Hans Brass

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Hans Brass (born July 9, 1885 in Wesel , † May 30, 1959 in Berlin ) was a German expressionist painter and graphic artist.

Life

Hans Brass 1908

Hans Brass - son of the Prussian officer August James Brass and his wife Margarethe Hortense Brass - entered the Prussian main cadet institute in Groß-Lichterfelde in 1896 . However, because Hans Brass wanted to become a painter and, due to the fact that he was not of legal age, he could not submit his own application for release from the cadet institution, the father applied for early release at the request of the son.

After his release, Hans Brass attended the Magdeburg School of Applied Arts for two years . Brass broke off this training, which his father financed, because it seemed to him inadequate for his goals. He began an apprenticeship as a painter in Berlin, but soon switched to various odd jobs. In 1904 he found a patron who enabled him to study at the teaching and experimental studio for applied and free art (Debschitz School) in Munich. He also broke off this training after a short time because of a falling out with Wilhelm von Debschitz .

Later he found his first job opportunities as a graphic designer at the Mosse printing company in Berlin and the literary magazine Arena published by Rudolf Presber . In 1908 Hans Brass and Clara Krause married.

In 1915, Hans Brass was drafted as a soldier for the First World War. The experiences as a soldier at the front led him to an intensive occupation with expressionism . From 1917 Brass belonged to the group of artists around Herwarth Walden's magazine Der Sturm . He then joined the November Group as a staunch socialist shortly after it was founded . In 1921 he was a member of their working committee. Until 1923 he exhibited regularly in Berlin and began to make a name for himself there. Brass was often positively mentioned in the art reviews of leading newspapers. Paul Westheim's magazine Das Kunstblatt paid tribute to him with an extensive article.

Hans Brass 1930

In 1921 Brass separated from his first wife and moved to Ahrenshoop with his new partner Martha Wegscheider . Together they founded the Bunte Stube in 1922 . From 1927 to 1930 he held the office of mayor of Ahrenshoop. His artistic activity largely came to a standstill. In 1931 Brass moved back to Berlin after a serious accident. He converted to Catholicism. The attempt to revive his career as a painter failed. During the time of National Socialism it was classified as "degenerate". After leaving the Reich Chamber of Culture , he stopped painting entirely. In 1937 he went to Ahrenshoop again, married Martha Wegscheider and ran the Bunte Stube with her until 1948.

From 1944 Brass turned back to painting intensively. In 1950 he separated from Martha Wegscheider and finally returned to Berlin (East). Here he married Elisabeth Bieschke. Despite the most intense efforts and some exhibition successes and publications during this time (Schwerin, Berlin, Güstrow) this new attempt to finally achieve a breakthrough also failed. In the GDR, Brass was ostracized from cultural life as a “formalist” because of painting that was too abstract; the West German art scene saw him too much as a “realist”. In this area of ​​tension, he developed a mature, very individual late style, building on the expressionist experiences of the twenties. Brass is one of the artists of the lost generation .

Brass died on May 30, 1959 in Berlin and was buried in the Biesdorf cemetery.

plant

Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Brebacher Weg 15, in Berlin-Biesdorf

Up until the First World War, Brass strove for a conservative ideal of “beautiful painting”, especially of landscapes. Magazine illustrations, book titles, drawings and oil paintings were created. Only a few pieces have survived from this period.

From 1917 to about 1923 he produced a rich work of oil paintings and drawings as well as some prints, including a. also for the magazine “Die Schaffenden” published by Paul Westheim between 1918 and 1930 . Based on his commitment to Expressionism , Brass developed a style that is considered to be influenced by Cubism and Futurism . Initially, these were numerous highly abstract, sometimes completely abstract pictures, later, from around 1921 onwards, Brass increasingly showed representational references again. Strictly geometric, often pointed shapes and clear, bright colors are characteristic. Only a few works from this period have survived.

With the establishment of the “Bunten Stube”, Brass's artistic creation came to a largely standstill. Only in 1925/26 were at least 8 paintings in a new, very uniform style developed in dealing with the surrounding landscape.

