Gerhard Hermanns
Gerhard Hermanns , (born August 18, 1935 in Langenfeld ; † July 8, 2015 in Barkenholm (Dithmarschen), Schleswig-Holstein ), was a German graphic designer / wood cutter and visual artist . His preferred medium was the woodcut / color woodcut .
Life
Born in the Rhineland, Hermanns trained as a pattern draftsman for textile printing from 1951 to 1954. From 1965 he attended the Werkkunstschule Dortmund and completed his artistic training there in free and applied graphics in 1968. The first monochrome woodcuts were created. He then worked as a draftsman in the textile industry until 1970.
From 1970 to 1972 he retrained to become a career counselor for the disabled for health reasons. For five years he worked as a disability advisor at the Iserlohn employment office, from 1978 to 1991 at the Heide employment office in Dithmarschen, Schleswig-Holstein.
In 1978 the company moved to Dithmarschen on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein. The light, the vastness and the graphic landscape fascinated and inspired the artist. In addition to his professional activity, from then on he devoted himself intensively to the technique of color woodcut in hand printing. In the years 1982 to 2017 large cycles were created, which Hermanns showed in museums and galleries all over Germany.
Hermanns died in 2015 after a long illness. In the same year, the Dithmarscher Landesmuseum dedicated a large anniversary and commemorative exhibition to him post mortem.
Work and work
Helene Blum Spiecker, employee of the district museum Zons , described Hermann's style in the introductory speech to the exhibition Last Landscapes 1994 as follows:
“Gerhard Hermanns chose the oldest graphic printing technique, the woodcut, as the only pictorial medium. He developed his own visual language and has mastered the technique of color woodcut in masterly perfection up to and including hand printing. [...] Hermanns developed a unique pictorial-impressionistic imagery using the natural texture of the wood. There is no delimiting line, no single-colored surface, no black plate. […] In detail, the line combinations are reminiscent of fabric structures and patterns, ie of the artist's original activity as a pattern maker.
This difficult application of the woodcut technique with colored printing enables a convincing representation of atmospheric phenomena, such as rain and haze and past sunlight, which one otherwise thinks can only be represented in watercolor. "
Hermanns insisted that he was not only a wood cutter, but also a wood printer, because he developed his very own technique of applying paint using hand printing, and he printed his sometimes large-format sheets in up to 48 colors. He worked mostly in cycles or larger, coherent topics. He dedicated his first cycles to nature, the west coast and landscape themes, such as in “Koppel und Vorland” and “Last Landscapes”. His interest in poetry and the artistic exploration of it led to intensive collaboration with several contemporary poets. This resulted in the cycles "Gaia" and "Holzgesänge". He also designed artists' books and volumes of poetry together with poets such as Siegfried Marquardt and JP Tammen. In the course of his artistic career he moved further and further away from the concrete image of nature towards an increased expression of abstract content through form and color.
Paddock and foreland (1982 to 1987)
The cycle includes 56 colored woodcuts that were hand-printed. Koppel und Vorland is a visual exploration of the peculiar aesthetics of the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, especially Dithmarschen. It comprises five different subject areas: monthly pictures, cutters and terps, flora and fauna, encounters, the end.
Last Landscapes (1987 to 1991)
The 100 color woodcuts for the “Last Landscapes” cycle were hand-printed between 1987 and 1991. The cycle addresses the destruction of the environment and the creeping decline of cultural landscapes (see My Wooden Paths through the Katinger Watts in the “Last Landscapes” catalog, catalogs of the museums in Schleswig-Holstein). The cycle comprises 10 main motifs and 13 themed motifs, each with 2 - 3 so-called destructions. Hermanns not only implemented the destruction of nature in the motifs, but also mainly used the woodcut technique of the "lost stick" when making the printing plates. The printing blocks of the themed motifs were further processed or reduced and reprinted for each destruction, and thereby irreversibly destroyed at the same time.
Gaia (1994 to 1997)
The cycle with 44 woodblock prints was created between 1994 and 1997 through a collaboration with the poet Siegfried Marquardt, Bremen. It was an artistic dialogue between language images and imagery. The topics of this collaboration were: LIGHT - COLOR - LIFE. The following woodcuts were created for 10 of the poet's poems, each related to a specific color:
- 10 small-format graphics with poetry as a leaflet in 10 different color spaces
- 24 medium-sized formats, each with 3 motifs for each color
- 10 large formats as metamorphoses for each color space
Wood chants (1999 to 2007)
The cycle was created between 1999 and 2007. It comprises 25 woodcuts in color on southern and eastern European poetry by contemporary authors (mainly taken from "Buch der Ränder", Wieser-Verlag).
