Fritz Fuhrken

Fritz Fuhrken, self-portrait, ca.1926

Fritz Fuhrken (born July 31, 1894 in Nadorst near Oldenburg , † July 19, 1943 in Hesdin , northern France) was an expressionist painter and graphic artist .

biography

Childhood and youth

Fritz Fuhrken was born as the oldest of five children in Nadorst, now part of Oldenburg. His father was transferred several times as a teacher. As a result, Fuhrken spent his childhood first in Nadorst, then in Munderloh / municipality of Hatten and finally, from the age of six, in Stickgras / municipality of Hasbergen, today Delmenhorst . In 1901 he started school with his father. After eight years at the Stickgras school, he attended the six-year Bremen teachers' seminar from 1909 . Fuhrken, who was already interested in the youth movement and the Wandervogel at the age of 17 (1911) , founded the Stickgraser Wandervogelgruppe “St.WV von 1911” in 1911 and illustrated the logbook with pen drawings. "The Wandervogel is an emancipation movement of educated middle-class youth who want to get out of the constraints of Wilhelmine society and into nature: Like the romantics once did, the wanderers paint and watercolors on their journeys," reported Regina Gramse during the 2005 lecture in the Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst House Coburg . The first prints, still committed to Art Nouveau , were created between the ages of 19 and 21 (between 1913 and 1915).

As a soldier in the First World War

Fritz Fuhrken: English tank offensive of August 8, 1918 near Amiens / Somme and the day of capture. Watercolor was created in 1918 at Camp Colsterdale / Yorkshire.

After the outbreak of the First World War , the teacher’s examination at the seminar in Bremen was brought forward by six months. So the graduates were able to register as volunteers, including Fritz Fuhrken. For health reasons he was first postponed, but then drafted and in November 1915 posted to the East. Until December 1917 he was an infantryman on the Russian front in Galicia and Volhynia in the front line of fire and was unharmed. He accompanied the journey to the war and the deployment at the front in diary entries and sketches. Fuhrken was appointed regimental draftsman and was on the road, also by horse, to explore the topography of the front lines. “... I became a regimental draftsman. ... I am rarely controlled, I draw particularly beautifully, even this time everything in pen and ink. I also do pen drawings for my own portfolio, because the landscape is mountainous and beautiful. ... “It was also possible for him to paint together with a master student of Arthur Kampf. In December 1917, after the fall of the tsarist government and the fighting in the east subsided, Fuhrken was relocated to the western front and ended up on the Somme near Amiens, about two kilometers south of Cerisy-Gailly, Mericourt-sur on August 8, 1918 -Somme, in English captivity.

Fritz Fuhrken: In the shell fire , fighting on the Somme 1918. Watercolor (Futorism) was created in April 1919, Camp Colsterdale / Yorkshire.

The period of imprisonment among expressionist artists in England

From August 19, 1918, Fritz Fuhrken spent 15 months in captivity in Great Britain, Yorkshire , in the Colsterdale / Masham prison camp , a privileged camp for officers that did not have to work. A lively cultural exchange developed among each other (art, music, recitations, lectures but also advanced training in foreign languages). Here at Fuhrken an independent artistic work (watercolors, pen drawings and woodcuts) was created, which was called Colsterdaler Expressionism . He was particularly stimulated by well-known artists who were also present in the camp, but also by the encounter with works of German Expressionism.

In a letter to his artist colleague Georg Philipp Wörlen in 1922 he wrote: “A lot of inspiration from Otto Nebel in Colsterdale”. During a war vacation in 1916, Otto Nebel (1892–1973) saw a Franz Marc exhibition in the Der Sturm gallery in Berlin , which made a great impression on him. This is certainly one of the reasons for the proximity to the Blauer Reiter in Colsterdal Expressionism . He received further suggestions from the art teacher Erich Parnitzke and the Bocholt architect Karl Tangerding (1891–1936) in the Rhenish Expressionist environment . On September 15, 1918, Fritz Fuhrken wrote home from captivity: “English, French and pedagogy are the subjects I take part in, a total of 10 hours a week. There are performances of a musical and theatrical kind and lectures of the most interesting kind. "

