Ewald Becker-Carus

Ewald Becker-Carus (born September 17, 1902 in Dingelstedt , † October 5, 1995 in Hamborn Castle ) was a German painter , graphic artist and art teacher .

life and work

Ewald Becker-Carus attended elementary school in Dingelstedt and from 1915 the preparanda in Halberstadt . In 1919 he passed the Abitur . From 1920 he was at the Evangelical Teachers' College and passed the first teaching examination there in 1922. Due to the poor economic situation, he was unable to find a job as a teacher. During this time he devoted himself more to his artistic inclination and "prepared [...] for the advice of his fatherly and esteemed teacher, Dr. Following Dreske, for an academy admission ”. From 1924 to 1927 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden (with Richard Dreher ). The focus of the course was landscape painting, life drawing and art history . At the end of his studies he became a master student at Dreher.

Extensive journeys through Switzerland and Northern Italy followed after his studies in Dresden . Becker-Carus also visited the most famous German art museums and galleries in Munich , Düsseldorf , Kassel , Berlin , Hamburg and Bremen on these trips .

From autumn 1927 Becker-Carus worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist in Dresden .

From 1928 to 1929 Becker-Carus studied graphic techniques at the Academy for Graphics in Leipzig with an affiliated educational institute and graduated with the works teacher exam .

In 1929 he was offered a position as head of handicrafts and educator at the Niesky / Oberlausitz pedagogy . There he played a decisive role in the expansion of artistic teaching. On the basis of private painting assignments, he spent the summers of 1929 and 1930 in Sweden ( Stockholm , Jämtland , Lapland ).

In 1933 Becker-Carus was given a teaching position for artistic subjects and handicrafts at the Rudolf Steiner School in Hamburg-Altona (Flottbeker Chaussee, today: Elbchaussee ). He worked there until the school was banned by the National Socialists in 1937. After the Rudolf Steiner School was closed, Becker-Carus started working as a freelancer again in 1938. His studio at that time was in Hamburg-Altona (today: Max Brauer-Allee). In 1939 he changed studio rooms and from then on worked in the "Atelier for Painting and Graphics" in Hamburg-Blankenese , Elbchaussee 82 (today: 485). A workshop for etching, woodcutting, carving and sculpting was integrated into the studio.

In 1940 Becker-Carus was drafted into the Wehrmacht and did military service in a construction battalion in northern Germany until 1945.

Immediately after his return from the war in 1945, he resumed work in his studio on Elbchaussee . This was followed by a conversion of the studio into a “study studio for fine arts” with vocational classes in the various fields of fine arts, with the focus on painting.

In 1949 Becker-Carus was offered a professorship at the State University of Fine Arts in Hamburg (Lerchenfeld) which he did not obey, as this would inevitably have resulted in the abandonment of his own study studio in Hamburg-Blankenese . Instead, he responded to urgent requests from the Rudolf Steiner School in Hamburg-Wandsbek (then: Rudolf Steiner School Hamburg), which was reopened in 1946, and took over the development of art classes there, especially in the upper level. Becker-Carus worked there until 1971.

1952 Becker-Carus was one of the co-founders of the Waldorf School in Hamburg-Nienstedten . From 1959 to 1963 he also worked there as a teacher.

In 1955, Becker-Carus planned and organized the international exhibition “Colors and Shapes” in collaboration with the Association of Waldorf Schools . First the show was shown in Hamburg in Planten un Blomen (Hall of Nations). Later, on the initiative of Becker-Carus, it could also be seen in several northern European cities. So “it was shown in Stockholm in 1956 where he [d. H. Ewald Becker-Carus] and a. also guided the royal princess of Sweden through the exhibition. It was a lasting experience for him ”.

In 1969 Becker-Carus was responsible for planning and organizing the exhibition “Painting, Drawing, Working”. This show was initiated on the 50th anniversary of the Hamburg Rudolf Steiner Schools and, like “Colors and Shapes”, was shown in several European cities.

From autumn 1987, Ewald Becker-Carus lived in the nursing home of the Hamborn Castle Altenwerk near Paderborn , where he also died. His grave is in the Blankenese cemetery in Hamburg-Sülldorf .

