Günther Blau

Günther Blau (born January 10, 1922 in Elberfeld , † November 16, 2007 in Marburg ) was a German painter .

biography

Günther Blau was born in Elberfeld in 1922. He lived in Marburg and the surrounding area since the mid-1940s, and in the Marburg district of Cyriaxweimar since 1971 . In 1940 he began to study sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy , but was drafted into the Reich Labor Service a year later . In 1944 he suffered a serious injury in the Crimea , which is why he was unable to resume his training as a sculptor after the end of the war. In 1946 he began studying painting instead at the Art Academy in Munich and continued at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe .

Since 1947, numerous study trips have taken him to Italy , but also to France , Yugoslavia and across Germany . Here he found many of his motifs. In the 1960s Günther Blau met Ruthild Klaus in Marburg, with whom he had been married since 1967.

Günther Blau's work has been shown in numerous national and international solo exhibitions. He also repeatedly participated in group exhibitions. Since the early 1990s, larger exhibitions have been shown. Individual works and groups of works are in private and public collections (Museum for Art and Cultural History of the Philipps University of Marburg, Von der Heydt Museum Wuppertal, State Gallery Stuttgart, Upper Hessian Museum Gießen, Museum Schloss Wilhelmshöhe Kassel - Graphic Collection, Art Museum Solingen / Museum Baden , Museum Art of the West Coast Föhr).

Günther Blau died in Marburg in November 2007 after a long and serious illness. His wife has taken care of his work. She organizes the presentations of his art with private and public support . This includes the extensive retrospective of the drawings in collaboration with the Museum of Art and Cultural History in Marburg, the retrospectives in the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal and in Bad Arolsen Castle, and other smaller exhibitions at various locations throughout Germany.

plant

Günther Blau's work is in the tradition of magical realism , is influenced by New Objectivity and Surrealism and is as closely linked to German Romanticism as it is to the Italian "pittura metafisica". The complete work consists of a good 1400 paintings , over 250 graphics and numerous gouaches that have not yet been counted. The catalog raisonné of his drawings documents 849 works.

Selected solo exhibitions

• 1954 first solo exhibition (Kirchspitzklause, Marburg)
• 1969 Günther Blau - drawings (Galleria del Levante, Munich)
• 1972 Art Cabinet Hanna Bekker von Rath, Frankfurt a. M.
• 1972 Works by Günther Blau (Art History Seminar at the University of Mainz)
• 1972 University Museum for Fine Arts, Marburg
• 1973 Günther Blau - Pictures and Drawings (Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal)
• 1973/74 Goethe Institutes in Rome, Bologna, Padua, Genoa, Milan, Trieste
• 1978 Gallery November, Berlin
• 1980 Günther Blau (Art Association Paderborn)
• 1980 Art Cabinet Hanna Bekker von Rath, Frankfurt a. M.
• 1982 University Museum of Fine Arts of the Philipps University of Marburg (retrospective on the occasion of Günther Blau's 60th birthday)
• 1984 Hans Thoma Society, Reutlingen
• 1988 Nordico City Museum, Linz / Austria
• 1987 Günther Blau (Art Cabinet Hanna Bekker von Rath, Frankfurt a. M.)
• 1999 Günther Blau - The painterly work (Kunsthalle Wilhelmshaven)
• 1999 Günther Blau - The painterly work (Museum for Art and Cultural History of the Philipps University, Marburg)
• 2005 Günther Blau - printmaking (town hall Biedenkopf)
• 2006 Günther Blau - The graphic work (Museum for Art and Cultural History of the Philipps University, Marburg)
• 2011 Günther Blau - The Gouaches (Lorraine Ogilvie Gallery, Marburg)
• 2012 Günther Blau - Drawings (Kunsttreff, Frankenberg)
• 2014 Günther Blau - Magic of the everyday (Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal)
• 2015 Günther Blau - Paintings (Gallery Schwind, Berlin)
• 2016 Günther Blau - paintings and drawings (Bilderhaus Krämerbrücke, Erfurt)
• 2016 Günther Blau - paintings (Gallery Schwind, Frankfurt a. M.)
• 2016 Günther Blau - The Presence of Things (Otto Ubbelohde-Haus, Goßfelden)
• 2017 Günther Blau - retrospective (Museum Bad Arolsen)
• 2018 Günther Blau - Paintings (Gallery Schwind, Berlin)

Selected literature

• Günther Blau - Silent World. Ed .: Birgit Kümmel, Christoph Otterbeck. Bad Arolsen 2017 (exhibition catalog)
• Günther Blau. Ed .: Gallery Schwind. Berlin 2015 (exhibition catalog, with a foreword by Antje Birthälmer)
• Günther Blau - The graphic work. Ed .: Museum for Art and Cultural History of the Phillips University of Marburg. Marburg 2010 (catalog raisonné of the drawings, with essays by Ruthild Blau, Eckard Ehlers, Ernst-Otto Riecken and Jürgen Wittstock)
• Ernst-Otto Riecken: The painter Günther Blau in letters and encounters from a quarter of a century. With an afterword by Heinz Schönemann. Norderstedt 2009.
• Günther Blau - The painterly work. Book accompanying the special exhibitions in Marburg and Wilhelmshaven. Marburg 1999 (catalog raisonné of the paintings, with text contributions by Cornelia Herrmann, E. Ehlers and others)
• Günther Blau - The graphic work. Ed .: Armin Geus . Marburg 1992 (catalog raisonné of prints, with essays by Peter Anselm Riedl, Rolf Escher and Richard Hamann-McLean)
• The draftsman Günther Blau. Marburg 1987 (with text contribution by Antje and Wilhelm Ziehr)
• Günther Blau. In: Booklets of the Art History Institute of the University of Mainz. Author and editor: Richard Hamann-McLean . Mainz / Marburg 1980
• Günther Blau - oil paintings, gouaches, drawings. Frankfurter Kunstkabinett Hanna Bekker vom Rath 1972. Frankfurt a. M. 1972 (with text contribution by Carl Graepler and Hanna Bekker vom Rath)

Awards

• 1977: Eduard von der Heydt Culture Prize of the City of Wuppertal
• 1991: first Marburg Art Prize

Web links

• Literature by and about Günther Blau in the catalog of the German National Library