The artistic reception of his early works

Rainer Stamm, former director of the Böttcherstraße Museums in Bremen, writes in the Allgemeine Künstlerlexikon (AKL) : “The experience of World War I and the encounter with the works of German Expressionism were the result of an independent work of color abstract watercolors in the dynamic style of Fuhrken 1918/19 Cubofuturism. Back at home in the 1920s, the palette was weakened and the subjects calmed down in line with the second generation of Expressionists and an approach to New Objectivity. "

Bernd Küster, the former director of the State Museum for Art and Cultural History in Oldenburg, writes: “Fuhrken was relocated from Wolhynia to the western front, where the traumatic experience occurred that appears in his pictures and was processed in complex compositions that depict the cruel events of a shell fire into a glowing, semi-visionary image with strong complementary contrasts. Fritz Fuhrken wrote retrospectively about his time in English captivity, where he was in a favorable position to process his war experiences in a painterly way: As he wrote in 1921, looking back at the Colsterdal period: romantically storming images. The dream is gloomy and dark, flashed through by bright lightning, thundered through by frenzied battles. In this context he formulates the decisive word about the pure colors of transcendental meaning and the color values ​​like shimmering crystals. "

Barbara Alms , director of the Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, writes: "In the color-intensive, rhythmically faceted and dynamic watercolors of his early days, a world of images does not unfold without religious intimacy."

Many of his early works on paper found their way into the Etta and Otto Stangl collection in Munich through the Wuppertal collector Albert Rudolf Ibach , (piano factory Rud. Ibach Sohn) .

Bremer Künstlerbund, Neuwerker and the Bremer Kunstgewerbeschule

At the end of October 1919 Fuhrken returned with his extensive work from captivity to Delmenhorst-Stickgras and received his first teaching post at the Kleine Allee elementary school in Bremen in January 1920 . He was accepted as a member of the Bremer Künstlerbund , the Nordwestdeutscher Künstlerbund and the Neuwerker artist group around Willy Menz (1890–1969). In the afternoons he took part in a 3-semester course at the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule Bremen in Willy Menz's graphics class.

Foundation of the artist community "Der Fels" (1921–1927)

Fritz Fuhrken wrote in his sketchbook on the occasion of his first Passau trip to Georg Philipp Wörlen in autumn 1921 about the artist community Der Fels (1921–1927): "Common suffering in Yorkshire's prison camps forged this bond ..." The founding members were Franz Bronstert from the Colsterdale camp , Hagen (1895–1967) and Fritz Fuhrken. Another founding member from the neighboring Ripon camp was Georg Philipp Wörlen , Passau (1896–1954). The first joint exhibitions of the "three" were held in Franz Bronstert's closer home. The first in February 1921 in Recklinghausen under the name "Association of former prisoners of war Recklinghausen e. V. "and in June of the year in Gelsenkirchen under" Hagener Künstlerbund der Fels ". In September 1921, only the name "Der Fels" appeared in an advertisement in the art magazine Hellweg. In April 1922 two more members were accepted: Reinhard Hilker , Hagen (1899–1961), who later became a student of Lyonel Feininger at the Bauhaus Weimar, and Carry Hauser , Vienna (1895–1985), who worked in Hals until 1922 at Passau. This is where the rock members also met. Lively exhibition activity began throughout Germany and in Austria in Salzburg and Vienna. It was self-published by G. Ph. Wörlen in Passau, 7 episodes of rock folders, each with a graphic work by the group. The last 8th episode appeared in 1924 by Fritz Fuhrken in W. Krieg Verlag Leipzig.

Contact to Alfred Kubin and the Passau lithographs

Fritz Fuhrken: City gate Passau 1921 , lithograph, black chalk.

All members of the artist community “Der Fels” got in contact with Alfred Kubin through member Wörlen in Passau , who lived in the neighboring Wernstein am Inn (Upper Austria), Schloss Zwickledt. Fuhrken wrote on October 7, 1921 from Munich, on the return journey from his first visit to Wörlen in Passau, to his fiancée Ada Bors about the Kubin visit: “The wonderful walk to him over the border out of Passau's picturesque alleys and gates, over the raging ones , yellow Inn, through the most wonderful landscapes on the banks of the Inn, it was unique ... I am so closely related to Kubin, at least in my graphic things! .. I plan 12–15 lithographs, self-published, titled: Passau, Upper Austria (a visit to Kubin) . He's a mysterious dark man, an expressionist like me, since 1900 or 1905! It is a secret, its surroundings, its furnishings, the strange Sleeping Beauty castle on the hidden mountain slope, its strange access through the impossible garden! "

