Ernő Grünbaum

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-portrait by Ernő Grünbaum painted in 1933 or 1936. Mixed media on paper. Privately owned.

Ernő Grünbaum (born on March 29, 1908 in Nagyvárad , Austria-Hungary ; died either towards the end of 1944 or on April 3, 1945 , probably in the Mauthausen concentration camp or, most likely, around the same time in the subcamp of the Dachau concentration camp , the Mühldorf concentration camp group ) was a Transylvanian - Hungarian painter , draftsman , graphic artist , lithographer and bookplate artist of the classical modern era . His miniatures show influences of Art Nouveau , whereas his future oeuvre the Expressionism and the Cubism can be attributed. Because of his Jewish origin , he was subjected to repression, which is reflected in parts of his work.

Life

Houses, watercolor on paper, undated. Privately owned.

Ernő Grünbaum came from a Jewish family who lived under extremely difficult financial conditions after the death of their father. For this reason, Grünbaum was unable to attend an art school despite his talent. Before his artistic career began, he first worked in a leather tannery and then as a carpenter . This was followed by training as a copper engraver . In 1927 he was employed by the then important Großwardeiner Druckerei Sonnenfeld and its publishing house Sonnenfeld Adolf RT , where he was taught the profession of typographer . At Sonnenfeld he made friends with his colleague, the expressionist painter Alex Leon . Although Grünbaum came to Expressionist art through him and the subjects of both artists were about suffering and the human search for meaning, which had a binding effect on the relationship between both, Grünbaum went his own way stylistically and was not, as incorrectly sometimes claimed, from his friend Alex Leon influenced in the way of representation.

Jesus in front of the synagogue, mixed media on paper, undated. Privately owned.

Through Leon and also through typography, Grünbaum learned about other avant-garde trends of modernity that were current at the time. Grünbaum's interest in it was decisive for his further artistic career, because he began to deal with the avant-garde. In early 1932 Grünbaum exhibited his works for the first time in a solo exhibition. It took place in the Oradea Journalists' Club ( Romanian : Clubul ziariștilor , Hungarian : Újságíró Klub (ÚK) ) and made it known to the broad art audience at once . Since then he has exhibited there regularly. In the summer of the same year Grünbaum took part in the founding meeting of the Asociația Artelor Frumoase Oradea ( German : Association of Fine Arts ). In October 1933, he and ten other artists, including his friend Leon, Imre Földes and Imre Ványai, took part in the Young Artists Exhibition in the Weiszlovits Palace in Oradea. In March 1936 his work was shown again in a single show and in June of the same year in the journalists' club. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, he advertised as a draftsman and lithographer of small print jobs in Budapest . Grünbaum was deported together with his painter colleague Jenő Elefánt in May 1944 . Many of his works disappeared or were destroyed in the chaos of war. Exact information about the size and loss of the work does not exist.

In January 1992 the curator Maria Zintz organized a group exhibition of Great Aradin Jewish artists under the name "Lumină și spirit" in the Muzeul Țării Crișurilor with Móric Barát , Alex Leon, Ernő Tibor and Grünbaum.

Painting style

In Grünbaum's work there are numerous small-format graphics such as etchings, woodcuts or watercolors and, more rarely, medium-sized works. The graphics are characterized by the synthetism and symbolism of Paul Gauguin , the formal language of Art Nouveau , but inspiration from Fauvism can also be found. Another special feature of the miniatures is the flatness of the subject thanks to the delicate coloring . For this purpose, he emphasizes geometric shapes with black borders, similar to the cloisonism of Gabriele Münter . The result was intense, lined-up colored areas that sometimes try to reflect the environment as a metaphor (for example red as a symbol of life or green as a sign of nature) ( houses and mountain landscape ).

Grünbaum not only left it with landscapes, but also applied the same style to socially and socially critical subjects (man with wheelbarrow) . To do this, he also used expressionist-neo-objective means of expression. Held in dark colors (Jesus in front of the synagogue) , often depicting visions of the possible future course of fascism , he sketched his own life or the life of the poor, those who think differently or those who are disenfranchised, often using Cubist stylistic devices (self-portrait) . However, Grünbaum also tried to follow the path of Cubism without any socially critical ulterior motives. The resulting works ( landscape near Baia Mare and self-portrait ), sometimes Cézannesque nature (still life with fruit) , show his preference for construction without attempting to stylize what is depicted or falling into mannerism .

His style drew from several sources: it was his talent and his friendships and acquaintances with the journalists and poets of his hometown who were open to European thinking in art. This included the one with his friend Alex Leon. And that includes the fact that he worked in the Sonnenfeld typography department, where he used the opportunity to learn more about current avant-garde tendencies. All of this made it possible for Grünbaum to develop his own, unmistakable style , although he had no academic training and, for financial reasons, could not travel far to study in museums alone .

Contemporary reception

Grünbaum's work was enthusiastically received by art critics over the course of his few creative years. Even the first public presentation of his work was well received. For example, an art critic wrote in the feature section of the Hungarian magazine Nagyvárad on March 9, 1932 (p. 9) that Grünbaum was a “very talented graphic artist and, in addition to a fantastic and flourishing imagination, also had a talent for composition, which gave him new hope in of art. "

A little less than a year later, on the occasion of Grünbaum's participation in the Expoziția tinerilor artişti , another art critic in the Nagyváradi Napló of October 24, 1933 (p. 5) described him as “a representative of a new artistic direction” and characterized the work as "Honest to the point of brutality". Also in Nagyváradi Napló , the critic Imre Biro referred to the above-mentioned exhibition in the edition of October 27, 1933 (p. 13) on the “ultra-modernity” of the works and “love and maturity in the execution”. The art critical climax began in 1936 when the Nagyváradi Napló on July 15 (p. 6) declared Grünbaum the “most capable artist of his generation” in an article.

