Erwin Pohl

Erwin Pohl (born September 2, 1914 in Kratzau , Böhmen; † March 29, 2013 in Furth im Wald ) was a German glass artist and designer.

Life

Erwin Pohl is the second son of the Chief Financial Officer Alois Pohl from Kratzau and his wife Sidonia Pohl (née Bauer, from Raasdorf in Lower Austria). After attending elementary and community school, Erwin Pohl successfully completed the state technical school for the glass industry in Steinschönau ( Kamenický Šenov ) from 1928 to 1931 . His main subject was glass engraving. His most important teachers were Alfred Dorn (draft drawing), Otto Pietsch (geometric drawing), Emil Kromer (engraving), Otto Zoff and (after 1930) Ernst Görlich (natural drawing) and Max Tischler (chemistry).

From 1931 to 1933 he trained at the State School for Applied Arts in Gablonz ad Neisse ( Jablonec nad Nisou ). Erwin Pohl then studied until 1936 in the special departments for glass and ceramics at the state technical college for arts and crafts. After Pohl had worked as a draftsman for the Curt Schlevogt company in Gablonz in 1935 and 1936, probably alongside his studies, in 1937 he was appointed by the Ministry of Education in Prague as an assistant and teaching assistant to Karl May in the newly established reverse glass painting department in Gablonz. He stayed there until he was drafted into the war in 1940. Since 1938 he has been creating his own reverse glass paintings and collages.

In 1945, Pohl found work as a painter and designer (until 1949) in a ceramic company (Achental Keramik, branch of the Cortendorf porcelain factory near Coburg) in Grassau - Staudach (Traunstein district ). The encounter with the moorland has shaped him in the observation of nature and in the form and color. In 1946 Pohl became a member of the professional association of fine artists in Munich.

Pohl married Anna Jäckel (* 1913 in Lobnig in Moravia) in Grassau in 1946. Her son Hans-Peter was born in Grassau in 1946 († 2002 in Munich).

From 1951 to 1966 he worked as a painter in the art department of the porcelain factory Heinrich & Co. in Seetal am Chiemsee . In 1951, Pohl also succeeds in fixing soot (at that time still limited to candle flames) on glass. During this time Pohl saved some valuable reverse glass pictures from decay by fixing them with a special process (applying a silicone layer ). On July 16, 1964, Pohl acquired utility model protection for the preservation of reverse glass images for his process (certificate from the German Patent Office No. 1896936). In his place of residence Übersee , Erwin Pohl u. a. also in the preservation of soil monuments (especially in connection with the “Prügelweg Sossauer Moor”).

During this time Erwin Pohl became a member of the artists' association “ Die Roten Reiter ” in Traunstein , where an exhibition with 165 German and international painters and sculptors took place in 1956 to mark the 10th anniversary of the group founded in 1945. In 1966 he moved to Oberpfaffenhofen , where he worked as a draftsman for glass decorations ( screen prints on glass and porcelain) for the Kurt Hammer glass company in Weßling near Munich (workshops for handicrafts, glass and porcelain manufacture).

In 1968 the Glas-Schöninger company in Luhe-Wildenau brought him in as a glass designer. There he set up a glass studio in which the then famous moon crater plates were produced as smoking tables in a combination of sandblasting , screen printing and antique mirroring and sent all over the world.

From 1968 Erwin Pohl regularly took part in national and from 1981 international exhibitions. In 1971 Pohl finally switched to the Bauscher porcelain company in Weiden as a graphic artist and final draftsman. Since his retirement in 1976 he has devoted himself more intensively to the renewal of reverse glass painting in the new style.

In 1979 he founded the Luher artist group “Die Gabel” together with Jorg-Georg Gruber (painter and sculptor), Alfred Bierling (graphic artist) and Klaus Peter Karl (ceramist). As “four sharp prongs” they wanted to spear current topics (such as environmental degradation) and wake up, warn, but also entertain the audience with their works.

Since 1979 Pohl was also a member of the Esslingen Artists' Guild . From 1984 Erwin Pohl worked more intensively with his soot painting, now u. a. with a welding torch . From around 1989, behind glass paintings with laminated glass were created in the Wernberg plant of Flachglas AG Furth im Wald. The reverse glass painting has thus partly become an inter-glass painting. The background of the picture, which is a few centimeters away, gives the pictures astonishing depth and liveliness. This creates a third dimension in reverse glass painting. On May 10, 2007, Pohl acquired utility model protection for this from the German Patent Office (Certificate No. 202007003063.0).

