Fritz Kimm

Fritz Kimm (born January 12, 1890 in Kronstadt , Kingdom of Hungary ; † May 5, 1979 in Lechbruck / Allgäu) was a German graphic artist and painter .

Life

As a student at the Kronstadt German Honterus-Gymnasium , Fritz Kimm, 1896–1909, received his first drawing lessons from Ernst Kühlbrandt, a well-known art teacher and painter in his hometown. Between 1909 and 1914, Kimm studied figurative drawing with Balló at the Budapest Academy of Art. In 1914 he was awarded the Nadányi Prize (as the best art student in Hungary) and the Harkányi Prize (as the best exhibitor among 40 applicants) and received a study grant from the Hungarian state.

During the First World War , Kimm served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army from 1915–1918, and then, from 1918–1920, also in the Royal Romanian Army. Between 1931 and 1936 he was the manager of the Oltiszem estate near Kézdivásárhely (Rum. Târgu Secuiesc, German Szekler Neumarkt) in the historical south-east of Transylvania Province of Szeklerland (now Rum. Județul Covasna).

After he was also present in the Romanian art scene, he was awarded the royal order “Pentru Merite Artistice”, 1st class in 1918 - after his own exhibitions in Sibiu and Bucharest . During the Nazi era, he also took part in the controversial traveling exhibitions of ethnic German artists from Romania , which were shown in the German Reich in 1942–1944 .

Towards the end of the Second World War , he fled the advancing Red Army to the west, then lived in Austria from 1944 and finally settled in Germany in 1954 as a freelance graphic artist and painter .

plant

The focus of Fritz Kimm's creative style, which was shaped by Hungarian Expressionism , is the drawing. In virtuoso sketches he depicted the Carpathian Mountains and the living and working world of the rural people who are integrated into the landscape in very spontaneous and expressive scenes. In doing so, he developed his own expressionist line harmony.

Similar to Franz Marc , the animal (primarily the horse) also plays a dominant role in his numerous drawings and graphics . None of the Transylvanian artists reproduced animal scenes in such spontaneous snapshots. In the known drawings such. B. "Woodworker", "The horse tamer" or "Dorfstraße", the central perspective illusion of the room is eliminated, whereby the truth of expressionist reality remained largely present.

In his later creative development as an artist, Kimm himself confessed to Alfred Sohn-Rethel , Ferdinand Hodler and Egon Schiele , among others , whom he regarded as role models.

literature

• Gudrun-Liane Ittu: Artiști plastici germani din România. Între tradiție, modernitate și compromis ideologic. Anii 1930-1944. Editura Academiei Române: Bucureşti, 2011. Fritz Kimm, pp. 174, 125–126.
• Doina Udrescu: German art from Transylvania in the collections of the Brukenthal Museum in Sibiu (1980-1950). I. Painting, sculpture. Self-published by the Democratic Forum of Germans in Romania: Hermannstadt, 2003. Fritz Kimm, p. 84, cat. No. 177, 178, p. 238.
• Gudrun-Liane Ittu: The visual arts of the German minority in the period from 1945 to 1989, reflected in the German-language publications. In: Muzeul Arad. Studii și Comunicări (Arad), 2001-2002, pp. 169-187.
• Lexicon of the Transylvanian Saxons. Wort und Welt Publisher: Thaur b. Innsbruck, 1993, pp. 235-236.
• Claus Stephani : Far from Transylvania. For Fritz Kimm's 90th birthday. In: New Literature (Bucharest), No. 3/1980, pp. 110–111.
• Hans Guggenberger: The first recipient of the Hermann von Salza Prize. To some pictures by the painter Fritz Kimm. In: Volk im Osten (Kronstadt / Brașov), 5th vol., No. 4–6, April – June 1944, pp. 285–290.
• Hans Wühr : Fritz Kimm. Southeast German cultural work: Munich, 1964.
• Kimm portfolio. Twenty drawings by Fritz Kimm. Hans Meschendörfer Published by Kronstadt, 1938.
• Adolf Meschendörfer (ed.): From Kronstadt Gardens. Art life in a Saxon town in 1930. Johann Götts Sohn: Kronstadt, 1930. Fritz Kimm, pp. 194–195.