Works in private and public collections

His work can be found in various museums in Germany, Romania and Hungary. The Hungarian Museum of Applied Arts in Budapest and the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz have works by Grünbaum. The Muzeul Țării Crișurilor in Oradea houses a bundle of thirteen of his works in various techniques, including prints, pastels and watercolors. The library of the University of Debrecen has an ex-libris from 1934, which was formerly in the collection of the doctor Dr. Kálmán Arady (1893–1964) found.

Illustrated books (selection)

Ernő Grünbaum produced numerous lithographs for the Sonnenfeld printing company and designed the title pages of several books. In 1938 he created the cover for:

literature

Monographic

  • Maria Zintz : Artişti plastici la Oradea 1850–1950. Pp. 251–260 and pp. 278–280 and p. 333, Verlag Muzeul Țării Crișurilor, 2009, ISBN 978-973-7621-15-3 .
  • Maria Zintz: Artiștii plastici din nordul Transilvaniei victime ale holocaustului. Pp. 167-188, Editura Arca, 2007, ISBN 978-973-1881-00-3 .

Lexically

Others

  • Dan Călin: Imaginea muncitorului în grafica românească (The representation of the worker in Romanian graphics). Meridiane Verlag, 1982.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The determination of the exact date of death is uncertain. In the publications of the art historian Maria Zintz, both 1944 and 1945 are mentioned. In the online version of the Mauthausen Book of the Dead ( Memento from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (accessed on April 20, 2011) , a Ernö Grünbaum is cited, but according to the file, he was born on May 8, 1918. The AKL also gives both years as the date of death as well as the place of death "Mauthausen (?)". The Új magyar művésznévtár (New Hungarian Artist Directory) lists 1945 as the year of death. However, it is certain that Ernő Grünbaum died as a Holocaust victim in a concentration camp.
  2. ↑ List of the dead with incomplete data on the camps in Mühldorfer Hart taken from the homepage of the Mühldorfer Hart concentration camp memorial, published by For Remembrance - Mühldorfer Hart concentration camp memorial e. V. was created. Grünbaum comes from Hungary, without dates of birth and death. His inmate number was 83757. online , last accessed on November 24, 2011.
  3. ↑ Autour de l'art juif: encyclopédie des peintres, photographes et sculpteurs. , P. 63
  4. ↑ The Romanian word Gravor means copperplate engraver , not an engraver as is assumed in German . Also in Romanian copper engraving is meant when speaking of Gravură .
  5. ↑ Desző Feher, Kulturtórténete és öregdiákjainak , Oradea, 1933–37, p. 193
  6. ↑ Nagyvárad , March 9, 1932, p. 9
  7. ↑ Erdélyi Lapok of December 6, 1932, Year I, No. 275, p. 4.
  8. ↑ Nagyvárad , April 15, 1934, p. 4
  9. ↑ Erdélyi Lapok of March 31, 1934, p. 4
  10. ↑ Sa înfințat Asociația Artelor Frumoase (The Asociația Artelor Frumoase was founded) in Nagyvárad on July 26, 1932, p. 2
  11. ↑ Erdélyi Lapok of October 19, 1933, Year II, No. 236, p. 9.
  12. ↑ Gazeta de Vest , November 5, 1933, p. 5
  13. ↑ Miniaturile lui Grünbaum Ernö in Szabadság of March 9, 1936, p. 12.
  14. ↑ Biro Imre, Expoziţia tinerilor Artisti in Nagyváradi Napló of 15 July 1936 p. 6
  15. ^ List of names of those people from Oradea who died in the Holocaust. Online view
  16. ^ Exhibition catalog for the Lumină și spirit exhibition , 1992, Muzeul Țării Crișurilor publishing house
  17. ↑ " Evreii din Oradea (The Jews from Greater Oradea) " by Teréza Mózes , Verlag Hasefer Bucharest , 1997, p. 165 Online view on Google Books
  18. ↑ Electronic archive of the Debrecen University Library http://ganymedes.lib.unideb.hu:8080/dea/handle/2437/87281 . Last accessed on November 24, 2011 at around 8:30 p.m.
  • Maria Zintz: Artiști plastici la Oradea 1850–1950 , 2009
  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j p. 251
  2. ↑ Recited on p. 259
  3. ↑ a b c Recited on p. 260
  • General artist lexicon (AKL). The visual artists of all times and peoples , Volume 63, 2009
  1. ↑ a b c d p. 364
  • Maria Zintz: Artiștii plastici din nordul Transilvaniei victime ale holocaustului , 2007
  1. ↑ a b p. 168
  2. ↑ p. 181
  • György Lajos (editor), compiled by Antal Valentiny: Románia magyar irodálmanak bibliográfiája (Bibliography of Romanian and Hungarian literature) , Minerva Irodalmi és Nyomdai Műintézet, 1938 online view
  1. ↑ a b p. 7
This article can not be adequately illustrated due to copyright reasons . At the moment there are no or only individual suitable images available, which are sufficiently licensed for further use .
Externally linked images may not be subject to free licenses such as GNU FDL or Creative Commons . See also the FAQ on images and image rights .
personal data
SURNAME Grünbaum, Ernő
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grunbaum, Erno; Grünbaum, Ernest; Grünbaum, Ernst; Grünbaum, Ernest
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Transylvanian-Hungarian painter of Classical Modernism
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Nagyvárad
DATE OF DEATH 1944 or April 3, 1945
Place of death Mauthausen concentration camp , Mauthausen