From 1931 to 1933, Brass first painted a series of small-format oil paintings based on motifs from Ahrenshoop, which, stylistically differing greatly from his other works, included elements of naive painting. This was followed by a few pictures of predominantly religious content.

It was not until 1944, when the near end of National Socialist rule became apparent, that Brass resumed intensive artistic work. At first he created religiously motivated works as well as pictures based on nature, flowers and plants. Building on the experience of the twenties, Brass developed a style of his own that was shaped by Expressionism.

Other motifs such as still lifes and interiors followed, also largely or entirely abstract works. For many of these pictures, partly as a preliminary study, but often only after the painting had been completed, he made pen drawings based on the same motif as independently valid works, a habit that he retained until 1952. The pictures of this time are, no doubt in keeping with the attitude towards life in the immediate post-war period, often “gloomy” (so Brass himself later) or “brooding” (the art critic Edwin Redslob ).

Around 1948 he developed a new, more optimistic style based on motifs from his new place of residence in Birkenwerder near Berlin, from which he created a large number of mature landscape and urban landscapes up into the 1950s.

For a long period from 1949 to 1950 he only produced drawings (pen and ink and charcoal), some of which were colored with a colored pencil and achieved an impressive effect. From this time, up to around 1952, a number of drawings come from, then also some oil paintings in a caricature-like style that is very different from the other works.

From 1952 Brass stopped drawing, instead rediscovering watercolors for himself, especially for making sketches based on nature as a material for oil paintings. The motifs of his later years were mainly landscape and garden pictures until 1954, flowers in 1955 and a series of completely abstract paintings again in 1956. After that he only occupied himself with the revision and improvement of earlier works.

Graphics (selection)

  • "Drucke der Zwei: Die Menschen" (for the play of the same name by Walter Haseclever ); Portfolio with 8 etchings. 1922.

Exhibitions

  • 1919: Galerie Der Sturm , Berlin, joint exhibition with Nell Walden .
  • 1919: First exhibition of the November group, paintings / sculptures, at Fraenkel & Co. (Josef Altmann), Berlin, group exhibition
  • 1919–1923: Annual exhibitions by the November Group , initially as part of the Berlin Art Exhibition , from 1921 the Great Berlin Art Exhibition (GBK), group exhibitions
  • 1920: ESPOSIZIONE ESPRESSIONISTI NOVEMBER GROUP, Rome, group exhibition
  • 1920 Galerie Goyert, Cologne, group exhibition
  • 1921: Alfred Heller Art Salon, Charlottenburg, group exhibition
  • 1931 Jury-free art exhibition in Berlin, group exhibition
  • 1933: Exhibition of the Berlin Secession, group exhibition
  • 1946: Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop, works by Fischland artists , group exhibition
  • 1946: Landesmuseum Schwerin
  • 1947: Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop, group exhibition
  • 1947: Colorful room Ahrenshoop
  • 1948: Kunst-Haus Tempelhof, Berlin, Hans Brass shows his art
  • 1948: House of Culture, Güstrow
  • 1948: Autumn exhibition of Mecklenburg artists, Schwerin, group exhibition
  • 1949: Brandenburg State Art Exhibition, Potsdam, group exhibition
  • 1949: Traveling exhibition of Mecklenburg artists, group exhibition
  • 1949: Two exhibitions in Birkenwerder, April and December, group exhibitions
  • 1949: Lowinsky library, Berlin, Hans Brass (drawings)
  • 1952: Art exhibition of the North Rhine-Westphalian metal industry, iron and steel, Düsseldorf, group exhibition
  • 1952–1956: Jury-free art exhibition Berlin (annually), group exhibition
  • 1985: Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin, artists of the November group, group exhibition
  • 1987: Bunte Stube Ahrenshoop
  • 1992: Galerie Bernd Dürr, Munich, Hans Brass, oil paintings and drawings of the late work, prints 1920 - 1935
  • 1992: Stadtgalerie Kiel, Kunstwende , group exhibition
  • 1993: Bodo Niemann Gallery, Berlin, November Group, group exhibition
  • 2003: Exhibition at the Vivantes Klinikum Hellersdorf, Berlin, Hans Brass - painting
  • September 24 to November 7, 2010: City Museum Wesel, and December 28, 2010 to January 23, 2011: Marzahn-Hellersdorf district museum (Berlin), exhibitions for the 125th birthday
  • 2019: Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop , Hans Brass (1885-1959) - retrospective , November 30, 2019 to March 15, 2020