Regina Gramse, Bremen, writes in the exhibition catalog from 1994: “Up until around 1925 there was a 'deepening in the emotionally related great art of Alfred Kubin' in Fuhrken's work” (quote by the artist from a curriculum vitae in the Kunsthalle Bremen) “noticeable, but less thorough concrete formal or thematic borrowings than through the magical atmosphere. There is a lot of Kubin in his view of the city of Passau: In a series of lithographs he condenses motifs of the city into architectural figurations with a dark and almost surreal atmosphere. As much as the atmospheric quality of these sheets is reminiscent of Alfred Kubin, the formal work is just as independent. "

Friendships with Otto Modersohn and Fritz Stuckenberg

Fritz Fuhrken and Ada Bors (1902–1979) married on July 17, 1922. The honeymoon led to Georg Phillip Wörlen in Passau. The place of residence for the next two years was Delmenhorst, Cramerstrasse 166, with Ada Fuhrken's parents. A lifelong, very personal friendship with Otto Modersohn developed with regular visits by the Modersohn family in Fischerhude and Ada and Fritz Fuhrken in Bremen, where they moved to Mainstrasse in 1924 and later to Friedrich-Wilhelm-Strasse. In the same year a friendship developed with Fritz Stuckenberg (1881-1944), who had returned to Delmenhorst in 1921. Fuhrken highly valued Stuckensberg's judgment on the art of the artist group Der Fels . As a guest, Stuckenberg later exhibited with the group.

Art academy Kassel and training as a drawing teacher

With a training recommendation from the director of the Kunsthalle Bremen , Emil Waldmann , Fritz Fuhrken continued his artistic ambitions by studying at the Kassel Art Academy from 1925 to 1927. He wrote home about this goal from his captivity in England in 1919. His teachers were Professors Michel, Düllberg and Kay Heinrich Nebel (1888–1953) and in the painting class Curt Witte (1882–1959), with whom he became a master student. After the academic drawing teacher examination, a teaching position as a drawing teacher at the German High School for Boys and Realschule at Doventor in Bremen followed. With his students he brought together a considerable collection of finds in Bremen, which prompted the director of the Focke Museum in Bremen , Ernst Grohne , to write an annual journal in 1940. When Fuhrken visited the academy, the era of romantic-expressive imagery ended. Enthusiasm for the pioneers of modernity, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne, kindles . His artistic path led via the New Objectivity to an objectified world of images. An expressive brushwork with an almost autonomous effect of the colors developed in his landscapes. He found his motifs primarily in his north German homeland and in everyday things, but also on trips throughout Germany, France and Norway. A painting stay followed in 1936 in the former artists' colony in Dötlingen and in the summer of 1939 a last intensive painting stay in a monastery on the island of Hiddensee .

World War II and death.

In the autumn of 1939 Fritz Fuhrken was drafted into the Second World War . As in the First World War, he first came to Russia and then to France. During the entire war, documentary sketches and drawings of the landscape or drawings of the destruction of the war were made.

Regina Gramse reported in her lecture in 2005 in the Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg: “Fuhrken also documented the stations of his forced voyage during World War II. His letters are always about his work, about the procurement of materials, about losses, like in October 1942, when brew drips from a stovepipe onto his three most beautiful watercolors, or about shipments that got lost on the way home. "

As a member of the 6th Army, Fuhrken experienced the destruction of his company on the outskirts of Stalingrad in January 1943 . The survivors continued to be used in northern France. It was there that Fuhrken found out that his drawing room at the school on the Dovetor had been destroyed by bombs. To settle bomb damage to his own apartment in Bremen, he was given 14 days of war leave, from which he returned to the field on June 30, 1943. On July 18, 1943, he committed suicide in Hesdin, in the Pas-de-Calais department . The division pastor Emil Heiler, who was a close friend of his, and who had accompanied him on long walks shortly before his death, wrote to Ada Fuhrken on July 23, 1943: “That is very certain for me: he suffered from the terrible war. The war killed him, beat him to death inside ”. Today Fritz Fuhrken lies in the German military cemetery in Bourdon, 21 kilometers northwest of Amiens, in the Somme department. During the First World War, Fuhrken was captured in this area during the English tank offensive on the Aisne / Somme.

