Fritz Freitag (painter)

Fritz Freitag (born September 1, 1915 in Königshütte, Upper Silesia , † July 23, 1977 in Halle / Saale ) was a German painter and graphic artist . He was a representative of the Halle School .

life and work

Fritz Freitag was born in 1915 as the youngest of six siblings of an office worker and a general store owner in Königshütte in Upper Silesia (today: Chorzów). For economic reasons, the family moved to Halle an der Saale in the Prussian province of Saxony in 1927 .

There he was first a stonemason and then a retoucher apprentice. In 1933 he began studying in the painting class of Charles Crodel at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Applied Arts . After his release in March 1933, he was a participant in the private painting circle Crodels in the apartment of the art historian Paul Frankl, who had been expelled by the National Socialists . For one semester, Friday 1936/37 attended the class for decorative wall painting with Heinrich Kamps at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg . Then he continued his studies at the master school of German craft in Halle. He attended Herbert Post's class for commercial graphics and type design and received portrait and life drawing lessons from Gustav Weidanz . In order to earn a living, he created his first works, such as The Girl with the Veil (1937). In 1940 he was called up for military service, which he also performed in Yugoslavia and Greece in the course of the Balkan campaign (1941) . Ingrid Schulze (1983) attested that he had an "emotional opposition" to National Socialism. After the Second World War he was freelance again. a. the factory Christmas market 1945 .

In 1947 he co-founded the artists' association “ Die Fähre ” in Halle . According to Schulze, this wanted to create a “bridge between artist and people”. During this time he created a self-portrait and the work Young Mother . At the exhibition Der Berg- und Hüttenmann in the Marktschlößchen in Halle, drawings on Friday that were made in 1948 of work processes in the coal seam near Löbejün in Saxony-Anhalt were shown. He later got involved with the works Potato Eaters (around 1951) and Scaffolders (1952). The dignified portrait of Mother in New Apartment (1958) is to be regarded as the highlight of his work at the time.

The portrait of mother in an old apartment heralded a new creative phase in 1956. He painted his poor mother, the daughter of a mine worker from Silesia , "in the dignity of her simple humanity", as Wolfgang Hütt stated in 1977. In the late 1950s, Freitag turned to layered painting . He was inspired by German (including Stefan Lochner , Albrecht Dürer and Lucas Cranach) and Dutch painting of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance as well as the ornamentation of the late Gothic . He was particularly enthusiastic about the gold and silver grounds, as shown by the server II (1963) and Doris with violin (1970). In the 1960s in particular, works that appear festive were created, such as The Singer Before the Appearance (1964; portrait of the singer Philine Fischer before her appearance as the magician in the Handel opera Amadigi ). Other atmospheric pictures were the spring garden (1962) and the violin girl (1965/67). In his works he also told about the harvest festival (1959), the pioneer meeting (1964) and the Happy Winter II (1965).

Fridays decorative and exuberant panel paintings also had their origin in his building-related art. Mention should be made of the plaster cuts on the dining room wall of the Pedagogical University in Halle-Kröllwitz (1956) and the ceramic frieze Medieval Market and Pharmacy for the hospital waiting room in Eisenhüttenstadt (1958) as well as the murals ( lacquer painting ) dancing couples in the Café Geisetal in Merseburg- Süd (1961) and the quackery in the outpatient clinic in Halle-Süd (1964). From the mid-1960s on, he increasingly used oil paints and tempera in his building-related art . In 1965, for example, he depicted the four seasons on a folding harmonica door of a school auditorium in Merseburg-Süd . In the same year, the mural Bremen Town Musicians was also created for a school auditorium in Bitterfeld . In 1967 he followed suit in a school auditorium in Wolfen with the mural Jugendkapelle . For the dining room of the children's and youth sports school in Halle, he designed the mural Entry of the Olympians in 1970 . Other works of this kind are the five pairs of lovers from five centuries for a restaurant in Merseburg-West (1966) and the dance of the peoples for an old people's home in Roßlau (1971; round picture ). In 1972/73 he worked on murals for the World Festival of Youth and Students in the cafeteria of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and for German-Bulgarian friendship in the student dormitory of the Technical University of Leuna-Merseburg .

From 1967 onwards, emotions again became the focus in the works on Fridays . His self-portraits from 1967 and 1968 are exemplary for this . He continued to tell imaginatively. Contrasts to earlier works and within one picture became clear in the Happy Summer (1972) and in the Winter Trip to Hiddensee (1973). Friday went on study trips to the People's Republic of Bulgaria (1955) and the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (1960). His impressions in Uzbekistan had an impact on The Tea Drinkers (1971). The artist's late painting stood for happiness, as the painting Im Blumenladen (1971) shows.

Awards

In 1961, Freitag was awarded the City of Halle Art Prize.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 1947: Halle
• 1963: Bernburg ( Castle Museum )
• 1973: Dresden
• 1974: Halle
• 1974: Frankfurt / Oder

Group exhibitions

His works have been shown at several art exhibitions in the GDR in Dresden and district art exhibitions in Halle.

• 1979: Berlin / Youth in Art
• 1985: Erfurt / Artists in the Alliance
• 1985: Berlin / Music in the Fine Arts
• 1989: Berlin / builders

Collections

His works are now represented in the holdings of the following collections: Museum Bautzen , Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden (including Happy Winter II, Lovers I – IV, The Violin Girl, Work Break), Moritzburg Foundation - Art Museum of the State of Saxony-Anhalt in Halle (including Die Singer before the performance), University of Leipzig and University of Merseburg .

literature

• Wolfgang Hütt : Artist in Halle (= world of art ). Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1977, p. 12.
• Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983.
• Friday, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 5 : V-Z. Supplements: A-G . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1961.

Web links

• Fritz Freitag in the online database Bildatlas Kunst in der DDR

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 1.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Hütt : Artists in Halle (= world of art ). Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1977, p. 12.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 2.
4. ↑ ^{a b c} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 28.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 3.
6. ↑ ^{a b} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 4.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Hütt : Artists in Halle (= world of art ). Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1977, no p.
8. ^ Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 5.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 6.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 7.
11. ^ Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 8.
12. ^ Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 29.
13. ^ Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 25.
14. ^ Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 26.
15. ^ Ingrid Schulze: Fritz Freitag (= painter and work ). Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1983, p. 27.