Gerhard Schneider (art collector)

Gerhard Schneider (born December 11, 1938 in Marsberg / Westphalia ) is a German collector of ostracized art .

Life

In 1959 Schneider passed his Abitur . After completing his military service, he studied philosophy , German , theology and history in Bonn , Vienna and Münster . In 1968 he received his doctorate on Nicolaus von Kues' concept of God . In 1970 he married for the first time. He worked as a teacher at the Reismann Gymnasium in Paderborn . In 1979 he voluntarily gave up teaching.

From 1975 he built up an art antiquarian shop, which secured his livelihood after leaving school. In 1983 he moved to Olpe and remarried. Here he first encountered the estate of the artist Valentin Nagel, who died in 1942 . After acquiring almost the entire estate, the search for traces of the “ lost generation of artists ” began. In 1988 there was a first exhibition with Nagel's estate. In 1991, Schneider was a co-founder of the Südsauerland Art Association, which, at his suggestion, has been holding exhibitions on artists ostracized during the Nazi regime and later forgotten. In 1997 he had his first meeting with the Solingen museum director Rolf Jessewitsch .

From 1999 Schneider had exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Solingen , at the Kunstverein Südsauerland and at seven other stations with works from his own collection. In 2004 the “Community Foundation for Ostracized Arts with the Gerhard Schneider Collection, Solingen” was recognized by the Düsseldorf District Government. In December 2005 the foundation's first exhibition opened with an event that reflected the character of a planned “center for ostracized arts”.

He is a member of the KDSt.V. Borusso-Westfalia Bonn in the CV .

Gerhard Schneider Collection

The Gerhard Schneider Collection is now considered a milestone in coming to terms with the history of the impact of Expressionism , especially expressive representationalism, and other phenomena of forgotten art and artists who would have almost been forgotten through the history of the 20th century.

The guiding principle of the collection is the principle of expressiveness. It represents the broadest contemporary appearance in German art of the 20th century. Its diversity is almost unmistakable and has not yet lost its relevance. There were various approaches to representations and evaluations to help them understand. Findings such as “second generation of expressionism”, “ post- expressionism ” or “ expressive realism ” testify to the difficulties of an accurate art-historical location.

Artists in the collection include Gerd Böhme , Franz Bronstert , Rudolf G. Bunk , Henri Epstein , Leo Haas , Fritz Ketz , Robert Liebknecht , Käthe Loewenthal , Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler , Georg Netzband , Richard Paling , Carl Rabus , Erna Schmidt- Caroll, Hubert Rüther and Oscar Zügel . Part of the collection has found a permanent home in the Solingen Art Museum. The fact that it was possible to bring the collection of ostracized art to Solingen is thanks to the independent “Community Foundation for Ostracized Arts with the Gerhard Schneider Collection”.

literature

The collection has so far been included in the two basic works “Ostracized - Forgotten - Rediscovered” and “Expressive Objectivity. Fate of figurative painting and graphics in the 20th century ”is documented in essential parts.

• Rolf Jessewitsch, Gerhard Schneider (Ed.): Ostracized - Forgotten - Rediscovered. Art of expressive representationalism from the Gerhard Schneider Collection. Wienand, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-87909-665-1 .
• Rolf Jessewitsch, Gerhard Schneider (ed.): Expressive objectivity. Fate of figurative painting and graphics in the 20th century: Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection. Kettler Kunst, Bönen / Westphalia 2001, ISBN 3-935019-20-3 .
• Rolf Jessewitsch, Gerhard Schneider (ed.): Discovered modernity. Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection. Kettler, Bönen / Westphalia 2008, ISBN 978-3-941100-16-9 .
• Christiane Ladleif, Gerhard Schneider (ed.): Modernism in the pillory. The Nazi campaign “Degenerate Art” 75 years ago. Works from the Gerhard Schneider Kettler Collection , Bönen / Westphalia 2012, ISBN 978-3-924436-03-2 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerhard Schneider in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature by and about Gerhard Schneider in the bibliographic database WorldCat
• Funding society "Museum for Ostracized Art" eV , Solingen
• Schneider collection in the Solingen art museum
• ostracized, persecuted - forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection (pdf)