Ferdinand Springer (painter)

Ferdinand Springer in the studio in 1998

Ferdinand Springer (born October 1, 1907 in Berlin , Germany ; † December 31, 1998 in Grasse , France ) was a German painter and graphic artist . He is one of the most important representatives of abstract painting and printmaking after the Second World War and is also included in the New École de Paris .

life and work

Ferdinand Springer came from the extensive publishing family whose founder was Julius Springer . He was the son of the publisher Ferdinand Springer's junior's first marriage . His mother was Swiss . He first studied in Potsdam before studying art history in Zurich with Heinrich Wölfflin .

Ferdinand Springer devoted himself to painting from 1927. He first worked in Milan , where he met Giorgio Morandi in the workshop of the futurist Carlo Carrà . In 1928 he moved to Paris and studied with Roger Bissière at the Académie Ranson , where Gino Severini also teaches.

At first he studied painting copies in the Louvre , from 1932 he learned the technique of lithography in Stanley Hayter's "Atelier 17" . In 1935 he had contact with Wilhelm Uhde , who bought some works from him that were later confiscated by the Gestapo along with works by Otto Freundlich .

In 1936 Ferdinand Springer had his first personal exhibition in the "Surindépendants", together with his friends Hans Hartung , Victor Brauner and Maria Helena Vieira da Silva . In 1937 he traveled to New York City , where he exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery with Alexander Calder and Salvador Dalí . He returned to France and from 1938 lived in Grasse in Provence .

Ferdinand Springer was interned in 1939, together with Max Ernst and Hans Bellmer , in the Tuilerie des Milles camp near Aix-en-Provence . For some time he was employed as a volunteer worker in Forcalquier , where he met Pierre Seghers . In 1940 he returned to Grasse and worked with Hans Arp , Sophie Taeuber-Arp , Alberto Magnelli , Sonia Delaunay and François Stahly , who are also known together as the “Groupe de Grasse”.

During this time Ferdinand Springer began to realize his first abstract works. In 1942 he fled to Switzerland , a few weeks before the German occupation of the free zone . He visited Bern and the workshop of Paul Klee . The Swiss authorities forbade him to exhibit and sell his works. He made gouaches on paper. In 1945 Ferdinand Springer returned to Grasse. The majority of his works before 1939 have disappeared, and he began to realize a new artistic life's work with his own abstract language in the style of lyrical abstraction .

He illustrated Eupalinos by Paul Valéry , published by Gaston Gallimard and devoted himself intensively to printmaking for several years . In 1955 he turned back to painting and had an exhibition in 1958, which was opened by Francis Ponge . In 1959 he was a participant in documenta 2 in Kassel .

He realized in 1960 his first "decoupages" Relief - engravings , their contents to both the Australian aborigines (the Aborigines ) and to ancient Greece , the Etruscan art and the ancient Egypt refer as well to the American culture Indians . He tried to create the graphic implementation of the spirit of the magical objects of traditional cultures.

Ferdinand Springer was one of the most important representatives of the innovation of modern graphics. He has had numerous exhibitions across Europe ( France , Germany , Italy , Norway and Switzerland ) and the United States . A first retrospective took place in Heidelberg , followed by Dortmund , Bremen , Grasse and Caen .

Ferdinand Springer lived and worked in Grasse since 1975. From 1980 he painted large watercolors, called "imaginary landscapes", inspired by his surroundings and the Provence landscape. After 1990 he was still creating abstract geometric compositions.

Ferdinand Springer died on December 31, 1998 at the age of 91 in Grasse.

literature

• Wolf Jobst settler; Francis Ponge: Ferdinand Springer, watercolors. Berlin 1984, ISBN 3786113262 .
• Ferdinand Springer. Watercolors. Krefeld 1987.
• Michel Seuphor: Dictionnaire de l'art abstrait. Paris 1957.
• Emmanuelle Foster: L'œuvre gravé de Ferdinand Springer. Grasse 1992.
• Lydia Harambourg: Dictionnaire des peintres de l'École de Paris 1945-1965. Neuchâtel 1993, ISBN 2825800481 .
• Emmanuelle Foster: Ferdinand Springer. Neuchâtel 1995, ISBN 2825800783 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Ferdinand Springer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Memorial Les Milles commemorates the painter Ferdinand Springer