Friedrich Karl Gotsch

Friedrich Karl Gotsch (left) receiving the art prize 1956 from the state of Schleswig-Holstein

Friedrich Karl Gotsch , actually Friedrich Karl Müller , (born February 3, 1900 in Pries in the Eckernförde district , † September 21, 1984 in Schleswig ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Life

Friedrich Karl Gotsch - son of a marine engineer - volunteered for military service in the First World War after graduating from the Hebbelschule in Kiel in 1917 . From 1918 to 1920 he studied economics , philosophy and art history at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . During his studies he had painting lessons from Hans Ralfs , who introduced him to the expressionists and the symbolist Edvard Munch .

In 1920 Gotsch moved to the Saxon Academy of the Arts in Dresden and was initially a student of Otto Hettner . From 1921 to 1923 he was a master student of Oskar Kokoschka . Fellow students in Dresden were Hilde Goldschmidt and Hans Meyboden . Gotsch had contacts to Otto Dix and to the photographer Hugo Erfurth , who signed him for his Graphisches Kabinett Erfurth .

After completing his studies, Friedrich Karl Gotsch - together with Hilde Goldschmidt and Hans Meyboden - stayed in New York from 1923 to 1925 , where they met the artist couple Maxim Kopf and Mary Duras. In 1926 and 1927 he was with Goldschmidt in Paris at the Académie Colarossi . Then both traveled to Italy and the south of France. In 1933 Gotsch separated from Hilde Goldschmidt, who was half-Jewish, and went to Berlin. Although he was not banned from painting, he was hindered in his artistic work. His studio and almost all of his works were destroyed in an air raid during World War II.

At the beginning of the Second World War, Friedrich Karl Gotsch was drafted and used as an interpreter. After his release from English captivity, he settled in Sankt Peter-Ording on the Eiderstedt peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein . In 1946 he re-established contact with Hilde Goldschmidt, who had emigrated to England in 1939. Gotsch found a patron in the textile manufacturer Gert F. Spindler and founded a branch of the building group in St. Peter . From 1949 to 1951 he worked as a teacher in the Baukreis - an art school modeled on the Bauhaus for young artists of all genres. In addition to Gotsch, the architect Gustav Burmester and the painters Ernst Witt and Arnold Fiedler , who directed the school until 1951, taught there.

Gotsch also took on cultural-political tasks in Schleswig-Holstein: from 1951 to 1954 he was a member of the Kiel Cultural Senate . It is an advisory body, the members of which were chosen by the Kiel Council from among culturally active people. Because of the restorative tendencies in the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany , Gotsch withdrew from the public and concentrated again on his artistic work.

In 1950 Friedrich Karl Gotsch and Johanna Ascher married

In 1964 he entered into a fateful pact with the Geneva-based art collector Oscar Ghez , with which he not only overwrote the works he had received in 1336, but also all future works. After a legally negotiated compromise, in which the directors of the Hamburger and Bremer Kunsthalle, Alfred Hentzen and Günter Busch were involved, Gotsch was released from the agreement for his future works.

In 1971 he was awarded the honorary professorship of the State of Schleswig-Holstein “in recognition of his complete work as a graphic artist” . On the occasion of his 80th birthday, exhibitions were held in Berlin, Bonn and Kiel, where watercolors and gouaches were shown.

Friedrich Karl Gotsch was a member of the German Association of Artists .

plant

In his early days Gotsch was influenced by Edvard Munch . At the Dresden Art Academy, he was considered one of Oskar Kokoschka's most talented students, but it turned out that this trademark was more a curse than a blessing in the long run. He never got rid of the stamp of a Kokoschka student. After the Second World War, Gotsch began to paint over the pictures he still had and to reconstruct destroyed works according to his new stylistic ideas. For this reason, very few pictures have been preserved in their original condition.

Foundation, endowment

According to the foundation deed of January 1, 1971, the Friedrich Karl Gotsch Foundation has the purpose of adding the 53 works to a representative selection of the work, to keep the selection closed and to bring it to the public through exhibitions and publications.

Awards

• 1956: Art Prize of the State of Schleswig-Holstein
• 1962 and 1963: Villa Romana Prize
• 1971: Honorary Professor of the State of Schleswig-Holstein

Exhibitions

• 1919: Group exhibition in the Kunsthalle Kiel
• 1920: Solo exhibition in the Kunsthalle Kiel
• 1923: Group exhibition at the New Gallery, New York
• 1955 to 1960: Kestner Society Hanover, Kunsthalle Bremen , Kunsthalle Mannheim , Frankfurter Kunstverein , Folkwang Museum , Essen, Museum Flensburg , Kunstverein Hamburg , Kunstverein Wuppertal
• 1959: Kunsthalle Kiel
• 2013/2014: Jena Art Collection

literature

• Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Friedrich Karl Gotsch in: Ders .: Kieler Künstler Vol. 3: In the Weimar Republic and National Socialism, Heide 2019 pp. 221–251. ISBN 978-3-8042-1493-4
• Peter Goeritz / Marion Leuba: Friedrich Karl Gotsch, catalog raisonné of paintings, Neumünster 1993.
• Peter Goeritz: Friedrich Karl Gotsch. Drawings St. Peter-Ording and Eiderstedt. Edited by the North Friesland Foundation. Husum Verlag, Husum 1993, ISBN 978-3-88042-605-4
• Knut Nievers (Ed.): Kunstwende. The Kiel impulse of Expressionism 1915-1922 . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1992 ISBN 3-529-02728-6
• Christian Rathke: Gotsch, Friedrich Karl . In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 8, Wachholtz, Neumünster 1987
• Hans Vollmer : General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century . Volume 2, Seemann, Leipzig 1955

Web links

• Friedrich Karl Gotsch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Knut Nievers (Ed.): Kunstwende. The Kiel impulse of Expressionism 1915-1922 . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1992, p. 206.
2. ↑ Knut Nievers (Ed.): Kunstwende. The Kiel impulse of Expressionism 1915-1922 . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1992, p. 206.
3. ↑ Walter Schurian (Ed.): Hilde Goldschmidt . Hartmann, Munich 1983, p. 9.
4. ↑ Erhardt Heinold (Ed.): Artists see Schleswig-Holstein. 80 contemporary artists . Weidlich, Frankfurt am Main, 1976, p. 100
5. ↑ Information about the complicated relationship between Gotsch and Goldschmidt can be found in the extensive legacies of both artists' letters in the Schleswig-Holstein State Museum Foundation, Gottorf Castle, Schleswig.
6. ↑ File Signature 40895, city archives of the state capital Kiel
7. ↑ Schulte-Wülwer, pp. 245f.
8. ↑ Honorary title "Professor" . In: schleswig-holstein.de . Archived from the original on March 22, 2015. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
9. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Gotsch, Friedrich Karl ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on August 7, 2015)  
10. ^ Will Grohmann, Young Art - Friedrich Karl Gotsch, Leipzig 1924
11. ^ Christian Rathke in the introduction to the catalog raisonné by Gortitz / Leuba
12. ↑ Foundation database Schleswig-Holstein ( Memento of the original dated August 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.