Erwin Pohl was active in art education by 1988 at the latest . On the one hand, he worked directly with children in kindergartens and elementary schools under the premise "Everyone is an artist". On the other hand, he endeavored in the teacher training seminars for the artistic training and further education of (prospective) teachers.

1993 was in two ways through the art exhibition "Modern Glass Art" in the context of the 2nd Bavarian-Bohemian Culture and Business Days in Weiden idOpf. a milestone. Now Pohl had finally acquired a secure place in glass art in general and in East Bavarian art in particular. In addition, on the initiative of Pohl, the Bavarian and Bohemian glass art (again) came together congenially. Pohl showed his “Behind Glass Collages” and Prof. Jiři Harcuba (Prague) portrait cuts in glass, medals and sculptures. This exhibition then went to the Murnau Castle Museum and the Rheinbach Glass Museum near Bonn in 1994 . In Rheinbach, Pohl also held a workshop on his soot technology.

From 1995 he tried to preserve the old reverse glass paintings in museums because of his 35 years of practice. The monument authorities have highly recommended his conservation process (see utility model protection 1964). At the same time, maintaining the Bavarian-Bohemian cultural exchange played an important role. Among other things, he worked on the topic of "The Golden Road" in collaboration with the Tachov Art School with students from Bavarian and Czech schools.

After the death of his wife in 2000, Pohl moved to Furth im Wald in 2002 . With a large exhibition in the series of art exhibitions of the Regensburg Administrative Court, Pohl initiated the order of his artistic estate in 2010. The result of the exhibition was that Erwin Pohl transferred most of his work to the administrative court as a permanent exhibition with the motto "Gläserne Spur" in the library hall of the imperial city. The permanent exhibition was opened in a ceremony on February 8, 2011. Jiři Harcuba paid tribute to the artist and his work.

In autumn 2010, Erwin Pohl had to give up his apartment and studio due to health problems and move to a nursing home. With the help of a power of attorney, he also took care of his artistic estate. His supervisors have begun along the so-called glass road to lay a glass track their start and end points have finally in his hometown of Chrastava (Chrastava) is.

Works

An official general directory does not exist. All works are recorded in various directories in the Regensburg Administrative Court (permanent exhibition) and at the artist's premises, unless they are privately owned (e.g. Flabeg company ).

There are essentially three groups:

• Soot pictures , mostly in the “3. Dimension ", d. H. These are so-called box pictures, in which the soot pattern behind a pane of glass is protected by a second pane of glass (laminated glass). There is a space of 3–5 cm between the picture and the back wall (often Japanese paper)
• Spontaneous nudes on glass : shapes in different colors applied to the glass in one go with special crayons
• Foil images / collages : by applying different colored, folded or smooth metal foils with processing, especially with ink and chalk, impressive light and space effects are achieved

There are also a large number of similarly designed miniature images behind glass and an art print folder “The creative act on glass” (ZEN ideas) with an introduction by Max Riedl, Perlinger-Druck, Furth im Wald.

Works in public space:

• Reading room Gablonz / Neisse (glazed and patinated Masaryk bust, cannot be found at the moment)
• Parish home St. Martin Luhe-Wildenau
• Sudeten German Foundation Munich
• Labor Office Weiden
• Art forum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg
• Permanent exhibition "Gläserne Spur" in the Imperial Library of the Administrative Court of Regensburg (since 2011)
• Works as glass traces along the so-called Glass Road (from Waldsassen to Passau ; not yet complete),

Joseph-von-Führichhaus in Chrastava (Kratzau), the birthplace of the artist (official opening in May 2012).

literature

• Ruth Fabritius a. a .: Behind glass art Erwin Pohl. Published by Schlossmuseum Murnau
• Hanna Duft: On the transparent trace of a life's work. In: The New Day. February 11, 2011.
• Susanne Cloud: Fragile images full of lightness. In: The New Day. June 17, 2010.
• Josef Eimer: Four fork tines in school. In: The New Day. October 17, 2009.
• Johann Reitmeier: The limitless assembly line - the creative act on glass. Between glass painting - glass artist Erwin Pohl sets revolutionary accents. In: Bayerwald Echo. February 22, 2007.
• Anastasia Poscharsky-Ziegler: Journey into the third dimension. Erwin Pohl exhibits in the old town hall in Furth im Wald.
• Press review: Erwin Pohl - Stations in an artistic career - special exhibition 22.10. - December 4, 1994 in Rheinbach.
• Josef Eimer: The fork. (Group of four artists) In: Markt Luhe-Wildenau Stroll through 1100 years of history and culture. Pp. 61-64.

Web links

• Obituary notice