Friedrich Feigl (painter)

Friedrich Bedrich Feigl (born March 6, 1884 in Prague , Austria-Hungary ; died December 17, 1965 in London ) was a Czechoslovak genre painter .

Life

Friedrich Feigl was born on Dusni Street in Prague, at the transition from the old town to the Jewish quarter . His parents were Josef Feigl (1846–1905) and Julie, née Busch, (1849–1905). His educated father raised his children with an interest in culture. He attended the Old Town High School in Prague (his classmate was Franz Kafka , whose only portrait drawn during his lifetime is by Feigl). Friedrich became a painter, his younger brother Ernst (1887–1957) a poet and his youngest brother Hugo Feigl (1889–1961) a gallery owner.

Life and work

Friedrich Feigl attended the Prague Art Academy from 1904 to 1905 and was trained by Professors Vlaho Bukovac and Bohumír Roubalík (1845–1928). In the spring of 1905 Friedrich was expelled from the university for "art revolutionary activities". After studying in Antwerp and Paris , he returned to Prague, where he met other young artists in the Café Union. There the decision was made to organize a group exhibition under the title "Osma".

Arno Pařík (* 1948), the curator of the exhibition, remarked: “The young artists were determined to break with the dogma of imitating nature and grapple with the new problems of color and form. Her first exhibition opened in April 1907 with works by Feigl, Max Horb, Willy Nowak, Emil Filla, Arnost Prochazka, Bohumil Kubista, Otakar Kubin and Emil Pittermann. The exhibition caused a scandal in Prague. The only positive criticism came from Max Brod . "

Feigl married in 1910 and moved with his wife to Berlin , where he took part in the exhibition of the New Secession in 1911 and 1912. His first solo exhibition took place in 1912 in JB Neumann's gallery. He then focused on graphic art, illustrated books by Dostoyevsky and Balzac and an anthology of Jewish writers (Das Ghettobuch). In 1917 he was co-founder of the group "Free Movement" in Vienna. In 1921 he completed a collection of lithographs for the "Prague Ghetto Album". In the following years he was artistically very productive and took part in several exhibitions. He made aquatint and drypoint etchings on biblical subjects. In 1928 he was a founding member of the Prague Secession .

In February 1930 he took part in the unique exhibition of Jewish artists of the 19th and 20th centuries, held in the Fénix Palace on Wenceslas Square and organized by his brother Hugo.

In December 1932 Feigl traveled to Palestine to work on illustrations for an anthology of Prague Jewish stories. The holy places impressed him deeply and influenced his painting style. He returned to Prague from the Holy Land in 1933 with a series of paintings, watercolors and studies. His last exhibition took place in 1937 in the Prague gallery of his brother Hugo, where he presented 34 paintings with motifs from Palestine and Prague.

When German troops invaded Prague in 1939, Feigl was still in Prague. While trying to emigrate with his wife, he was arrested by the Germans at the border and taken to a camp in Westphalia. Only through the intervention of the Artist's Refugee Committee and the British Consulate in Cologne could the couple leave for England in April 1939 and settle in London.

From the beginning Feigl was involved in the artistic life of the exiles from Czechoslovakia living in London. He continued to paint, in particular English landscapes and mythological motifs, but also his favorite biblical motifs and scenes from street cafes. He regularly took part in group exhibitions at London's Ben Uri Art Gallery, which presented his work on the occasion of his 75th and 80th birthdays in 1959 and 1964. Friedrich Feigl died just a few months before his 82nd birthday.

During the Nazi regime, more than 20 pictures of Feigl were removed from German museums, e.g. B. from Düsseldorf (landscape at Canis);

literature

• H. Tesan: Feigl, Friedrich . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 37, Saur, Munich a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-598-22777-9 , pp. 529-531.
• Feigl, Friedrich , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 88
• Feigl, Friedrich , in: Handbook of Austrian Authors of Jewish Origin, 18th to 20th Century , 2002, p. 304
• Feigl, Fred , in: Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 . Volume 2.1. Munich: Saur, 1983 ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , pp. 284f.
• I was, I am, I will be, self-portraits Dt. Artist, Berlin 1968;
• Jewish Artists, The Ben Uri Collection, London 1987;
• Art in exile in Great Britain 1933 to 1945, Berlin 1986;
• Jewish painters and graphic artists, Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg 1977 (ill. Ad Umschlag / Kafka);
• The 20s II, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin 1971;
• Berlinische Galerie inventory of works of art 1913 to 1933, Berlin around 1970;
• Cicerone 5 (1913) 72, with ill .; 6 (1914) 175;
• The forming coast (Vienna), 3 (1920 21) 2 (fig.), 4, 5 (fig.), 72 (fig.);
• Kunst und Künstler 12 (1914) 396, 398 (fig.); 25 (1926/27) 108; 26 (1927 28) 413 (fig.), 444 .;
• Arts and Crafts (Vienna), 21 (1918) 268;
• Kunst der Zeit, 3 (1928/29) 128f., With 2 illustrations (FF, light as a medium of space);
• Art Chronicle, NF 24 (1912/13) 307.

Pictures in public art collections (selection)

• Modern Gallery, Prague (portraits of the artist's mother and wife);
• The Ben Uri Collection, London;
• Berlinische Galerie, Berlin;
• East German Gallery, Regensburg;

Web links

• Works by Friedrich Feigl in the Museum of Modern Arts
• Literature by and about Friedrich Feigl in the library of the Jewish Museum Berlin