Memberships

Becker-Carus had been a member of the Anthroposophical Society since 1924 .

student

The most famous of his students is certainly KRH Sonderborg . Becker-Carus painted with Sonderborg “in front of nature, landscape, still life. Becker-Carus attached importance to color and light, painting culture in the late impressionist style ”. Other students are u. a. Pit von Frihling , Werner S. Freitag (civil: Sauernheimer), Vera Hedrich and Marianne Spälty .

Further teaching activities

As part of the international Waldorf school movement, Becker-Carus held public artistic courses in painting and sculpture almost regularly in summer / autumn. These courses found u. a. held in Stockholm , Sweden (1954); Krogerup Hojskole , Denmark (1956, 1958 and 1959); Hamburg , (1957); Stuttgart , public pedagogical working week (1960); Aarhus , Denmark, Egmont Hojskole (1960, 1961); Helsingfors , Finland (1961); Wanne-Eickel , Hiberniaschule (1968); Ejstrupholm , Denmark (1969).

Participation in exhibitions

• 1927 Kunstverein Brühlsche Terrasse, Dresden (group exhibition)
• 1956 (?) Völkerkundemuseum Hamburg (group exhibition)

Solo exhibitions

• 1967 Anthroposophical Society Hamburg (solo exhibition)
• 1977 Anthroposophical Society Hamburg (solo exhibition)
• 2000 "Exhibition from the estate for the 80th anniversary of the Rudolf Steiner School Hamburg-Wandsbek"

Purchases / collections

Works are owned by the Altona Museum , the Museum of Hamburg History , the German Historical Museum Foundation , the Brothers Grimm House , the Hiddensee Museum of Local History , the Goetheanum Art Collection , the Aenigma Archive (Berlin), the city of Wolframs-Eschenbach , the Waldorf School Hamburg-Wandsbek , the Waldorf School Stockholm , privately owned, as well as from his heirs.

Publications

• Becker-Carus, Ewald (1951): “About the color experience of the child”, in: Waldorf Education. Monthly magazine on Rudolf Steiner's pedagogy (15th year / issue 8); Free Spiritual Life Publishing House; Stuttgart; Pp. 234-240

literature

• Volker Detlef Heydorn: Painter in Hamburg 1966–1974 (Volume 3) . Christians, Hamburg, 1974, p. 117.
• Walter Kaupert: International Art Address Book 1958 . Deutsche Zentraldruckerei, Berlin, 1958, p. 721.
• Kay Rump family (ed.), Maike Bruhns (edit.): The new Rump . Wachholtz, Neumünster, 2013, p. 34
• Catalog for the "Exhibition from the legacy of the 80th anniversary of the Rudolf Steiner School Hamburg-Wandsbek", undated, 2000
• Online edition of the General Artist Lexicon (AKL), artist ID: 30019575

Web links

• Memories of Ewald Becker-Carus , short text from two former students of the Waldorf School in Wandsbek on a visit to their former teacher Becker-Carus in the 1990s in the Altenwerk Schloss Hamborn.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Catalog for the "Exhibition from the legacy for the 80th anniversary of the Rudolf Steiner School Hamburg-Wandsbek", n.v., 2000, unpag. [P. 3]
2. ↑ Becker-Carus is listed in the directory of the “Research Center for Research into the History of the Anthroposophical Cultural Impulse in the Cultural History of the 20th Century” (in short: “Research Center for Cultural Impulse”): Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info : The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ( RTF ; 1.6 MB) from April 17, 2013 
3. ^ Catalog for the "Exhibition from the legacy for the 80th anniversary of the Rudolf Steiner School Hamburg-Wandsbek", n.v., 2000, unpag. [P. 5]
4. ^ W. Meyer: Pictures from KRH Sonderborg ; in: Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (Ed.): KRH Sonderborg, Edition Cantz: Stuttgart, p. 17
5. ^ Department of Culture of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (Ed.) (1982): Artists in Hamburg ; Christian's publishing house; Hamburg, [unpag.]