Fritz Feigler

View from the studio window Munich

Fritz Feigler (born February 2, 1889 in Düsseldorf , † August 21, 1948 in Ambach am Starnberger See) was a German painter and graphic artist whose work can be assigned to Expressionism ; he belonged to the circle around Johanna Ey and Das Junge Rheinland and taught from 1926 to 1933 as a professor at the State University of Fine Arts Weimar, an institution that was spun off from the Bauhaus in 1925 . Almost all of his paintings and most of his graphic work were burned in 1943 during a bomb attack.

Life

Fritz Feigler was born on February 2, 1889, the son of a businessman. He drew and painted from an early age and, after completing the one-year-old, continued his training as a painter against the stubborn resistance of his parents. Scholarships for extraordinary talent enabled him to study. His teachers were Peter Janssen , Eduard Gebhardt and later Adolf Münzer . Feigler was already a master student in 1911, and in 1913 he received his first public commission.

From 1915 to 1916 Feigler did military service as an infantryman, although he was not wounded, but suffered a lung disease (55% war-damaged).

In 1917 he received a plaque for outstanding achievements and the Rome price , which, however, did not take him abroad because the borders were closed. In 1920 he lived in Kaiserswerth near Düsseldorf. He was friends with Herbert Eulenberg , Johanna Ey , Max Ernst , Otto Dix , Gert Heinrich Wollheim and others. a., from which in 1919 the artist group " Das Junge Rheinland " emerged.

plant

In 1923/24 he worked on the anniversary book for the Ewald colliery and did weeks of studies underground. He had artistic success with his dark-toned vegetable still lifes and wooden block pictures. He was funded by the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia and the Düsseldorf Art Museum . In 1926 he took part in a collective exhibition at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Düsseldorf with a "Large Self-Portrait" and the pictures "Ananas" and "The Beggar". In the same year he was appointed professor at the art school in Weimar.

During the Weimar period several figurative compositions were created, the large picture of a French officer, which was the first to introduce a lighter color scheme, the first facade pictures; a major public contract followed. The intention of the Thuringian government to make Feigler director of the art school failed because of the political upheaval. Therefore he went to Berlin as a freelance painter. Rudolf Probst exhibited a selection of his facade pictures , flower and vegetable still lifes in Dresden in 1931, whereby a picture with riders attracted attention because of the novel, suggestive representation of the movement.

As a result of his critical attitude towards National Socialism , teaching, attending large exhibitions and external success were barred and he was lonely. Some of his pictures, considered degenerate, were removed from galleries. Feigler made annual trips to Italy and the Balkans. Many bright watercolors, large vegetable and fish still lifes and some large portraits were created. In 1939 he again took part in a collective exhibition in the art association for the Rhineland and Westphalia.

In the same year Feigler suffered a ruptured lung, which steadily became a major ailment. He stayed in Italy for months during the winter. During this time, the great Italian street pictures, multi-figure large nude compositions and the first pictures green in green from the zoo were created. In January 1940 he exhibited at Fritz Gurlitt in Berlin.

In 1943, all works from the past 30 years, with the exception of a few drawings, watercolors and oil studies, were burned when the Berlin home was destroyed by bombs. Feigler and his wife found an apartment in Ambach am Starnberger See. Here he created tree and forest drawings, still lifes, portraits, mainly portraits of children. In 1946 he lost the Ambach apartment and lived for ten months in extremely limited space until he found a new apartment in 1947. Despite his illness, he worked tirelessly until the summer of 1948.

Voices about the artist

“Everything that was connected with art was bitter, biting, threadbare, loud, dishonest and restless except for the few hours when, abandoned like on an endless beach, one really managed a tiny piece of probation on the canvas and for for a short time, as if in a jolt, there was calm. "

Exhibitions

• 1920s: Participation in several group exhibitions of the artists' association Das Junge Rheinland
• 1926: Collective exhibition at the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, Düsseldorf
• 1939: Collective exhibition at the Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, Düsseldorf
• January 1940: Exhibition at the Gurlitt Gallery in Berlin
• 1950: Memorial exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Quoted from: Fritz Feigler Memorial Exhibition, February 12 - March 12, 1950. Exhibition catalog Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf 1950.

literature

• Ulrich Krempel (Ed.): In the beginning: The young Rhineland. On the art and contemporary history of a region 1918-1945 . Düsseldorf, Claassen 1985.
• Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (ed.): Avant-garde yesterday. The young Rhineland and its friends. 1919-1929 . Art Museum Düsseldorf 1970.
• Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (ed.): Fritz Feigler Memorial Exhibition, February 12 - March 12, 1950 . Düsseldorf (1950).
• Max Osborn (introduction): EY Düsseldorf collection. - Catalog for the traveling exhibition . Private print, Düsseldorf (1931).
• Fritz Stahl: Text in Berliner Tageblatt of May 20, 1927, No. 236.
• Feigler, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 84-85 .

Web links

Commons : Fritz Feigler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files