Works in public collections (selection)

  • Altenburg (Thuringia), Lindenau Museum, graphic collection (Lessing Bridge, woodcut)
  • Bavarian State Painting Collections (composition, oil painting, 1919)
  • Berlin, German Historical Museum (HO-Würstchenbude, oil painting, 1953)
  • Gera, Art Collection Gera, Otto-Dix-Haus (bathing establishment, chalk lithograph, 1921; part of the magazine "Die Schaffenden")
  • Kiel, Stadtgalerie Kiel (bridge, oil painting, 1919; green picture, oil painting, 1920, in the catalog raisonné "Das Kloster"; church room, oil painting, 1920, in the catalog raisonné "Dorfkirche")
  • Münster, LWL Museum for Art and Culture (bridge, oil painting, 1920)

literature

  • Vollmer: artist of the XX. Century, Leipzig 1953
  • Saur: General Artist Lexicon, Leipzig 1966
  • Helga Kliemann: The November Group , Gebr. Mann Verlag, Berlin 1969
  • Ralph Jentsch: Illustrated Books of German Expressionism , Stuttgart 1989
  • Rolf H. Johannsen: Hans Brass . In: Knut Nievers (Ed.): Kunstwende. The Kiel impulse of Expressionism 1915–1922 . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1992, p. 201 ISBN 3-529-02728-6
  • Daniela Sachs: Hans Brass. Oil paintings and drawings of the late work, prints 1920–1935. Exhibition catalog, Galerie Bernd Dürr, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-927872-02-4
  • Lutz Windhövel: Paul Westheim and the Kunstblatt , dissertation, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1995
  • Stefan Isensee: Hans Brass, painter, mayor, moralist. trafo verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89626-748-1
  • Stefan Isensee: Hans Brass. Catalog of works on compact disc. Trafo verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89626-861-7
  • "Around us is a day of creation" From the artist colony to today. , Ed. Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop , Ahrenshoop 2013, ISBN 978-3-9816136-1-2 , p. 180f.
  • Hans Brass (1885-1959) - retrospective , exhibition catalog, publisher Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop , editors Dr. Katrin Arrieta, Ahrenshoop 2019

Web links

Commons : Hans Brass  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Knut Nievers (Ed.): Kunstwende. The Kiel impulse of Expressionism 1915–1922 . Wachholtz, Neumünster 1992, p. 201, u. Stefan Isensee: Hans Brass. Painter, mayor, moralist . trafo verlag, Berlin 2008, p. 42 f.
  2. ^ Berliner Börsenzeitung, September 14, 1921
  3. ^ Paul Westheim (Ed.): Das Kunstblatt , Berlin, 5th year 1921, p. 69 ff.
  4. ^ Friedrich Schulz: Ahrenshoop artist lexicon . Verlag Atelier im Bauernhaus, Fischerhude 2001, ISBN 978-3-88132-292-8 , p. 8
  5. ↑ Lost Generation. FE Stainless - Kunsthandel, accessed July 31, 2020 .
  6. ^ Daniela Sachs: Hans Brass. Oil paintings and drawings of the late work, prints 1920–1935. , P. 12
  7. ↑ Image index of art & architecture
  8. ↑ a b picture index of art & architecture
personal data
SURNAME Brass, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 9, 1885
PLACE OF BIRTH Wesel
DATE OF DEATH May 30, 1959
Place of death Berlin