Fritz Burger (art historian)

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Fritz Burger: Self-portrait at the age of 19

Fritz Burger (born September 10, 1877 in Munich , † May 22, 1916 in Azannes near Verdun ) was a German art historian who also worked as an artist. Together with Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc , the art historian shared the artistic principle that art is subjective, and from this point of view he also reevaluated art.

Life

Fritz Burger grew up in a wealthy family; the family owned a banking business in Munich. After studying architecture at the Technical University in Munich and practical training as an architect, Burger changed subject and place of study in 1900 and began studying art history with Henry Thode in Heidelberg . From the age of 19 he went on extensive educational trips, first to Paris and Italy, was in England for a longer period in 1902 and in the same year married Clara von Duhn, the daughter of the Heidelberg archaeologist Friedrich von Duhn . In 1903 he received a small gold medal at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition and a large one in 1907. Burger finished his studies in Heidelberg in 1903 with a doctorate; He spent a long time with his family in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1903/04 and in Florence and Paris between 1904 and 1906.

In the same year he qualified as a professor for modern art history at the University of Munich , where he taught art history as a private lecturer until August 1914. Annual study visits to Italy and France remained the rule. In addition to his university teaching activity, Burger taught art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich from 1912 and shortly after his call-up, immediately after the outbreak of war in August 1914, he decided to become an associate professor. Burger joined the army in 1915 with the foot artillery . In the spring of 1916 he was moved to the Western Front , where Fritz Burger died on May 22, 1916 in the Battle of Verdun .

During his time in Munich, Fritz Burger kept in close contact with the art world of galleries and artist studios. From around 1911 Burger began to work artistically himself. After initial attempts in oil , he then mainly turned to the pastel technique. In the following years, he also created other works as charcoal drawings or etchings . Until 1915, the choice of topics was based exclusively on the landscape or Burger's private environment. This choice of topics changes in 1916. Probably shaped by the war and the threatened personal existence, Burger tries to implement supernatural images laden with deep symbolism and he himself sees his artistic path in the vicinity of the “ Blue Rider ”.

plant

Fritz Burger embodies an art historian who oriented art history to contemporary modernism of the beginning of the 20th century and who sought access to the work of art through an artistic approach. With his early work on Renaissance art , Burger made significant contributions to the knowledge and research stock of the subject, while his most important scientific project consisted in the draft of a "Systematics of Art History", which was implemented in the form of the "Handbook of Art History" from 1913. Burger was of the opinion that a necessary shift of the previously dominant conceptual interpretations of art in favor of clear knowledge had to take place. His view that artistic activity should be understood as a process of intellectual and sensual knowledge was placed at the center of his training in his "Art History Internship" at the University of Munich.

Fonts

  • Thoughts on Darmstadt art. Leipzig 1901.
  • The origin and development of the Trecento tomb in central Italy. Dissertation, University of Strasbourg 1904.
  • History of the Florentine tomb from the oldest times to Michelangelo . Strasbourg 1904.
  • Francesco Laurana . A study of the Italian Quattrocento sculpture. Strasbourg 1907. (= Art history abroad, issue 50.)
  • The villas of Andrea Palladio . A contribution to the history of the development of Renaissance architecture. Leipzig 1909.
  • The Schackgalerie Munich. Munich 1912. Revised and reissued several times, from 1916 with a new title: The German Masters in the Schackgalerie Munich from Genelli to Böcklin.
  • Hanns Pellar - Darmstadt. Darmstadt 1912. In: German art and decoration: illustrated monthly booklets for modern painting, sculpture, architecture, home art and artistic work by women. Pp. 287-295. https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/dkd1912_1913/0301
  • German painting from the end of the Middle Ages to the end of the Renaissance. Volume 1: Essence of German Art - Bohemia / Moravia - Austria, Bavaria, Styria, Carinthia. Berlin-Neubabelsberg 1913. (= Handbook of Art History.)
  • Cézanne and Hodler . Introduction to the problems of contemporary painting. Munich 1913. (Further editions changed by the publisher Walter Dexel : 1917, 1918, 1920, 1923. In addition, an illustrated book with the same title was published.)
  • Robert Genin - Munich. Darmstadt 1914. In: German art and decoration: illustrated monthly booklets for modern painting, sculpture, architecture, home art and artistic work by women. Pp. 289-296. (signed as Dr. FB) https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/dkd1913_1914/0301
  • Masterpieces of Bavarian sculpture. Munich 1914.
  • Hermann Schmitz, Ignatz Beth (ed.): German painting from the end of the Middle Ages to the end of the Renaissance. Volume 2.1: Tyrol, Vorarlberg - Franconia - Swabia, Upper Rhine, Switzerland. Berlin-Neubabelsberg 1917. (= Handbook of Art History.)
  • Introduction to modern art. 1917. (= Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft.) (New edition, introduced and continued by Carl von Lorck 1928, last edition 1931)

literature

  • Rolf M. Hauck: Fritz Burger (1877-1916). Art historian and pioneer of modernism at the beginning of the 20th century. Dissertation, Munich 2005. ( full text )
  • Metzler-Kunsthistoriker-Lexikon . Two hundred portraits of German-speaking authors from four centuries. 1st edition, Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-476-01535-1 , pp. 45-47.
  • Elena Filippi: Fritz Burger (1877-1916). Storia come critica - critica come arte. Tendencies e ragioni della disciplina storico-artistica agli inizi del XX secolo. Postfazione di Bert Burger, con un saggio di Nicola Curcio. Aracne Editrice, Rome 2006, ISBN 88-548-0601-3 . (Monograph with numerous unpublished documents and photos from Burger's estate)
  • Elena Filippi: Fritz Burger on the trail of Palladio. In the light of unpublished documents. In: Scholion , 5/2008, pp. 122-151.

Web links

Commons : Fritz Burger  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ Bavarian Main State Archives IV , z. B. War Ranking No. 14765
personal data
SURNAME Burger, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian and painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1916
Place of death Azannes near Verdun