Gerhard Schliepstein

Gerhard Schliepstein (born October 21, 1886 in Braunschweig ; † September 3, 1963 in Berlin ) was a German sculptor and designer v. a. of Art Deco as well as a porcelain modeler.

life and work

Gerhard Schliepstein was the son of the businessman Adolf Schliepstein. After elementary school and high school, he completed a four-year apprenticeship as a sculptor with the Braunschweig court sculptor Wilhelm Bayern. In 1907 he then went to the University of Fine Arts in Berlin . After completing his studies, he worked as a freelance artist in Berlin-Friedenau and from 1911 initially designed naturalistic porcelain figures that were made in the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin (KPM). In addition to KPM, he also worked for the Schwarzburg workshops for porcelain art in Unterweißbach , the Heubach brothers porcelain factories in Lichte and for the Schierholz manufactory in Plaue .

Schliepstein worked mainly in porcelain and more rarely in bronze and alabaster . In addition, he made grave sculptures, memorial plaques, building ceramics and sculptures. Until the mid-1920s, his designs were predominantly determined by naturalistic depictions of animals. Porcelain figurines from this period show clear references to the late Viennese Art Nouveau style made by the Augarten porcelain factory . Working with Max Schneider, head of the art department at Philipp Rosenthal AG , Schliepstein was encouraged from the mid-1920s to design expressionist sculptures with a white glaze and a clear reduction in the staffage . Schneider managed to bind Schliepstein exclusively to Rosenthal. From 1925 to 1937 he worked for the company's art departments in Selb and Bahnhof Selb. During this time he designed 62 models for Rosenthal, mostly modern expressive plastic. His work for Rosenthal was exhibited at the Leipziger Messe from 1925 . The slim, elegant figures from this period combine stylistic features of Expressionism, New Objectivity with the elegance of Gothic figures.

According to Müller, Schliepstein held a "particularly outstanding position" among the artists working for Rosenthal. At the beginning of his work he was “still deeply in realistic naturalism”, but between 1924 and 1929 he finally developed into a “ symbolist ”. He describes 1924 as Schliepstein's "most fertile year". Between 1924 and 1927, Müller believes that he recognizes a “creative break”, which manifests itself, for example, in the “plastic, rather insignificant formation” of the four “seasons”, but in the same year by the group “Music” a “hitherto unreached one Climax ”experiences. 1929 Schliepstein by artistic director of the Meissen porcelain factory , Max Adolf Pfeiffer , made the accusation publicly that its 1929 figure presented transfiguration a mirror-image plagiarism 1927 of Richard Langer's figure Madonna represents. Pfeiffer asked Rosenthal to withdraw the figure of Transfiguration .

In the 1930s, Schliepstein turned away from progressive designs. Following the zeitgeist, colorfully decorated, down-to-earth, artistically more undemanding figure designs dominated from the mid-1930s. From 1926 to 1945 Schliepstein worked with the sculptor Fritz Bernuth in a joint studio . The studio was destroyed in an air raid in 1941 and Schliepstein moved his residence to Bansin . After the end of the Second World War he returned to Berlin. Some of his designs from the 1930s were also produced after the war until the late 1950s.

In addition to his animal sculptures, Schliepstein is also known for busts , e.g. B. by the actors Alfred Abel and Eduard von Winterstein , as well as abstract representations of people. Some of the furniture, clock cases, lamp bases, desk sets and oil paintings that he designed are also preserved.

Schliepstein's works are now exhibited in numerous museums, including the Porzellanikon in Selb, the Bröhan Museum in Berlin and the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences in Sydney . His bronze works and expressionist porcelain figures fetch several thousand euros at international art auctions.

Works (selection)

Building plastic

Wing-flapping seagull , Stralsund naval hospital (today Hospital on the Sund)

• Kornagel tomb, Südfriedhof Leipzig, 1918
• Portal (stoneware) of the Protestant parish hall at Ostpreußendamm 64, Berlin-Lichterfelde, 1925
• Goethe head for a school in Berlin-Tempelhof
• Wall sculpture wing flapping seagull , cast zinc, naval hospital on Grosse Parower Strasse, Stralsund, 1938

Porcelain designs

• Drawing lessons , Gebr. Heubach, Lichte, around 1910
• Bear , kangaroo , night heron , 1921/22
• Imagination , KPM, 1924
• Crouching candlestick , KPM, 1924
• Clock with mane sheep , (often incorrectly called the ibex clock or mane sheep clock ), 1925
• The bathers , Meißner oven and porcelain factory, vorm. C. Teichert, 1925
• Music , Philipp Rosenthal AG, art department, Selb, 1927
• Transfiguration , Philipp Rosenthal AG, art department, Selb station, 1928
• Beethoven mask , Philipp Rosenthal AG, art department, Selb station, 1928
• Spring , summer , autumn and winter , Philipp Rosenthal AG, art department, Selb station, 1928
• Greyhounds , Philipp Rosenthal AG, 1930
• Seated woman , Philipp Rosenthal AG, 1932
• Swimmer , Philipp Rosenthal AG, 1933
• Source , Philipp Rosenthal AG, 1935

Bronze sculpture

• Leda with the swan , Hessische Kunstanstalt Carl George, Altmorschen
• Mandolin player , 1920
• Fleeing deer , 1924
• Prince and Princess , 1925 (Noack foundry, Berlin)
• Bathers , 1935

literature

• Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. Delphin-Verlag, Munich 1930.
• Gerhard Schliepstein . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 30 : Scheffel – Siemerding . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1936, p. 111 .
• Gerhard Schliepstein . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958, p. 193 - Gerhard Schliepstein .
• Sabine Spindler: Gerhard Schliepstein. Collector's Journal, 10/2011, pp. 28–35

Web links

• Information about Gerhard Schliepstein at rosenthal.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. P. 31.
2. ↑ Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. P. 33.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Marlen Grohmann, Christian Lechelt, Isabelle von Marschall, Julia Roolf: From the origins of European porcelain to Art Déco: "A king's dream and mass-produced goods. 300 years of European porcelain", an exhibition by the porcelain manufacturer Selb and Hohenberg ad Eger, 24. April 2nd - November 2nd 2010 . In: Wilhelm Siemen (Hrsg.): Writings and catalogs of the German Porcelain Museum . tape 104 , no. 1 . German Porcelain Museum, Hohenberg ad Eger 2010, ISBN 978-3-940027-05-4 , p. 612 f .
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Sabine Spindler: Gerhard Schliepstein . In: Collectors Journal . tape 2011 , no. 10 . Gemi, 2011, ISSN  1863-0332 , p. 28-35 .
5. ↑ Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. P. 55.
6. ↑ Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. P. 45.
7. ↑ Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. Pp. 51-52.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. P. 45.
9. ↑ Around the world with art deco. December 6, 2018, Retrieved January 9, 2019 (American English). 
10. ^ Gerd Baier, Georg Dehio, Hans-Christian Feldmann, Ernst Gall: Dehio - Handbook of German Art Monuments: Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . 2nd Edition. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich [a. a.] 2000, ISBN 3-422-03081-6 .
11. ↑ Erwin Müller: The rebirth of porcelain. A cultural and art psychological introduction to Gerhard Schliepstein's porcelain sculpture. P. 48.