Erika Durban-Hofmann

Erika Durban-Hofmann (born Erika Hofmann ; * 1922 in Königsberg - Juditten ; † December 21, 2005 in Unterschleißheim near Munich) was a German painter , graphic artist and book author. She was one of the few artists of East German origin who dedicated their work to the memory of their homeland.

Life

Growing up at the Aryssee in the district of Lyck , she discovered her love for painting, at the age of 17 she began studying at the Königsberg Art and Trade School with Professor Eduard Bischoff at the Königsberg Art Academy . There she studied image composition and portrait painting until autumn 1944, and also graphics with Norbert Dolezich .

During a study trip to the Curonian Spit , she spent several weeks in the Nida artists' colony . During her studies she was involved in the preparatory work for the German East Fair , she designed posters for the Königsberg zoo and for the six-meter-high arch to the entrance hall of the exhibition grounds and painted numerous bird pictures for the zoo in oil.

After the Second World War , she came to Munich , where she married the academic painter Carl Durban in 1956 , who had a studio at Thierschstrasse 27 . She worked closely with him in the artistic field. During this time Erika Durban took on orders for book graphics from publishers, designed book titles and illustrations, especially for books for young people and anthologies, and worked as a successful designer for porcelain painting at the Arzberg and Hutschenreuther factories .

Between 1982 and 1983 she created her cycle of ten large-format drawings on the subject of “Suffering of Expulsion ” for the collections of the East and West Prussia Foundation in Bavaria , copies of which are on display in the Haus des Deutschen Ostens and in the foundation's newly established exhibition "Eastern East Prussia" is to be shown again in its original form in Oberschleißheim .

Further works of her artistic oeuvre, including numerous landscapes and portraits, will be on view in the foundation's new exhibition . In addition to brushes and pencils, Erika Durban also used conversations, lectures and written statements to set a monument to her homeland East Prussia.

Books (selection)

As an author Erika Durban

• In the Christmas forest . Favorit-Verlag, Rastatt, 1967.
• What time is it? . Favorit-Verlag, Rastatt, 1972.
• Mom's most beautiful fairy tales . Favorit-Verlag, Rastatt, 1973.
• Mom's fairy tale box . Favorit-Verlag, Rastatt, 1973.
• Mom tells fairy tales . Favorit-Verlag, Rastatt, 1973.
• Mom's fairy tale treasure . Favorit-Verlag, Rastatt, 1973.

As an illustrator

• Ingeborg Braun : The dwarf festival. Pestalozzi Verlag, Erlangen 1973.
• Ingeborg Braun: The summer festival of the dwarfs . Pestalozzi Verlag, Erlangen 1981.

Web links

• Literature by and about Erika Durban-Hofmann in the catalog of the German National Library