Gottfried Richter (painter)

Gottfried Richter (born February 26, 1904 in Offenbach am Main , † May 13, 1968 in Berlin ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

resume

After an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, Richter attended the Offenbach School of Applied Arts from 1920 (now the Offenbach am Main School of Design ), dropping out after 6 semesters. He went on numerous study trips abroad, discovered Paris for himself and his work, made possible by a grant from the city of Offenbach in 1922, southern France, French painting. He continued to travel in later years. In 1926 he took part in an exhibition for the first time, as a member of the “Darmstädter Gruppe”, and in 1927 he took part in the special exhibition in the “Association of Offenbach Artists”. In 1923 he was signed to the Flechtheim & Kahnweiler Gallery in Frankfurt am Main . In 1928 he took part in the world exhibition in Chicago .

Richter lived in Vienna from 1930 to 1934 before moving to Frankfurt, where he stayed until 1939. In 1939 he moved to Berlin and a year later he was drafted as a soldier. Almost all of the war years he worked in Norway, where he painted a lot.

In 1946 he came home from French captivity. He stayed in West Berlin with his wife and son Gottfried Uwe Richter , who was also to become a painter . In 1961 he moved to East Berlin , where he died in 1968.

Joined the KPD , after the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD then SED , member of the Association of Visual Artists (VBK), later resigned from the SED.

Works

His work focused in particular on landscapes, including urban landscapes, as well as portraits, still lifes, masks, and circus scenes. Characteristic for his graphic work are woodcuts and especially, especially from the 1950s, screen printing . Since 1927 works by Gottfried Richter have been acquired by public museums. Works can be found in the Städel in Frankfurt am Main, in the Chicago art collections, in the Landesmuseum Darmstadt , in the Albertina State Art Collections in Vienna, in the Kunsthalle Mannheim , in the National Gallery Berlin , in the Moritzburg Gallery in Halle (Saale) , in the Staatliche Art collections Dresden . Programmatic oil painting: "We collect ourselves" from 1951, owned by the National Gallery Berlin.

Important exhibitions

• 1933 Vienna, in his own studio;
• 1948 Berlin (West), archivist, together with Gottfried Uwe Richter;
• 1950 Frankfurt am Main, FAC Prestel art dealer;
• 1951 Berlin (GDR) participation in the exhibition “Artists for Peace”;
• 1952 Berlin (West), Galerie Franz;
• 1955 Berlin (GDR), Galerie Franz, Unter den Linden, together with GU Richter;
• 1964 Berlin, Modern Art Gallery;
• 1978 Leipzig, House of Scientists;
• 1986 Berlin, National Gallery, large retrospective