Felix Meseck

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Felix Meseck (born June 11, 1883 in Danzig ; † June 17, 1955 in Höxter ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Meseck studied at the art academies in Berlin (1903–1904) and Königsberg (1904–1905). There he learned painting and graphics from Heinrich Wolff with Ludwig Dettmann . From 1906 to 1914, he worked mainly as a painter on the realization of his rather outdated stylistic ideas and artistic convictions. He achieved success as an illustrator of Goethe's Faust and with other etchings in compilations. His marriage had three children. He experienced the First World War as a simple soldier. Immediately afterwards he continued to work as a graphic artist, the small format sold well in economically difficult times and made a high profile possible, which in 1926 led him to a professorship at the Art Academy in Weimar and to the Venice Biennale . As early as 1930 he was thrown out of office by National Socialist forces. Nevertheless, he received a state scholarship from the Prussian Academy for a one-year stay in Rome. When war broke out in 1939, he returned to the Baltic coast between Pomerania and Danzig. When the Red Army attacked Danzig in February 1945, he lost most of his work. His escape led him to the Weser Uplands . He spent the last years of his life in Holzminden from 1946 onwards, still growing artistically and productively until the end.

Felix Meseck was a member of the German Association of Artists .

On May 14, 2017, an episode of the NDR's Lieb & Teuer program was broadcast, moderated by Janin Ullmann . A painting by Felix Meseck was discussed with the painting expert Betae Rhenisch. A visit to the grandson Thomas Meseck rounded off the episode.

Artistic development

After completing his studies, Felix Meseck got in touch with the artist group Berliner Secession through his teacher Dettmann , in which Max Liebermann , Lovis Corinth and Max Slevogt set the tone. Their influence can be seen in the few surviving paintings from the time before the First World War. As a graphic artist, Meseck achieved great success at a young age, pen drawings and drypoint etchings were his techniques. The line dominated the flat and tonal processes. After the First World War, the tendency to depict the bizarre and drastic, which was noticeable at a young age, gave way to a highly nervous drawing hand that fluidly allowed the smallest details to flow into well-balanced compositions. He illustrated Goethe's Faust congenially and Prometheus immediately after the war. In 1919 Ferdinand Möller published a masterpiece of drypoint technology, the illustrations for Penthesilea by Kleist. As a painter, he is said to have a metaphorically laden choice of themes; the tree is a recurring motif, the gestures of which speak volumes. The palette is dominated by subdued color tones, contrasts and tension he drew from the design language.

Book illustrations

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Faust. 1913
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Prometheus . R. Piper, Munich 1919
  • Novalis : hymns to the night . Fritz Gurlitt Verlag, Berlin 1919
  • Novalis : The fairy tale from Heinrich von Ofterdingen . R. Piper (publishing house of the Marees Society), Munich 1920
  • Heinrich von Kleist : Penthesilea. 1920
  • Ludwig Tieck: The rune mountain . R. Piper, Munich 1922
  • Clemens Brentano: Gockel, Hinkel and Gackeleia . Drei Masken Verlag, Munich 1922
  • William Shakespeare: The Storm . With 14 etchings by Felix Meseck. Avalun-Verlag, Vienna and Leipzig 1922
  • The monkey Sun Wu Kung. Chinese fairy tales. 1923
  • Hermann von Wedderkop: The book of Rome . R. Piper Verlag, Munich 1931 (series: What is not in the "Baedeker" , Vol. XIII)

Exhibitions

  • Solo exhibition Felix Meseck 1883–1955 , Museum Schloss Corvey (May 24 to October 31, 1987)
  • The rise and fall of modernity , Weimar 1999

literature

  • Felix Meseck: 1883–1955; Paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints. An exhibition by the Museum Höxter-Corvey, Corvey Castle May 24 to October 31, 1987. Höxter, 1987.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stadtarchiv Holzminden: registration card; Registry office Höxter: 153/55.
  2. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Meseck, Felix ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on November 15, 2015)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
  3. ↑ Video with the painting on ndr.de
personal data
SURNAME Meseck, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1955
Place of death Höxter