Günter Drebusch

Günter Drebusch

Günter Drebusch (born December 6, 1925 in Witten , Westphalia ; † January 3, 1998 ibid) was a German painter , draftsman , graphic artist and representative of abstract art and Informel in Germany.

Life

After studying pedagogy, Günter Drebusch first became a primary school teacher in Witten in 1948 and then in Ennepetal from 1951 until he was appointed as an artistic teacher for drawing at the Werkkunstschule Münster in 1965. From 1971 to 1979 he was dean of the design department at the Münster University of Applied Sciences , where he was appointed professor for drawing and design theory in 1973 and taught until 1990.

Drebusch was an autodidact as an artist. He owed his first suggestions and support to his teacher Peter Emil Noelle , who was also director of the Märkisches Museum in Witten between 1932 and 1938 and from 1946 until his death in 1953 . Noelle had induced a number of artists to deal with the technical-industrial environment of the Ruhr area and thus also opened up a significant range of topics for Drebusch during his artistic beginnings. Through Noelle, he got to know the Witten painter Gustav Deppe and the collector Alfred Pott around 1950 . Deppe was a co-founder of the artist group Junge westen , which also included the painters Thomas Grochowiak , Emil Schumacher , Heinrich Siepmann and Hans Werdehausen as well as the sculptor Ernst Hermanns . Through his friendship with Deppe and through close contact with the group, Günter Drebusch received important artistic impulses.

As a full member of the German Association of Artists , he participated in a total of fourteen major annual exhibitions between 1959 and 1984; from 1976 to 1986 Günter Drebusch was a member of the DKB board.

Early work

In 1954 Drebusch accidentally invented the drawing technique with ink on blotting board, in which - triggered by a tour of the Ford factory in Cologne - a series of linearly defined representations of technical-machine situations was created in 1955, which was created in 1955 by flat-structured drawings of fantastic technoid structures was replaced. The period from 1956 to 1959 in Günter Drebusch's work is determined by the preoccupation with different painting and drawing techniques, whereby the method of representation became visibly more non-representational, leading to the scriptural-informal. The drawing style is now characterized by the autonomous line. Intensive discussions with his school friend, the art historian and collector Rolf Linnenkamp, ​​on the occasion of the commission to paint the New Lombard Bridge in Hamburg for him, led to the fact that, despite the increasing renunciation of object-related representations, reference was made to real situations in the pictures . This also applies to a recent series of ink drawings on blotting board that, with a few exceptions, employed Günter Drebusch from 1959 to 1967.

drawings

In the summer of 1963, Drebusch invented the so-called interchangeable images using the same technique, which were further developed into variable ornament programs in the following years. This new type of image - now called "versionism" in art history - is based on the principle that several drawings of the same format on several or all sides always fit together seamlessly and can thus form different versions together, although they look different.

graphic

Drebusch's prints, which began in 1958 and which consisted of etchings and lithographs, also initially followed the principle of associatively triggered image statements in an informal manner of representation. Around 1966, however, the tendency towards object-related figuration became clear in the etchings. In the following years until 1980 this tendency was further developed. By this year - the year of publication of the catalog raisonné of Drebusch's prints - a total of 270 sheets had been created.

The so-called "implementations", in which Günter Drebusch interpreted the works of older masters artistically using the means of drawing or etching, initially strengthened the figurative development in his oeuvre. This further important topic has comprised a total of 49 works since 1962, a. based on Altdorfer, Botticelli, Brueghel, David, Dürer, Friedrich, Ingres, Leonardo da Vinci, Mantegna or Velásquez.

Objects

In 1967 and 1968 only a few drawings or pictures were made. During this time, the artist realized two aluminum reliefs "Labyrinthine Tectonics I and II" for a foyer of today's University of Siegen . Dealing with spatial and plastic problems in connection with this order, as well as suggestions from the sculptor friend Karl Ehlers , led to the object boxes from 1968 onwards. Pencil drawings, sculptural elements, found objects and sometimes also colored pieces were grouped together under Plexiglas covers to form three-dimensional structures.

Late work

Drebusch's interest continued to focus on the human figure, the “implementation”, occasionally technoid structures and, increasingly, the landscape. After a trip in 1976 to the mountain landscape of the Bieszscady in the extreme south-east of Poland, the landscape motif then dominates, whereby the landscapes are very reduced and abstracted. The object boxes are now less common and have been replaced by pencil drawings.

Drebusch's first bunker picture was taken at the end of 1979. This series, which comprises 75 pictures and to which the artist devoted himself until 1986, initially consisted of pencil drawings, then of painted, collaged drawings and about the second half of collage objects in which the color found its place again. At the same time, the series is characterized by a progressive objectification. After a break of two years in which Drebusch dealt with literary works, the visual work resumed in 1988. In a transformed form, Drebusch ties in with his informal phase of the 1950s and 1960s with partly large-format graphite pencil drawings and watercolors.

Awards

Günter Drebusch received five art awards in Germany, one art award in Poland and one art award in the USA. For his services to the German-Polish cultural exchange, the city of Kraków awarded him its Gold Medal for Cultural Activities in 1988.

Functions

He was an honorary member of the West German Artists Association , of which he was the first chairman for 21 years. In addition, he was spokesman for the German Art Council , deputy spokesman for the German Cultural Council , a longstanding board member of the German Association of Artists and the International Society of Fine Arts and a member of the Darmstadt Secession .

Günter Drebusch dealt with art-theoretical and art-sociological topics early on. Since 1957, around 250 texts, catalog forewords, lectures and opening speeches have been written, including the first comprehensive overall presentation of industrial architecture in Germany in 1976.

The Günter Drebusch Prize for young artists in the field of drawing has been awarded by the city of Witten since 2001 .

literature

• Etchings and lithographs by Günter Drebusch from 1958 to 1980 . F. Coppenrath Verlag, Münster 1980, ISBN 3-88547-102-7 .
• Günter Drebusch . DruckVerlag Kettler, Bönen 1993, ISBN 3-925608-14-1 .
• Günter Drebusch. Complete catalog volume 1 . DruckVerlag Kettler, Bönen 1995, ISBN 3-925608-29-X .

Web links

• Literature by and about Günter Drebusch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Günter Drebusch  in the German Digital Library
• Günter Drebusch Prize

Individual evidence

Unless otherwise indicated, the information on life and work is taken from Günter Drebusch's General Catalog Volume 1 (Bönen 1995, p. 148 f.).

1. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Exhibitions since 1951 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on April 20, 2016)  
2. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Board members of the German Association of Artists since 1951 ( Memento of the original from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on April 20, 2016)  
3. ^ WAZ portal: art installation at university defaced. May 26, 2008
4. ↑ Günter Drebusch's estate and cf. Dagmar Drebusch in: "Günter Drebusch General Catalog Volume 1" Bönen 1995, p. 148 f.
5. ↑ See web link Günter Drebusch Prize