Georg Ettl

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Georg Ettl (born March 31, 1940 in Nittenau ; † November 3, 2014 in Viersen ) was a German sculptor , painter , object artist and art professor .

life and work

Georg Ettl spent his youth in Bavaria. In 1959 he moved to his uncle in Detroit . First he completed an apprenticeship as a toolmaker and technical draftsman there. This occupation later had an effect on the precision of his artistic work, which is characterized by intellectual and technical discipline. From 1960 to 1968 he studied art, literature and philosophy in Detroit. In the meantime, he completed his philosophy studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1966 to 1973 he held various teaching activities and became an art professor. In 1973 he returned to Germany.

Ettl's work is very diverse. In the French castle Oiron he revived originally existing horse representations with his horses, he made church windows and redesigned the inner courtyard of the Krefeld art museum in Krefeld ; he used stencils, computers and laser technology ; he made sculptures , reliefs , a four meter long fabric frieze; he drew and painted, worked with rusty iron sheets and concrete. Ettl worked in a minimalist way and often used a few basic serial motifs as constants , for example horses and heads.

In addition to the architecture-related work, he designed everyday objects such as wallpaper, pans, traffic signs, ties and tables in his later years.

For many, his main work is his interior design of the Holy Spirit Church in Neuss ; from 1992 to 1999 he shaped the church with his figurative imagery down to the last corner. In Neuss Ettl performs the drama theatrum mundi based on the texts of the biblical traditions. He gives his performers a physical form again. His repertoire of objectivity reduced to pictograms , but above all his intensive preoccupation with the human figure, whose inner constitution he worked out in countless variations, enables him to do so. In Neuss he spanned a dramatic arc between worlds of images and worldviews.

The French state made Ettl Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres . Ettl lived and worked for more than thirty years in Viersen, where he worked for a few years as a teacher at the municipal grammar school.

He is buried in a family grave in the parish cemetery in Viechtach ; there is a large cross that he had actually created for the design of the Holy Spirit Church in Neuss .

Quote

“[Ettl's works] tell nothing, but they provoke the narrative potential in the viewer. To a certain extent, they are epitaphs which, in their peculiar originality and in this again very artificially, are reminiscent of a sacred context, but ironize it in profaning mania without actually turning away from it. As modern icons, they are the image of a lost world of motifs and sensations, which now only gain a pictorial character as a scheme of their own. "

- International art forum

Works

Architecture related projects

  • 1980 Amphitheater (concrete): meeting place for Erasmus-von-Rotterdam-Gymnasium Viersen
  • 1982–85 Entrance hall: Kreishaus, Viersen
  • 1985 St. Albertus church facade, Mönchengladbach
  • 1989 Altar: Church of St. Andreas and Matthias, Jülich
  • 1990–92 Private swimming pool: Schulz House, Viersen
  • 1991-93 Chevaux d'Oiron
  • 1992–99 Church interior design: Heilig Geist Kirche, Neuss
  • 1995 Fries (steel): District court Euskirchen
  • 1995 paddle wheel (steel sculpture): Meander Island, Grevenbroich
  • 1997 Crow fence (steel): Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld
  • 1999 Church window: Saint Barnard, Romans (France)
  • 2003 Design: St. Remigius Church, Viersen

Objects and images (examples)

Since 1974 until today: Large panel paintings with formica and gold leaf, concrete sculptures (partly with gold leaf), kitsch motifs, steel fences, woven tapestries, watercolors and wall paintings; cast iron figures and houses; Drawings and enamel work; lasered scenes, plastic and feather sculptures; Woodcuts and ties, tables and pans.

Books and exhibition catalogs (selection)

  • Heinrich Heine . Portfolio. Together with Felix Droese , Martin Lersch , Thomas Huber . Edition Horst Jansen, Viersen 2006
  • Oeuvres, Maquettes, Projets 1996-2000 . FRAC Limousin, ISBN 2-908257-27-0
  • Holy Spirit Church Neuss . (With texts by Johannes Cladders and Ines Kohl). Lichtung Verlag , Regensburg 2000, ISBN 3-929517-38-8
  • art, architecture. entrétiens. Château d'Oiron, Bordeaux 1997, ISBN 2-911511-03-4
  • Work 1968–1989 . With texts (German and English) by Johannes Cladders, Helge Drafz, Jiri Svestka. Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, Düsseldorf 1990, ISBN 3-925974-14-8
  • BiNational. German art of the late 80s . (Exhibition catalog). Dumont, Cologne 1988 ISBN 3-7701-2302-6
  • Home your stars. Artists from Eastern Bavaria . (Exhibition catalog). (With Herbert Achternbusch). Municipal gallery. Regensburg 1984
  • Georg Ettl . (Exhibition catalog). Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld 1983
  • Other ideas . (Exhibition catalog). The Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit, Michigan 1969

Exhibitions

Literature / sources

  • Helge Drafz: The slow process. To the work of Georg Ettl . In: June. Magazine for culture and politics on the Lower Rhine . No. 2/88. Viersen 1988, ISSN  0931-2854
  • Johannes Cladders: Graphic of the 1980s Federal Republic of Germany . Institute for Foreign Relations . Stuttgart 1991
  • Claudia Posca: Georg Ettl . In: Kunstforum international . Vol. 117. Ruppichteroth 1992, ISSN  0177-3674
  • Johannes Cladders: worlds of images - world views. On the work of Georg Ettl . In: Heilig Geist Kirche Neuss . Regensburg 2000, ISBN 3-929517-38-8
  • Jeffrey Abt / Dennis Alan Nawrocki / Maryann Wilkinson: Up from the Streets. Detroit Art from the Duffy Warehouse Collection . Elaine L. Jacob Gallery Wayne State University 2001, ISBN 0-9710973-1-3
  • Jutta Pitzen: Altar offering and saints' life . In: Georg Ettl. Wall paintings in the parish church of St. Remigius Viersen . Parish of St. Remigius. Viersen 2004

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Johannes Cladders: Imagery - world images . In: Heilig Geist Kirche Neuss . Regensburg 2000, ISBN 3-929517-38-8 , page 11
  2. ↑ His heart beat for art
  3. ^ Rheinische Post / Grenzland-Kurier November 26, 2014, p. C1
  4. ↑ Claudia Posca: Georg Ettl . In: Kunstforum international . Vol. 117, 1992. Page 314
personal data
SURNAME Ettl, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German visual artist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Nittenau
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 2014
Place of death Viersen