Gertraud Möhwald

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Gertraud Möhwald , b. Degen (born June 15, 1929 in Dresden ; † December 20, 2002 in Halle (Saale) ), was a German ceramist and sculptor . The Moritzburg Art Museum in Halle counts her among the most important contemporary German ceramists.

Life

Gertraud Degen grew up in Dresden and went to school there until the city was destroyed in 1945. Her father died and she moved with her mother to their home village Radis. However, she later returned to Dresden, where she lived with her sister and passed her Abitur in 1948. After that, Gertraud Degen introduced herself to the art academy because she wanted to become a sculptor, but instead she was offered an apprenticeship as a potter or stone sculptor.

In fact, in the same year she found an apprenticeship with master stone sculptor Rudolf Kreische as his first female apprentice, which caused quite a stir and ridicule among his colleagues. Gertraud Degen was allowed to work on the reconstruction of the Zwinger, where she met the artistic director and sculptor Albert H. Braun in the Zwingerbauhütte . From him she acquired her first basic knowledge of plastic and was encouraged to study in Halle.

In 1950 she completed her training as a skilled worker as a stone sculptor and began studying sculpture at the Institute for Artistic Design in Halle. From 1951 to 1954 she completed her specialist studies with Gustav Weidanz .

In 1952 she married the painter Otto Möhwald and took his name. They had four children: Regina (1951), Martin (1954), Lisa (1957) and Konrad (1973). Among the children and grandchildren there are again several artists, the son Martin is a ceramist, the son Konrad is a composer and the grandson Clemens Meyer is a writer.

After the birth of her first son, Gertraud Möhwald gave up studying plastic. Instead, she began a second degree in ceramics in 1959 at the Burg Giebichenstein Art College in Halle . In 1964 she received her diploma and was employed as an artistic and scientific assistant. From 1970 to 1973 she took over the department as head of the department.

From 1974 to 1989 Gertraud Möhwald worked as a freelancer in her own workshop in Halle, but at the same time taught at the Burg Giebichenstein art college. Her students included Renée Reichenbach , Karl Fulle, Antje Scharfe, Marlies Lischka, Ursula Zänker, Martin Möhwald, Ute Lohse, Sigrid Artes, Ute Brade and Sonngard Marcks. After Marguerite Friedlaender , Gertraud Möhwald was one of the school-educating personalities in ceramics at Giebichenstein Castle. The art scholar Renate Luckner-Bien also praised her teaching:

“[..] Gertraud Möhwald was an extraordinary teacher in every respect. With her unorthodox and tolerant, nonetheless intransigent attitude, she has encouraged generations of students to disciplined, independent artistic work. Always in the hope that honesty and critical ability - maybe - will turn into a disposition. She asked about the 'justification of each piece'. "

- Renate Luckner-Bien

In 1978 Gertraud Möhwald took part in the 2nd International Ceramic Symposium in Römhild, where she made contact with other artists and continued to research clay as a material. In 1979 she traveled to Rome , which deeply impressed her, so that she returned to the city in 1987. From there she visits Ostia Antica and Pompeii . A trip through Central Asia also broadened her artistic horizons. In Berlin and Leipzig she visited works by Alfred Hrdlicka and on another trip to West Berlin she visited an exhibition by Alberto Giacometti .

In 1983 Gertraud Möhwald became a member of the International Academy for Ceramics in Geneva .

She often exhibited her work together with her husband's pictures, but also together with the works of her son Martin Möhwald. Solo exhibitions followed later, e.g. B. in the Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg and in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin . From 1992 to 1996 she had a second studio in Berlin.

In 1994 she was the guest of honor at the Deutsche Akademie in the Villa Massimo in Rome, where she made a large series of drawings during her six-month stay. In 1999 the Moritzburg Foundation - Art Museum of the State of Saxony-Anhalt honored the artist on her 70th birthday with a large solo exhibition.

In December 2002 Gertraud Möhwald died in a traffic accident.

In 2004 work began on a catalog raisonné on Gertraud Möhwald's oeuvre . An extensive retrospective was shown in 2004 in the Keramion Frechen Foundation , in 2005 in the Moritzburg Foundation - Art Museum of the State of Saxony-Anhalt and in 2007/2008 in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto.

plant

After studying ceramics, Möhwald's focus was initially mainly on ceramic utensils. In doing so, she soon treaded unorthodox paths, cutting up and deforming the vessels, adding paper and textiles to them so that the vessels became objects .

In the early 1980s, the figurative element increased in her work, while the practical purpose took a back seat. The human figure increasingly became the focus of her artistic interest, especially the head and face.

