Hanns Bolz
Hanns Bolz (born January 22, 1885 in Aachen , † July 4, 1918 in Munich ) was a German painter , sculptor and illustrator of Expressionism and Cubo-Futurism .
Life
After his school days in Aachen and Cologne, Bolz studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy between 1905 and 1908 . He then spent almost three years in Paris , where he rented a studio at 49 Rue Gabrielle in Montmartre , which Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) had previously used in 1900. Here, and above all in the Café du Dome, a well-known artists' meeting place, he met Hans Purrmann (1880–1966), and Rudolf Levy (1875–1944), and finally the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim (1878–1937), who later followed suit Bolz 'death used for his works.
In 1911 and 1912 he lived in Munich, where he worked as an illustrator for Komet magazine . Here he had acquaintances with Richard Seewald (1889-1976) and the actress Emmy Hennings (1885-1948), among others, in the bohemian district of Schwabing, and was one of the friends of the Der Blaue Reiter editorial team around the painter Franz Marc (1880-1916) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944). But he didn't stay here long and he returned to Paris in 1912, where he now moved into a studio on Montparnasse . In the meantime he went on various study trips to Madrid, London, Venice and Oslo.
In 1914 he was drafted into military service and sent to the front. Here he suffered severe gas poisoning and was almost blind. This led to his early discharge from military service in 1917, but after that he was no longer able to work and therefore only occupied himself with modeling. He was now mainly in Cologne with Otto Freundlich (1878-1943) in his studio in the Gereonshaus, where he also met Max Ernst (1891-1976). He later went back to Munich, but had to be admitted to the Neuwittelsbach sanatorium there in 1918 due to his war suffering , where he finally died.
Artistic characteristic
After initial drawings and caricatures for satirical sheets as well as some pictures and portraits such as “Woman with Hat” and “Romantic Castle”, Bolz transformed himself into a protagonist of Expressionism and Cubo-Futurism under the influence of his first time in Paris and the artists he got to know there of French Fauvism . During these years, still lifes of rather subdued color were initially created , which a little later changed to colorful and expressively motivated pictures with motifs from the Montmartre area. Likewise, his first better-known major work, the portrait of his friend and sponsor Alfred Flechtheim , in which Bolz was able to gently unite the transitions between light and shadow and the juxtaposition of lighter and darker sections of the image according to cubist principles, also counted at this time . Further luminous portraits and variety pictures followed, in which he experimented with colors, varied with related tones and combined the Parisian style with a New Objectivity and thus made an important contribution to the art of classical modernism .
From 1912, probably since his second stay in Paris, his drawings and pictures became increasingly abstract and he incorporated suggestions from Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918). Bolz now combined nested lines with circle segments, triangular and trapezoidal shapes and gave them greater plasticity by applying a shadow-like application of paint. During this time, more and more abstract cityscapes and cubo-futuristic conglomerates of forms emerged, and Otto Freundlich therefore described Bolz as the only artist who had played a significant role within cubo-futurism.
His sculptures and sculptures, which were made after his military service and when he was ill, are characterized by extreme reduction and expressiveness, but did not achieve a greater level of awareness and were mainly part of the inventory of his friend Max Ernst. Although Bolz had arranged for his works to be destroyed after his death, most of them were saved and cataloged primarily by Alfred Flechtheim. Even later, some of his works kept appearing as chance finds. Since 1999 the works of Hanns Bolz have been on permanent exhibition in the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen.
Works (selection)
- Romantic castle , watercolor. Cologne 1903
- The painter Heinz Simons , watercolor. Cologne 1907
- Old woman - prayer sister . Bronze, 1907
- At the junk shop , Indian ink. Paris 1909
- Portrait of Alfred Flechtheim , oil on canvas. Paris 1910
- In the ring , oil on cardboard. Paris 1910
- Still life , oil on canvas. Paris 1910
- White Gilles with Lady , oil on canvas. Paris 1910
- Antique rider , caricature of the Tripoli War. In: Der Komet , Munich 1911
- Erich Mühsam in Cafe Stefanie. with dog and cigar, caricature, 29 July 1911
- Emmy Hennings , oil on canvas. Munich 1911
- Street scene (Montmartre) , oil on canvas. Paris 1912
- Montmartre , Indian ink. Paris, May 1913
- Venice (Venice) , Indian ink. Venice 1913
- Dada abstraction , ink, pencil. Cologne 1917
- Portrait of Louise Straus-Ernst , (first wife of Max Ernst), oil on canvas. Cologne before 1918
- Male head , plaster of paris. Munich 1918
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1909 - Exhibition with the Brücke painters in Aachen
- 1910 - Exhibition in the avant-garde salons Salon d'Automne and Salon d'Independants in Paris
- 1912 - Sonderbund exhibition in Cologne
- 1913 - Armory Show in New York and Chicago
- 1913 - Exhibition within the " 1st German Autumn Salon " by Herwarth Walden (1878–1941)
- 1913 - Exhibition with Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) in the Reiff Museum in Aachen
- 1914 - Exhibition at the Flechtheim Gallery in Paris
- posthumously 1919 - retrospective within the Cologne Dada exhibition
- posthumously 1922 - retrospective in the Flechtheim gallery in Düsseldorf and Berlin
- posthumously 1985 - retrospective at the Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum in Aachen
- posthumously 1988 - "Stations of Modernism" - Berlinische Galerie, Museum of Modern Art
- posthumously 2005 - The Friends of Richard Seewald, Ascona Tourism Center, Switzerland
- posthumously 2014 - "Stars fall" - from Boccioni to Schiele - Kieler Kunsthalle
Literature (selection)
- M. Turck: Bolz, Hanns . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 12, Saur, Munich a. a. 1995, ISBN 3-598-22752-3 , p. 428 f.
- Matthias Forschelen: Hanns Bolz (1885–1918): an artist between Expressionism and Cubism : image and text documentation on life and work. Aachen 1985
- Ernst Cremer: Hanns Bolz - Ambassador of Modernism ; Self-published 2018, ISBN 978-3-00-060785-1
Web links
- Portrait on the pages of the Mies van der Rohe house
- Bibliography, list of exhibitions and list of works
- kettererkunst.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Full-page reproduction in Dschungel , supplement to jungle world , March 10, 2011, p. 18
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bolz, Hanns |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter, sculptor and illustrator of expressionism and cubo-futurism |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 22, 1885 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Aachen |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th July 1918 |
| Place of death | Munich |