Franz Erhard Walther

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Franz E. Walther (right) with Andrea Lissoni , the director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich at the vernissage of the Walther retrospective 2020

Franz Erhard Walther (born July 22, 1939 in Fulda ) is a German artist ( sculptor , concept , installation and process artist ).

Life

In addition to a modeling course in his parents' (bakery) business (1954–1956), Walther attended evening drawing courses with Rudolf Kubesch in Fulda in 1955. In 1956, admission to the Werkkunstschule Offenbach failed because the minimum age was not reached. After starting his studies in the following year, Walther enrolled as a member of the Junge Kunstkreis (with Verena Pfisterer , Robert Sturm, Johannes Kirsch ) under Karlfried Staubach. Walther studied from 1957 to 1959 at the Werkkunstschule in Offenbach am Main (today Hochschule für Gestaltung Offenbach ) and from 1959 to 1961 at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Frankfurt . This was followed by a period of study with Karl Otto Götz at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1962 to 1964 . a. together with Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke . Walther lived in New York from 1967 to 1971 and exhibited there in 1969 a. a. with Dan Flavin in the Museum of Modern Art for the first time from the famous 1st movement . A planned meeting (initiated by Duchamp) with Marcel Duchamp in New York failed because of his death on October 2, 1968.

In 1971, at the age of 32, Walther was appointed professor at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts , where he worked until 2005. His students included u. a. Almut Linde , John Bock , Rebecca Horn , Santiago Sierra , Christian Jankowski , Lili Fischer , Martin Kippenberger and Jonathan Meese .

After his retirement the artist lives and works in Fulda. For some years now, Walther's work has been enjoying increasing international recognition. With his participatory art, he has been one of the key figures in contemporary art since the 1960s. At the Biennale di Venezia 2017 he was awarded the Golden Lion for best artist.

plant

Between 1963 and 1969, Walther created the “1. Werksatz ": These are 58 objects made of cotton, foam, wood and various other materials that the viewer should" use ", e.g. B. interactively unfolded and slipped over, put in or could form geometric shapes. This set of works came into the possession of the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt am Main via the Ströher Collection . In the years 1971/1972 the “2. Werksatz ”from so-called standing and walking tracks made of fabric.

In 1970/1971 and 1993/1994 his “Raumform für Fulda” was created in his hometown. Steel plates with inscriptions were laid in five places and aligned in six directions. "The person standing on the writing plate turns it into a base with the location, the given term, the time and the length of the distance between the writing plates is part of the work". The writing plates were laid in the ground or in lawns in the area of ​​the Fulda City Palace, the Domplatz, at the Michaels Church, at the Paulus Gate and Frauenberg Monastery.

In the years 1973 to 1978 the artist designed the “walking and standing pieces”, first of steel for outdoor spaces, then of wood and fabric for indoor spaces. In the 1990s, “the new alphabet”, the third set of works, was created: there were 26 “body sculptures” related to the letter. The last major group of works to date are the “Trajectories” (1997–2003): 55 multi-part sculptures, each of which consists of floor panels of different lengths made of cotton fabric and various action-related elements.

“This idea has fascinated me all my life: that there could be action in a work. With the consequence that the action itself takes on the character of a work. "

- Franz Erhard Walther, 2018

reception

In connection with this work, Walther is assigned to process art, which, along with Happening and Fluxus, is often understood as a counter-position to minimalism . In processes planned by the artist and with the materials given by him, the viewer should be activated to deal with the artistic offer and for a new experience. Walther also turned against a traditional understanding of art that presents “finished” works permanently in museums, and was the first artist to formulate the idea of ​​immaterial art (“action as a work form”).

Up until the present (2005), the focus of his work has been on handling textile materials. While Walther demonstrated process-like "experience" with material in front of an art-interested audience in the 1960s on the basis of sets of works he had created, installations have been created since the late 1970s that have unmistakably their own aesthetic character, but which are also intended to change the viewer's relationship to the work of art. An example of this are the square steel plates he installed in downtown Hamburg , the “Seven Places for Hamburg” (1989). They are embedded in concrete at various locations. Seven different terms are engraved on the edges of the plates. This work is only accessible to viewers through a longer tour. The terms "LOCATION, DIRECTION, BODY, INSIDE OUTSIDE, MOVEMENT, SPACE and TIME" invite individual reflection so that the viewer is included in the work of art with their thought process and behavior.

In 2003 Walther staged a “Werkhandlung” exhibition on the occasion of his exhibition “Forming with the Body” at the Kunstmuseum Bonn . He presented actions that were depicted on the drawings on display, and the visitors were asked to touch his large-format fabric objects, to put them on or to look at them.

Awards (selection)

Exhibitions (selection)

Literature and writings

  • 1972: Götz Adriani : Franz Erhard Walther, work monograph, works 1955–1963, material for the first set of works 1963–1969 . Catalog publication with the first catalog raisonné Kunsthalle Tübingen , Cologne.
  • 1977: Dieter Ronte , Evelyn Weiss : Franz Erhard Walther, 2nd movement, sculptures, drawings. Cologne.
  • 1993: Thinking room Werkraum. Lindinger + Schmidt, Regensburg, ISBN 3-929970-02-3 .
  • 1998: Franz Erhard Walther. Joints in space. Exhibition catalog, Deichtorhallen, Hamburg.
  • 2011: Franz Erhard Walther - The pictures are in your head. City museums Heilbronn, ISBN 978-3-936921-13-7 .
  • 2011: Christoph supplement: Forming - Action - Perception. On the art of Franz Erhard Walther , in: Franz Erhard Walther, The pictures are in the head, exhibition catalog Heilbronn, Cologne 2011, pp. 17–33.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sandra Trauner: Venice Biennale: Golden Lions for German Artists. In: Spiegel Online. May 13, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017 .
  2. ^ Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt am Main
  3. ↑ Honor for Franz Erhard Walther . In: Fuldaer Nachrichten.de of July 9, 2017
  4. ↑ »The rejection has strengthened me« , Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin 19/2018, May 10, 2018, pp. 38-45 [Interview]
  5. ↑ Honors of the city of Fulda (fulda.de)
  6. ↑ You can lean on it! in FAZ of May 16, 2017, page 11.
  7. ^ Franz Erhard Walther , exhibition at Wiels - Center for Contemporary Art , February 21 to May 11, 2014.
  8. ↑ In the action lies the art in FAZ from September 16, 2014, page 38.
  9. ^ Ludwig Forum. Retrieved May 29, 2017 .

Web links


personal data
SURNAME Walther, Franz Erhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Fulda