Ernst Maass (painter)

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Ernst Maass in his studio in Lucerne in 1960

Ernst Maass (born December 28, 1904 in Berlin , † October 3, 1971 in Lucerne ) was a German surrealist painter in Switzerland .

Life

Ernst Maass completed an apprenticeship as a flat painter with his father (formerly the usual term for painters who painted flat surfaces, in contrast to the so-called staff painter or barrel painter who specialized in the setting of figures ). With him he learned the craft of painting. He also started out as an artist and surrealist in Berlin. As early as 1932 he exhibited at the Bauhaus Dessau and at Nierendorf in Berlin. Dadaist and surrealist compositions, as we find them at the same time in Paul Klee and Kurt Schwitters , occupied him. In Berlin he also met his wife Else Strehmel.

He came to Switzerland for the first time in 1929, worked with Max von Moos in an advertising studio in Horw and worked as a photo reporter. With the rise of National Socialism in the 1930s, he turned his back on Berlin forever. Since he did not obey the draft into the German armed forces , he became homeless and was allowed to live in Switzerland, but not earn money for years. His pictures went to friends who paid him a modest pension. Only after the collapse of the Hitler regime did he manage to normalize his political situation. He got a German passport again and was allowed to travel. Around 1937 he was a co-founder of the alliance , which campaigned for the recognition of the constructivists and surrealists. His most important works were created between 1935 and 1945.

His work can be divided into three directions: landscape and still life, fragile scaffolding and antique, lonely scenes with fighting or isolated people.

literature

  • Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. Volume 6 - Leipzig: Seemann, 1962.
  • Lisbeth Marfurt-Elmiger: Ernst Maass (1904–1971), exhibition at the Luzerner Volksbank , 1979.
  • The unknown complete works of the surrealist Ernst Maass , exhibition catalog, publisher: Zuger Kunstgesellschaft, 1984.
  • Rudolf Koella: New Objectivity and Surrealism in Switzerland 1915–1940 , Edition 3, Page 215, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Verlag Das Museum, 1979 ( excerpt )
  • Ernst Maass, Max von Moos , exhibition catalog January 21 - February 25, 1973, published by the Kunstmuseum Luzern.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Maass, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 3rd October 1971
Place of death Lucerne