literature

• Ernst Grohne (ed.): Annual journal of the Focke-Museum Bremen , commissioned by Arthur Geist, Bremen 1940.
• Fuhrken, Fritz . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 176 .
• Gerhard Wietek (Ed.): 200 years of painting in the Oldenburger Land , Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg, Buchdruckerei Hugo Prull, Oldenburg 1986, ISBN 3-894-42100-2 , p. 255.
• Otto Breicha, Franz Xaver Hofer: The rock. Artist community 1921–1927, Wörlen Foundation. Landstrich Nr. 15, Passau 1991, ISBN 3-980-23079-1 .
• Barbara Alms (Ed.), Regina Gramse: Fritz Fuhrken. Municipal Gallery Delmenhorst House Coburg , Scharnhorst and Reincke, Bremen 1994.
• Rainer Zimmermann (Ed.): Expressive Realism. Painting of the Lost Generation , Hirmer Verlag, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-777-46420-1 , p. 374.
• Förderverein Museum Schloß Moyland: Woodcuts of German Expressionism from the van der Grinten collection , Bedburg – Hau 1996 (p. 283, fig. 89 and p. 373).
• Barbara Alms (ed.): The graphic collection Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst , HM Hauschild GmbH, Bremen 1999, ISBN 3-897-57025-4 (Fig. 89, 91, 93, 113).
• Bernd Küster (Ed.): Die Weser 1800-2000 , Donat Verlag, Bremen 1999, ISBN 3-931-73799-3 (p. 119).
• Rolf Jessewitsch, Gerhard Schneider (ed.): Expressive objectivity: fates of figurative painting and graphics in the 20th century. Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection , Verlag Kettler, Bönen 2001, ISBN 3-935-01920-3 (Fig. 386).
• Regina Gramse: Fritz Fuhrken 1894–1943 North German Landscapes , Künstlerhaus Jan Oeltjen, Jaderberg 2002.
• Rainer Stamm for Fritz Fuhrken: General Artist Lexicon (AKL) (Bd. 46 p. 197), Leipzig 2005.
• Nils Aschenbeck : Artists Colony Dötlingen , Verlag Aschenbeck and Holstein, Delmenhorst and Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-932-29276-6 (Fig. 10-11).
• Rolf Jessewitsch, Gerhard Schneider (Ed.): Discovered Modernism: Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection , Verlag Kettler, Bönen / Westphalia 2008, ISBN 978-3-941100-16-9 (p. 287).
• Bernd Küster (HRSG.): The First World War and Art. From propaganda to resistance , Merlin Verlag, Andreas Meyer Verlags GmbH u. Co KG Gifkendorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-87536-266-4 (catalog and picture part about Fritz Fuhrken).

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

• 1921: Oldenburg, Lappan
• 1923: Bremen, Storm art dealer
• 1930: Bremen, Bremen artist: Fritz Fuhrken with 36 works , Kunsthalle Bremen
• 1932: Bremen, Bremen artist: Fritz Fuhrken Extra room with 45 works , Paula-Becker-Modersohn-Haus
• 1933: Delmenhorst, Fritz Fuhrken, Kleine Kunstschau
• 1983: Delmenhorst, memories of an important life's work , Städtische Galerie Haus Coburg
• 1994: Delmenhorst, Fritz Fuhrken retrospective 1894–1943 (catalog), Städtische Galerie Haus Coburg
• 2002: Jaderberg, Fritz Fuhrken - North German landscapes , artist house Jan Oeltjen

