Franz Markau

Franz Markau

Franz Markau (born November 1, 1881 in Berlin , † January 25, 1968 in Weimar ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Franz Markau was born in poor conditions. In a résumé from the 1950s, he wrote: “ My father was a country postilion. I am the eighth and last child in the family, our situation was modest ... My first memory is that my mother carried me up the basement stairs and sat me on the top step so I could play with the rabbits scuttling around in the yard. “Markau attended the apprenticeship of a painter. “ I worked there for 4 years and during this time I derusted and painted the iron structures of almost all Berlin train stations and railway bridges. The handcart was my constant companion. The apprenticeship period, which was very difficult for me and in which the children of wealthy parents could work their way up to the Abitur, was finally 'passed' ... I was able to attend art school ... After the First World War , I worked as a soldier from the first to the last day went through, I founded a group of former field gray artists ... "

From April 1, 1896 to March 31, 1900 he learned the painting profession as an apprentice in the company W. Lehmann Berlin in Groß-Lichterfelde near Berlin. In addition, he attended evening classes at the 1st Crafts School in Berlin from October 1896 to March 1900. In April 1900 he passed the journeyman's examination. He then studied from April 12, 1901 to June 30, 1903 at the State Art School in Berlin. From October 15, 1905 to June 28, 1911, he studied in the teaching facility of the Royal Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin in the class for room painting with Bruno Paul and the class for nude and figure with Max Koch. He was awarded a medal for special achievements. Before and after the First World War he worked on the “attempt at colored folk architecture ” in the circle around the architect Bruno Taut .

He received his first commission in 1912 with the painting of the Hoffnungskirche in Berlin-Pankow . From 1914 to 1918 he took part in the First World War. After the end of the war he founded a “group of former field gray artists”. With the help of Käthe Kollwitz , Markau managed to have rooms in the Prussian Academy of the Arts for this group's exhibitions. From 1924 to 1926 he ran his own painting business. From October 15, 1925 to March 31, 1926 he was part-time director of the design and specialist class for decorative painting at the Berlin School of Crafts and Applied Arts. From May 1, 1926 to the end of 1944, he headed the decorative painting department at the Erfurt School of Applied Arts , since 1929 as a professor. He was released from school on June 18, 1945 and began his freelance work in Weimar the following year . Study trips took him to Italy and Macedonia , Tyrol and the Baltic countries . He held personal exhibitions in 1951 and 1961 in the Angermuseum Erfurt and in 1982 in the gallery in the Cranachhaus Weimar. Markau died in Weimar at the age of 87. His final resting place is in the old cemetery behind the Goethe-Schiller crypt . An easel carries a simple travertine slab with Markau's sign, the industrious hand.

Was married Markau since 31 January 1914, consisting of Riga originating goldsmith Luise Natalie Schilling (* 6 November 1888; † 19 June 1980). The marriage resulted in two children: Annemarie (* 1916) and the poet Anselm (1920–1944). The estate of the Markau couple is in the Saxon State Library in Dresden .

Work and reception

Franz Markau left behind a rich life's work. His oeuvre includes oil paintings , watercolors , pastels , drawings , prints and above all wall paintings from 70 years of work. His works are in the possession of the museums in Hanover, Essen, Erfurt and Gdańsk (Poland).

"Anyone who experiences him at meetings and consultations of the association, who has seen his attentive eyes and heard his spirited discussion contributions, knows how active the artist is in all events of our time, " wrote his about the teacher . “ This temperament and this vitality are visible in his pictures. For him, shape and color are carriers of a strong inner experience ... The painter Franz Markau is a peculiar and unique color artist. "

- '' Otto Knöpfer , Markau's student and friend ''

Partner of architecture

It is characteristic of Markau's art that he never committed himself to just one technique. Painting on and in the building remained his great joy, even in old age, when working on the scaffolding already overwhelmed his physical strength and his friend Otto Knöpfer helped him selflessly. His last murals are in Erfurt: Two Thuringian landscapes in the ENT clinic and the mural “Music” in the music hall of the University of Education nearby.

Immediately before and after the First World War, Markau had worked in the circle around Bruno Taut on the “attempt at colored folk architecture”. From 1926 he took up this color design in the lessons of the Erfurt art school and taught the color for entire urban spaces, from house facades to interiors to individual pieces of furniture.

Topic

The range of topics in the Markau works is complex and broad. It covers the whole area of ​​life: plants - animals - humans. He paints and draws the newborn child, yes, several times the still unborn child, he paints the whole of human life up to natural perdition. His wife, the large family in which he lives, the growing up of his grandchildren like his two children before and again and again the self-portrait are permanent contents. In doing so, he struggles with hard intellectual and often backbreaking work for the generally valid, for the statement at a certain time and place.

The representation of the world of work is an inner need for him; to be seen in the picture of his sister Klara (a homeworker at the sewing machine), in the rolling mill pictures from the twenties or in the pictures of the bell casting in Apolda from the last decade of life. He painted people celebrating and relaxing, a variety of beach pictures and scenes from country house life. But he also has to paint death from his heart. B. his son who died in France during World War II. Becoming and passing away also occupies him in the many pictures of his beloved sunflowers.

Franz Markau lets us experience the living environment, the city in its history and in the different seasons equally in his pictures. Erfurt's famous city crown, interesting streets and spaces, the overall cityscape seen from the Steiger or from the west heights behind the iga, the construction site, the settlement, life in the city when the milkman came every day ...

Markau hiked through the Thuringian villages, showed the farmers doing their hard work and also at the slaughter festival. Markau went to Wolgast for several months in 1948 , and experienced the development of the shipyards as an employee. A series of images of the city and building site was created, which today speak for themselves as valuable historical documents.

Nature and color

All of Markau's pictures are born from real life, from looking at nature. But they are not just a registered fact or natural impression. The artist composes, consciously keeping disruptive things away, increasing the essentials, keeping his means in balance, always respecting the limits of the laws of art, but without feeling constrained by them. The artist's tireless work is the increase of natural forms and natural colors to harmony and inner clarity and lead to ever new creative power, which leads the viewer beyond the everyday experience to joy and life affirmation.

"Colors are deeds and sufferings of light" (Goethe). With this sentence the artist wished to introduce his thanks to all friends who would one day accompany him to his final rest. He was convinced that color reveals itself most beautifully and purely when, according to studies of nature, it shines from within. For Markau, it was not that which was illuminated but rather that which was colored in the highest degree. The artist has always wanted to address the whole of society with his works, knowing full well the limits of his talents and powers.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Markau in the catalog of the German National Library
• Website of Franz Markau