Gottfried Bräunling

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Gottfried Bräunling in front of a joint project with AR Penck “Standart, Kopf, Schlange” from 1993/94

Gottfried Bräunling (* 1947 in Radebeul ) is a German sculptor and painter .

Life

The artist , who comes from Saxony , deals with the GDR era and his forced expatriation to the West in his multifaceted oeuvre . He is considered one of the central artists of the Dresden painter group of the 1970s around AR Penck .

Gottfried Bräunling studied graphics and painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts from 1968 to 1974 . Shortly after graduating there, he first met artists such as Eberhard von der Erde , Wolfgang Opitz and AR Penck. This not only resulted in close friendships, but also collaborated with the artist group “Lücke” , of which Gottfried Bräunling was a brief member.

Bräunling's early works - mostly homogeneous landscape paintings or nudes - were characterized by harmony and quickly found lovers. Despite the initial success, Bräunling then applied unsuccessfully for admission to the GDR Artists' Association for almost ten years. During this time he was neither allowed to exhibit nor sell his art. The brownling, who had been at home until then, was faced with more and more fundamental problems. If he had initially accepted and supported socialism , its harmonious world broke with the growing barriers that the state now opposed to it. This time made him and his works more socially critical. The resulting conflicts intensified and in 1987 led to his forced expatriation to the West.

Once in the west, Bräunling u. a. briefly in West Berlin and in the artist community of AR Penck in Heimbach in the Eifel . During this time he founded the Edition G. B., where he wrote bibliophile artist books a. a. with Jannis Ritsos , AR Penck, Mikis Theodorakis , Odysseas Elytis , Asteris Kutulas and Francis van Maele .

Around 1990 Bräunling converted a farm in Hohenöllen ( Rhineland-Palatinate ) with the help of AR Penck, with whom he had a lifelong friendship . There he not only created his permanent residence, but also a studio and a screen printing workshop. In the same place, Bräunling and Penck realized many experimental prints , sculptures and collaborative works.

AR Penck and Gottfried Bräunling

Gottfried Bräunling has been teaching at the CEPA Luxembourg Summer Academy since 1990. In 2006 he was also a visiting professor at Lomonosov University in Moscow . Bräunling has had a studio in Zhongshan ( China ) since 2010 , where he now lives and works next to Hohenöllen.

plant

originated before forced expatriation to the west
Gottfried Bräunling: East German Crucifixion, 1984
Acrylic on canvas
Gottfried Bräunling: First work in West Berlin, 1987

Gottfried Bräunling's oeuvre is diverse. The artist never let himself be tied to one medium. Rather, according to his statement, the respective idea for a work of art always required the associated medium. His catalog raisonné includes drawings , screen prints , etchings and paintings on cardboard and canvas as well as 3-dimensional sculptures made of wood, bronze and iron.

Bräunling's early works are characterized by his longing for harmony. His world of images, which is mainly characterized by landscape painting and nude drawings , ranges from his parents as ideals of socialism , the home landscape and the beauty of the human body. “Back then, I never dealt with problems in my pictures either, neither with social nor with interpersonal issues. I couldn't have formulated something like that, absolutely not. I painted girls because I loved girls. I painted nudes because I found them beautiful. For me it was an expression of beauty, of a perfection that only exists in this form. I painted landscapes because I felt at home there, because I saw it as something that you had to interpret in order to have a piece of what you love with you. "

During his membership in the artist group "Lücke" , founded in 1971, he created some joint works and a. with AR Penck, which had already come into conflict with the GDR in the 1960s .

In the 1980s, Gottfried Bräunling also increasingly came into conflict with the socialism prevailing in the GDR, which ultimately led to his expatriation in 1987 . His changed life situation pushed him to rethink and called for a break with his previous artistic conception. The themes in his pictures changed: From then on, system-critical representations were given priority.

Even after AR Penck and Gottfried Bräunling were expelled from citizenship in 1980, many of the two artists' joint works were created. They dealt together with political discourses, u. a. Topics around the question of artistic freedom. In the screen printing workshop of Gottfried Bräunling, various (color) experiments by both artists were also carried out from 1990 onwards.

Through international work stays in u. a. Ireland , Cyprus , Thailand , China , Greece etc. the themes of “separation” and “encounter” characteristic of Bräunling were supplemented by Christian mythological depictions. In addition, he began making sculptures from different materials such as wood, bronze, marble and steel.

His works have already been shown in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad: u. a. in Hamburg , Berlin , Düsseldorf , Geneva , Paris , Athens and New York City .

Works (books and bibliophile editions)

  • Jannis Ritsos: Monochords . Transferred from Asteris Kutulas. With drawings by Gottfried Bräunling, Romiosini Verlag, Cologne 1989 ISBN 3-923728-40-9
  • Jannis Ritsos: semicircle . Erotica. Edited and transmitted by Asteris Kutulas. With drawings by Gottfried Bräunling, KonkursbuchVerlag Claudia Gehrke, Tübingen 1989 ISBN 3-88769-312-4
  • Giorgos Seferis: Thrush . With original illustrations by Gottfried Bräunling, edited and transferred by Asteris Kutulas, editions phi, Echternach 1990
  • Ina Kutulas : Poetry . With original illustrations by Gottfried Bräunling; GB Edition, Berlin [1991]
  • Mikis Theodorakis and ARPenck: Das Meer, der liebe Gott und das Muli (German-Greek), with nine original screen prints by AR Penck, translated and with an afterword by Asteris Kutulas, edited by Asteris Kutulas and Gottfried Bräunling, with a CD by Mikis Theodorakis (Macbeth) and a small sculpture by Gottfried Bräunling, GB edition & Asti Music, Hohenöllen 1995
  • Odysseas Elytis: Bait for Nobody , With original illustrations by Gottfried Bräunling and Fränz Dasbourg, transferred by Asteris and Ina Kutulas, editions phi, Echternach 1996
  • Mikis Theodorakis: Siao and other early poems , with original illustrations by Gottfried Bräunling, translated by Asteris Kutulas, published by Asteris Kutulas and Gottfried Bräunling, GB edition, Hohenöllen 1996
  • Gottfried Bräunling: overpainting , with 12 notations of Asteris Kutulas, GB edition, Hohenöllen 1996
  • In transition - Gottfried Bräunling. BASF Schwarzheide, Schwarzheide 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Gottfried Bräunling - Modern Art in Duesseldorf. Retrieved December 20, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Bräunling, Gottfried. - "Even in the studio". Retrieved December 18, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c Asteris Kutulas: Worn off? Conversation with the painter Gottfried Bräunling about his escape from the GDR. May 8, 1988. Retrieved December 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e Gottfried Bräunling: "Zeitspiegel" - Review | Past exhibitions | Archive - Kunstportal-Pfalz. Retrieved December 18, 2019 .
  5. ↑ CEPA Luxembourg
  6. ^ Lomonosov University in Moscow
  7. ↑ a b Gottfried Bräunling | Modern art in Duesseldorf. Retrieved December 18, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Axel Große: The counterculture in the GDR: “Alternative Underground”, “Greenhouse Anarchy”, Boheme or Opposition? In: Heiner Timmermann (Ed.): The GDR - Analyzes of an abandoned state. Documents and writings of the European Academy Otzenhausen . tape 92 . Otzenhausen 2001, ISBN 978-3-428-10416-1 , p. 538 .
personal data
SURNAME Bräunling, Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Radebeul