the son of the businessman Johann Christian Martin and his wife Julia. Since his father came from Bohemia, his sons were officially considered Austrians, from 1918 as Czechoslovaks. In 1907 the Martin family moved to Offenbach am Main. After attending school at the Offenbach Bach School (1912–1920), Erich Martin made apprenticeships as a portfolio and - subsequently - as a lithographer at Kramp and Co. in Offenbach. From 1926 to 1928 he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (today: Hochschule für Gestaltung , HfG) in Offenbach with Richard Throll in the specialist class for decorative painting and at the Hanau drawing academy with Reinhold Ewald.

After his studies, Martin worked as a freelance artist. He is one of the so-called “artists of Bachstrasse”: the city of Offenbach had made cheap studios and apartments available to artists on Bachstrasse, which resulted in an artist colony. Many friendships linked Martin and his artist colleagues. Other Bachstrasse painters included Hans Antlitz (1902–1978), Paul Arnoul (1901–1946), Adolf Bode (1904–1970), Philipp Klöter (1891–1961), Ludwig Plaueln (1910–1971) and Fritz Volk (1915) -1988).

In 1929 Erich Martin married Eva Magdalena Richter, with whom he had three children. Erich Martin was a founding member of the Association of Offenbach Artists BOK (1926) and the Frankfurt Secession (1953). Since 1946 he was also a member of the New Darmstadt Secession .

In 1942 Martin was called up for military service after he had been declared a Sudeten German . A back disease that he contracted while he was a prisoner of war led to a permanent curvature of the spine. Nevertheless, Martin began to work artistically again.

In his new studio in Offenbacher Kirchgasse, a much-noticed film portrait was made for the Hessischer Rundfunk in 1969 . The author Dieter Leisegang chose the provocative title: "Failed artists, illustrated by the example of Erich Martin". The question was why Martin's work received little attention from the art market and the public. The author came to the conclusion that the artist was working too inconspicuously, too quietly, to be able to assert himself on the art market. Martin failed because of his own modesty. But renouncing external success frees him for his work.

On Martin's 70th birthday, the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt and the Offenbach Cultural Office honored him with special exhibitions. In 1975 the city of Offenbach awarded the artist the citizen's medal in silver .

In 1977 Erich Martin died in a Frankfurt hospital. He was buried in the old cemetery in Offenbach.

plant

Erich Martin began to paint abstractly as a young artist. But after the National Socialists came to power in 1933, he destroyed almost all of his abstract work to protect his family, only two abstract pictures of his early work were preserved. During the Third Reich, Martin painted representationally and made a living through commissioned work.

The "Spain Cycle" (1936–37) is an artistic implementation of threatening current events. Martin expressed himself pessimistically in his diary at the time: “This work, too, is condemned to lie in the portfolio in the studio instead of going publicly in duplicate. - I can't stand acting so secretly in the long run. You can be seen with harmlessness, but art that shows the fateful is not welcome. Outside there is madness, murder, misery, but we don't want to see any of that in art. "

After the war, Martin returned to abstract painting and exhibited his pictures in various locations in the Rhine-Main region. Today, most of Erich Martin's works are in the Hessian State Museum in Darmstadt and in the House of City History in Offenbach am Main, where a permanent exhibition has been dedicated to him since 2011.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1931: Participation in the "Aquarelle" exhibition in the Kunsthalle am Rheintor Darmstadt; Summer exhibition Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
  • 1932: Participation in the exhibition "12 painters paint a woman", Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
  • 1934: Participation in the annual exhibition of the "Association of Offenbach Artists" (BOK)
  • 1935: Special exhibition at the Frankfurter Kunstverein
  • 1939: Solo exhibition by the Cultural Office in the Offenbach City Library
  • 1946: Participation in the exhibition “Painting in the XX. Century “, Nassauischer Kunstverein Darmstadt
  • 1947: Solo exhibition at the Offenbach Masters School (today: HfG Offenbach )
  • 1948: Solo exhibition in the Hillesheimer Gallery, Wiesbaden
  • 1952: Solo exhibition in the Zimmergalerie Franck, Frankfurt; Special exhibition in the art service on the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
  • 1958: Solo exhibition in the Bergsträsser Gallery, Darmstadt
  • 1959: Special exhibition of drawings in the Frankfurter Kunstverein
  • 1964: Participation in an exhibition in the radio house of the Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt
  • 1969/1970: Exhibitions in the German Leather Museum , as part of events at the VHS Offenbach
  • 1974: Solo exhibition Studio Berggemeinde Frankfurt
  • 1975: Special exhibition "Drawings and Tempera Pictures", Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt; Solo exhibition of the cultural office in the town hall of Offenbach
  • 1976: Special exhibition in the Ostertag Gallery, Frankfurt
  • 1985: Solo exhibition by the Offenbach Cultural Office
  • 1995: Exhibition “From Citizen Idyll to Ruined City” in the Offenbach City Museum with works by Erich Martin and other artists
  • 2005: Exhibition in the Galerie Brenner, Offenbach
  • 2009: Retrospective in the House of City History Offenbach
  • 2011: Modern Art: Erich Martin , Bernardbau , Haus der Stadtgeschichte, Offenbach

literature

  • Gisela Bergsträßer: Erich Martin. Drawings and tempera pictures . Exhibition in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt October 2 to November 23, 1975, Darmstadt 1975
  • Erich Martin 1905–1977 . An exhibition by the cultural office of the city of Offenbach in cooperation with the Kunstverein e. V. Offenbach from October 14th to November 9th 1985, Offenbach 1985
  • Barbara Kitzinger: Erich Martin (1905–1977). A painter and draftsman of the 20th century. The work until 1960 as the expression of an "iconography of coping" , dissertation at the University of Mainz , Mainz 1988

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Erich Martin, catalog 1985. Excerpts from the conversation between Martin and Leisegang are printed here.
  2. ↑ Quoted from Kitzinger 1988, Erich Martin, p. 151.
  3. ↑ http://www.op-online.de/nachrichten/kultur/fester-platz-kunst-moderne-1186743.html
  4. ^ FAZ from April 1, 2011, page 50: Offenbach's Art Modernism
personal data
SURNAME Martin, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Martin, Erich Gustav Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Büdingen
DATE OF DEATH May 6, 1977
Place of death Frankfurt am Main