Group exhibitions

• 1921: Neuwerker : House behind the Schütting, Bremen; The rock : Recklinghausen, Hotel Bresser; Gelsenkirchen, Municipal Museum ; Hagen, Folkwang Museum ; Münster, Art Association in the State Museum ; Bremen, Kunsthalle; Hagen, Kollock Art Cabinet
• 1922: Künstlerbund Bremen : Oldenburg, Augusteum; The rock : Barmen, Hall of Fame ; Bremen, house behind the Schütting; Bremen, Graphisches Kabinett Fedellisten ; Bremerhaven Art Gallery ; Hamburg, Maria Kunde art salon; Recklinghausen, Salon Richter; Elberfeld, Kunsthaus Mortsiefer; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf ; Vienna, Würthle Art Salon; State Gallery Salzburg ; Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern ; Berlin, Salon Heller
• 1923: The rock : Essen, Werkbundhaus ; Oldenburg, Lappan Oncken art salon; Barmen, Hall of Fame; Ulm, Hermelin Verlag; Berlin, Salon Heller; Kunsthalle Kiel ; Barmen, art gallery; Hamburg, customer graphic cabinet; Neuwerker : Munich, Galerie Hans Goltz
• 1924: The rock : Vienna, State Museum; Vienna, Würthle Art Salon; Elberfeld, museum; Neuwerker : Wiesbaden, New Museum; Hamburg, Maria Kunde art salon; Worpswede artist : Worpswede, art show Philine Vogeler; Künstlerbund Bremen : Bremen, Kunsthalle
• 1925: Künstlerbund Bremen : Bremen, house behind the Schütting; Bremen, Kunsthalle; The rock : Kaiserslautern, Pfalzgalerie; Gelsenkirchen, Municipal Museum ; Essen, Bädeker art salon; Neuwerker : Art Museum Düsseldorf
• 1926: Der Fels : Kassel, Salon Messing; Essen, Salon Bädeker; Hamburg, Salon Maria Kunde; Vienna, Würthle Art Salon; Eisenach, Brass Art Salon; Kunstverein Kassel : Kassel, Hessian artists and guests; Goethebund Delmenhorst : Delmenhorst, Delmenhorst artist; Neuwerker: Bremen, Halem Salon
• 1927: The rock : Bochum, Städtische Galerie; Kassel, art academy; Künstlerbund Bremen : Bremen, Kunsthalle
• 1929: Bremen artist : Bremen, Paula-Becker-Modersohn-Haus
• 1932: Bremen artist : Bremen, Paula-Becker-Modersohn-Haus, Fuhrken with 36 works
• 1933: Bremen artist : Bremen, Paula-Becker-Modersohn-Haus; Worpswede artist : Worpswede, art show Philine Vogeler
• 1936: Worpswede artist : Worpswede art show Philine Vogeler; Künstlerbund Bremen : Bremen, Künstlerhaus Bremen
• 1987: Wildeshausen artist exhibition in the Oldenburg district : Wildeshausen
• 1991: Der Fels : Artists' Association 1921–1927, Passau, Museum of Modern Art
• 1999: The graphic collection : Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg
• 2000: The Weser 1800 - 2000 : traveling exhibition Wilhelmshaven, Nordenham, Minden, Bremen-Vegesack
• 2008: The First World War and art : State Museum for Art and Cultural History Oldenburg Augusteum
• 2009: Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection : Salzburg Museum ; Altenburg, Lindau Museum; Bayreuth, art museum
• 2009: Georg Philipp Wörlen and the artist group Der Fels : Museum Moderner Kunst Passau
• 2009: Kloster Hude in the mirror of the times : Hude, Ritterhude
• 2010: Modernism discovered , Jesuit Church Art Hall, Aschaffenburg

Works

• Destroyed City (1918), Gerhard Schneider Collection, watercolor on paper
• Abstract color study (1919), Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, Inv.Nr. 1109, 315 × 230, watercolor on paper
• Portrait Huth (1919), Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, Inv.Nr. 1108, 1919, 315 × 225, watercolor on paper
• Salambo. Zu Flaubert (1919), Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, inv. No. 1110, 305 × 218, watercolor on paper
• From Passau I , Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, Inv.Nr. 1072, 420 × 320, lithograph
• Crucifixion (Golgatha) , Landesmuseum Oldenburg , LMO 13.958, 400 × 249, watercolor on paper
• Factory (1922), Museum Moderner Kunst Passau , 185 × 210, watercolor on paper
• Girl with Sunflowers (ca.1925), Städtische Galerie Delmenhorst Haus Coburg, 500 × 380, oil on cardboard

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Fuhrken in the catalog of the German National Library
• Search for Fritz Fuhrken in the SPK digital portal of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
• Biographies of Oldenburg Artists ( Memento from August 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
• Video flower picture by Fritz Fuhrken from the NDR program Lieb & Teuer from March 22, 2020