Fritz Köthe

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Fritz Köthe (1974)

Fritz Köthe (born September 26, 1916 in Berlin , † October 22, 2005 in Berlin) was a German painter and graphic artist . He is considered one of the most important German representatives of Pop Art and Photo Realism .

Life and work

Köthe left school in 1931 and began training as a painter . After completing the journeyman's examination, he was admitted to the higher graphic technical school in Berlin . From 1936 he studied at the University of Graphic Arts in Leipzig , where he received poor grades because of his preoccupation with “ degenerate art ”. In 1939 he returned to Berlin and lived there from his earnings in commercial graphics, especially caricatures, the publication of which in the magazine Koralle resulted in a reference. At that time he was painting the works of Otto Nagel and Käthe Kollwitz . The result is "dark and gloomy leaves and pictures with crouched, depressed people", one of which he submitted to a propaganda exhibition at the start of the war. “Only because of his youth”, the Reich Commissioner for Artistic Design Hans Herbert Schweitzer lets him know that no measures were taken. Until the end of the war he hired himself as a painter at major exhibitions, where he met August Wilhelm Dressler . Through his mediation, Köthe got a studio space in the studio community at Klosterstrasse (room no. 9) from autumn 1940 . Dressler developed into a mentor for Köthes, in 1945 they moved into neighboring studios in the American occupation zone in Berlin and took part in their first exhibitions together. Köthe had some success in the eastern part of the city, but withdrew to the western part because of the pressure to adhere to official Socialist Realism . There his realistic works were unsuccessful because of the international heyday of abstract art . He had to give up his studio and apply for social assistance. He then worked as a graphic designer for various publishers and advertising agencies , where he earned the reputation of an authority. With his painted collages with motifs from advertising , he developed his own visual language from 1960 and worked as a freelance artist until his death .

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Fritz Köthe was a member of the German Association of Artists .

literature

  • Heinz Ohff : Fritz Köthe (monograph and catalog raisonné). Berlin: Nicolai Verlag, 1976. ISBN 3-87584-048-8 .
  • Heidi Müller (adaptation): Fritz Köthe: paintings, watercolors, drawings, 1938-1972 . Berlin: Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, 1972 (exhibition catalog).
  • Helga Huskamp: "Who else is walking through the landscape and seeing the panorama like Caspar David Friedrich?": Painted dé-collage; on the work of the painter Fritz Köthe . Munich: wak 1998. ISBN 3-9804250-2-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Ohff : Fritz Köthe - attempt at a portrait . In: Heinz Ohff, Wolfgang Sauré: Fritz Köthe. The pictorial work 1963-1980 . Galerie Wilbrand Cologne, 1979. p. 5.
  2. ↑ s. Short vita Köthe, Fritz , in: Ateliergemeinschaft Klosterstrasse - Berlin 1933–1945. Artists in the time of National Socialism , Academy of the Arts (Edition Hentrich), Berlin 1994. ISBN 3-89468-134-9 (p. 223)
  3. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Ordinary members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Köthe, Fritz ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on September 23, 2015)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
personal data
SURNAME Köthe, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 2005
Place of death Berlin