Public collections
Woodcuts by Gerhard Hermanns can be found in the following collections and public institutions:
- Schleswig-Holstein State Museums Schloss Gottorf , Schleswig / Schleswig-Holstein: GAIA, complete cycle (43 works)
- Dithmarscher Landesmuseum , Meldorf / Schleswig-Holstein : paddock and foreland, complete cycle (56 works), further works and annual tickets
- Artists' museum Heikendorf-Kieler Förde , Heikendorf-Kiel / Schleswig-Holstein: West coast motifs from different cycles (32 works)
- Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesbibliothek , Kiel / Schleswig-Holstein: wooden chants, complete cycle + sketches (25 works), various bookmarks / single-sheet prints + sketches, artist book "Das Land. Das Meer. The ear of the weather sensor", Tammen / Hermanns, artist book " Mona - my violin "
- National Park House Museum Fedderwardersiel , Butjadingen / Lower Saxony: Last landscapes, complete cycle (100 works)
- Herzog August Bibliothek , Wolffenbüttel / Lower Saxony: artist's book "The Land. The Sea. The Ear of the Weather Sensor", Tammen / Hermanns
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1985: paddock and foreland. District Museum Zons , Dormagen (group exhibition)
- 1986: paddock and foreland. Dithmarscher Landesmuseum , Meldorf
- 1986: paddock and foreland. Cultural bridge of the city of Bochum
- 1988: paddock and foreland. Coastal Museum Juist
- 1988: paddock and foreland. Schleswig-Holstein State Library , Kiel
- 1988: paddock and foreland. North Frisian Museum, Husum
- 1993: last landscapes. Prinzenhof district museum, Itzehoe
- 1994: Last Landscapes. Ostholstein Museum , Eutin
- 1994: Last Landscapes. District museum Zons, Dormagen
- 1997: GAIA. Dithmarscher Landesmuseum , Meldorf
- 2000: GAIA. Literature House Bremen
- 2004: wooden chants. Deutsche Welle Bonn
- 2006: paddock and foreland. Dithmarscher Landesmuseum , Meldorf
- 2006: tulip. Group exhibition, Zons District Museum, Dormagen
- 2007: wooden chants. Galerie am Wehlhamm, Butjadingen
- 2007: From tree to picture (Six North German wood cutters on a journey) Kunstverein Heide (group exhibition)
- 2008: Last Landscapes. Coast Museum National Park House Fedderwardersiel
- 2012: 4 people - 4 opinions. Kunstverein Husum (with Daniela Wehrmeier, Wolfgang Wehrmeier, Gudrun Wolff-Scheel)
- 2015: paddock and foreland. Dithmarscher Landesmuseum , Meldorf
- 2015: transience and other beauties. Heikendorf Art Museum (with Daniela Wehrmeier, Wolfgang Wehrmeier)
- 2018: Who sits in the glass house ... (group exhibition, trick) Artelier Alte Schule Tiebensee in the glass house Schülp
Literature / bibliography
- Paddock and foreland: Gerhard Hermanns; Color woodblock prints from the North Sea coast . West Holstein. Verl.-Anst. Boyens, Heide in Holstein 1988, ISBN 3-8042-0453-8 .
- Gerhard Hermanns, Last Landscapes: Color Woodcuts (= catalogs of the museums in Schleswig-Holstein . Volume 3 ). Westholsteinische Verl.-Anst. Boyens, Heide 1992, ISBN 3-8042-0593-3 .
- Gaia, color woodcuts Gerhard Hermanns, Siegfried Marquardt poems . Ostholstein-Museum, Eutin 1998, OCLC 75924548 .
- Helene Blum-Spicker, Sigrid Barten: Poppy: Myth - Symbol - Shape . District museum Zons, Dormagen 1999, ISBN 3-9806527-1-8 (exhibition from June 11th - August 25th 1999 in the district museum Zons).
- Johann P. Tammen, Gerhard Hermanns: The country. Ocean. The ear of the weather sensor. Quetsche, Witzwort 2000, OCLC 248721793 .
- Helene Blum-Spicker, Ingeborg Becker: Iris: Myth, Symbol, Shape . District Administrator Rhein-Kreis Neuss, Neuss 2002, ISBN 3-9806527-3-4 .
- Helene Blum-Spicker, Helga Dietrich: Tulips: Myth, Symbol, Shape . District Administrator Rhein-Kreis Neuss, Neuss 2005, ISBN 3-9806527-3-4 (apparently with the same ISB number as the 2002 catalog).
- Gerhard Hermanns: An artist's life In: Lüüd, the culture magazine in Dithmarschen. February 2014.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Meldorf: Exhibition with woodcuts by Hermanns. boyens-medien.de.
- ↑ Excerpts from the introductory speech for the exhibition “Last Landscapes” by MA Helene Blum Spiecker, District Museum Zons, Dormagen, 1994 on jimdo.com
- ↑ Koppel and Vorland color woodcuts by Gerhard Hermanns. dithmarschen.de.
- ^ Gerhard Hermanns, Last Landscapes: Color Woodcuts (= catalogs of the museums in Schleswig-Holstein . Volume 3 ). Westholsteinische Verl.-Anst. Boyens, Heide 1992, ISBN 3-8042-0593-3 .
- ↑ Dithmarscher Kunst im Landesgedächtnis Handover of the GAIA cycle to Gottorf Castle, 2018
- ↑ 32 woodcuts for the Kuenstlermuseum Handover of the donation to the Artists' Museum Heikendorf, 2018
- ↑ Moving Balkan poetry set in the picture. Galerie am Wehlhamm, Butjadingen, 2007
- ↑ 6 North German wood cutters. kunstverein-heide.com, 2007
- ↑ Last Landscapes. Coastal Museum National Park House Fedderwardersiel, 2008
- ↑ 4 people - 4 opinions. Kunstverein Husum, 2012
- ↑ paddock and foreland. Dithmarscher Landesmuseum, Meldorf, 2015
- ↑ Impermanence and other beauties. Heikendorf Art Museum, 2015
- ↑ Who sits in the glass house ... alte-schule-tiebensee.de, kunstgriff.de, 2018
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hermanns, Gerhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German graphic artist and visual artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 18, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Langenfeld (Rhineland) |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 8, 2015 |
| Place of death | Barkenholm (Dithmarschen), Schleswig-Holstein |