In addition to her ceramic vessels and figurative sculptures, she also made drawings.

Gertraud Möhwald left behind an extensive artistic work. Her work can be found in many museums today, not only in the new federal states, but also in numerous West German collections. In recent years, there has also been great interest in her work in the USA and France.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1973 Gertraud Möhwald, Otto Möhwald , special exhibition, Magdeburg
  • 1991 Dieter Goltzsche, drawings. Gertraud Möhwald, ceramics. Hans Vent, painting , Berlin Academy of the Arts, Rostock art gallery
  • 1999 Gertraud Möhwald. Ceramics , State Gallery Moritzburg Halle
  • 2000 Heidi Manthey: Faience and porcelain, Gertraud Möhwald: Ceramic sculpture , Galerie am Wasserturm Berlin
  • 2003 Gertraud Möhwald: Sculptures and drawings , Galerie am Wasserturm Berlin
  • 2003 Gertraud Möhwald - Ceramic works. , Museum of Decorative Arts Berlin
  • 2004 Special exhibition by Gertraud Möhwald, Foundation Keramion
  • 2005 Gertraud Möhwald. Ceramics , Moritzburg Foundation, Art Museum of the State of Saxony-Anhalt, Halle
  • 2006 Solo exhibition in the gallery Handwerk of the Chamber of Crafts in Munich
  • 2007/2008 Clay Portraits - Gertraud Möhwald , Gardiner Museum Toronto
  • 2010 Gertraud Möhwald , Galerie Nord, Halle (Saale)
  • 2012–13 Gertraud Möhwald – Cabinet exhibition to commemorate , Moritzburg Foundation Halle (Saale)

Working in collections (selection)

  • Berlin State Museums, Museum of Applied Arts
  • Moritzburg Art Museum Halle
  • Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden / Kunstgewerbemuseum
  • Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg
  • Museum "Schloss Glücksburg", Römhild
  • Kulturhistorisches Museum Magdeburg
  • Keramion Foundation, Frechen
  • Judith and Martin Schwartz Collection, New York, USA
  • Candice B. Groot Collection, Evanston, Illinois, USA
  • Art collections of the Veste Coburg
  • Galerie Renate Wunderle, Munich
  • Kossdorff Collection, Vienna
  • Ceramic Museum Westerwald Höhr-Grenzhausen
  • Kestner Museum, Hanover
  • State of Saxony-Anhalt
  • Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
  • Württemberg State Museum Stuttgart

and in many private collections

Scholarships and Awards

  • 1986 Art Prize of the City of Halle
  • 1990 Membership in the Académie internationale de la Céramique (AIC)
  • 1991 Member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin (East)
  • 1991 work grant from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia
  • 1991 Scholarship at the Künstlerhaus Edenkoben
  • 1994 Guest of Honor of the German Academy in the Villa Massimo in Rome
  • 1997 Art Prize of the State of Saxony-Anhalt

literature

  • Renate Luckner-Bien: Clay Portraits: Gertraud Möhwald at the Gardiner Museum. In: Ceramics Art and Perception, Issue 72 (2008), pp. 9-14
  • Gertraud Möhwald: Ceramics , Katja Schneider (Ed.), Moritzburg Foundation, 2005, ISBN 978-3861051138
  • Gertraud Möhwald, drawing and sculpture , Thomas Steuber, Gertraud Möhwald (Ill.), Hasenverlag, Halle / Saale 2010, ISBN 978-3-939468-39-4
  • Gertraud Möhwald, ceramics , exhibition catalog with texts by the artist, Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg Halle, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Kunstgewerbemuseum and Museum des Kunsthandwerk Leipzig-Grassimuseum, 1989
  • Short biography for:  Möhwald, Gertraud . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Felicitas Krohn: Möhwald, Gertraud . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 90, de Gruyter, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-11-023256-1 , p. 128.

swell

  1. ↑ a b c d Exhibition Moritzburg Foundation on kunstaspekte.de
  2. ↑ Katja Schneider (Ed.): Gertraud Möhwald: Ceramics. Moritzburg Foundation, 2005, ISBN 978-3861051138 , p. 18.
  3. ↑ Gertraud Möhwald - Ceramic works. Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.smb.museum  
  4. ^ Möhwald special exhibition by Gertraud Möhwald, Foundation Keramion
  5. ↑ Gertraud Möhwald, exhibition in the Handwerk Gallery ( Memento of the original from November 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.hwk-muenchen.de
  6. ^ "Clay Portraits: Gertraud Möhwald" in Toronto

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Möhwald, Gertraud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Degen, Gertraud (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ceramist and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 2002
Place of death Halle (Saale)