Fritz Best
Fritz Best (born May 9, 1894 in Kronberg im Taunus ; † June 21, 1980 ibid) was a German painter and sculptor.
Life
Best was born as the youngest of four children in a long-established family of small farmers in Kronberg.
He completed a three-year apprenticeship as a wood sculptor in Frankfurt and attended evening and weekend courses in drawing at the Frankfurt trade and arts school, later the wood sculpting class at the arts and crafts school with Professor Karl Mohr. From 1918 to 1919 he studied at the Academy in Munich with Erwin Kurz . From 1921 he was able to perfect his talent as a master student (with his own studio) at the Frankfurt Städel . In 1922 Best became a member of the Frankfurt Artists Society.
In 1930 Best finally returned to Kronberg, where he had acquired a plot of land in Talweg 41 to build his studio and house there. He lived there until his death in 1980 and had friendly contact with the last artists of the Kronberg painters' colony, Nelson Kinsley and Fritz Wucherer, as well as with Hans Würzbach. In 1948 he was a co-founder of the Taunus Artists' Association. His main works were people (mostly small sculptures) and animals in rural and peasant environments, landscapes and flowers. In the old town of Kronberg, on the Schirnbrunnen donated in 1973 for the 575th anniversary of the Cronberger Schützengesellschaft in 1398 , you can find a bronze figure “Homecoming farmer with goat” (also called “after-work”) made by Best for the occasion.
He bequeathed his estate (works and house / studio) to the city of Kronberg with the condition that a museum with his work be set up in his house. The sculptor Hermann zur Strassen , who looks after the museum, lives and works in the house today .
The city of Kronberg remembered the artist by naming a small square in the old town after him and by placing a bronze bust there, which was made and donated by the Kronberg sculptors Ilona and Fritz Barth. The Fritz-Best-Platz was laid out in 1995 by the Kronberger action group Livable Old Town.
literature
- Alexander Bastek (arr.): Of heads and bodies. Frankfurt sculpture from the Städel , Frankfurt a. M .: Städel 2006, ISBN 9783935283113 , pp. 205-206.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Inauguration of the Fritz-Best-Platz in 1995 ( 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.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Best, Fritz |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter and sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 9, 1894 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kronberg im Taunus |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 21, 1980 |
| Place of death | Kronberg im Taunus |