Felka Platek
Felka Platek (born January 3, 1899 in Warsaw , Russian Empire ; died August 2, 1944 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) was a Polish painter.
Life
Platek was born as the daughter of Leon Platek and Salome Platek, b. Strumfeld, born in Warsaw . In the 1920s, Felka Platek came to Berlin from Poland to become a painter. She studied at the private painter's studios for painting and sculpture, known as the Lewin-Funcke School after Arthur Lewin-Funcke , with Ludwig Meidner . He had a teaching position there from 1924 to 1925. At the Lewin-Funcke-Schule in 1924 she met her long-term partner and later husband Felix Nussbaum .
In 1932 she accompanied Felix Nussbaum, who had received a scholarship from the Villa Massimo , to Rome. Landscapes and views of the sea have been preserved from this period. When Nussbaum left Rome, she followed him to France and Belgium. In Ostend she painted everyday things. In addition, she tried to earn a living by painting cups, plates and vases.
In 1937 Felka Platek and Felix Nussbaum married in Brussels . Nussbaum had already made his rejection of marriage clear in 1930 in the "Illustrations of a wedding poem", when he portrayed Cupid with his arms crossed. The wedding nevertheless took place because Felka Platek had difficulties with the Belgian authorities regarding residence rights.
On July 21, 1944, Felka Platek and Felix Nussbaum were tracked down and arrested in their hiding place at 2 rue Archimède in Brussels. They were taken to the Mechelen assembly camp . From there they were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau , where Platek was murdered on August 2, 1944.
Works
The Felix-Nussbaum-Haus in Osnabrück owns the largest collection of her work with two oil paintings and 28 gouaches. A large part of her work was destroyed in a fire in Nussbaum's studio in Xantener Strasse in Berlin in 1932.
Her most famous works include
- Self-portraits
- Portrait of a Young Woman (1927)
- Still life with snails and mackerel (around 1935)
- Portrait of Mrs. Etienne (1940)
- Portrait of Nicolaas Cornelis Hogenes at the age of two (1942)
Woman and artist in their time
The painter Felka Platek is an example of the generation of women who used the intellectual freedom of the Weimar Republic for independent life planning and artistic creation. She only had a few years until National Socialism destroyed her prospects, took her adopted home and finally had her murdered. As an artist, she belongs to the Lost Generation .
For a long time, her work was overshadowed by her companion and husband Felix Nussbaum. Research on them is just beginning.
Since 2012, a street in the “Nördlich Brinkhofweg” development area in the Kalkhügel district of Osnabrück has been named after her.
See also
- The play Felix Nussbaum (2010; by Christoph Klimke )
literature
- Christel Schulte: Felka Platek . Museum u. Kunstverein Osnabrück, brochure - December 2003, ISBN 392623525X ; ISBN 978-3-926235-25-1 .
- Serge Peker: Felka, une femme dans la Grande Nuit du camp : MEO: ISBN 978-2-930333-59-5 .
- Hans Joachim Schädlich : Felix and Felka . Reinbek: Rowohlt, 2018
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Platek, Felka |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Polish painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 3, 1899 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Warsaw |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 2, 1944 |
| Place of death | Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp |