Hans D. Voss

Memorial for the victims of the "Reichskristallnacht" in Bremen's Schnoorviertel (design: Hans D. Voss)

Hans D. Voss , actually Hans Dieter Voss , (* 1926 in Bielefeld , † 1980 in Brockel in Lower Saxony ) was a German artist and representative of abstract art and Informel in Germany.

life and work

Hans D. Voss studied at the Hadamar School of Glass and the Wiesbaden Art School . In his artistic work he was guided by the German Informel , with serigraphs in particular becoming his profession . At first he placed the material character in the foreground of his work. The collages he made towards the end of the 1950s were an “important creative period” for Voss; He then further developed the experience he gained with his material images in screen printing . He opened up new techniques and possibilities in artistic screen printing:

“The relief-like can also be found in his graphic prints - which he developed in this way - so that both groups of works - collage and print - belong closely together. His prints are also built up from many layers of color in many printing processes, layer by layer, until their haptic quality also corresponds to the visual. "

- Kultur Forum Witten : Information on the piece of art of the week of January 12, 2009

Voss was not very interested in the colors , so that “hardly any pictures with a warm-cold contrast” can be found in his work. Rather, he was concerned with the steps between light gray and black , trying to “neutralize the contrast between form and content in his pictures” by means of black or monochrome . The different surface shapes and structures are characteristic of his work. By building up his pictures in several layers, he achieved "graphically-looking elements a lively, although monochrome surface, in which light and shadow play their creative role".

He was a member of the West German Artists Association , in which Voss, together with Hubert Berke , Karl Fred Dahmen , Günter Drebusch and Thomas Grochowiak and others, was committed to the reconstruction and the recognition and promotion of modern visual arts after the ostracism during the Nazi era . From the 1960s onwards, he received teaching positions at home and abroad, and from 1973 at the University of Bremen . Voss was a co-author of the publication Siebdruck. Technology, practice, history by Wolfgang Hainke , published by DuMont-Verlag in 1979 . The book developed into the standard work on screen printing and was last published in 1993 in its fifth edition.

Works by Voss are in several public collections, such as in the Bremen art gallery , in the Museum Wilhelm Morgner in Soest and in Witten in the Märkisches Museum there , which, according to its own statements, has the "largest collection of German Informel with works of all well-known Informel Artist ”.

Hans D. Voss lived and worked mainly in Bremen , where he remained until his death, a well from 1966 art gallery business, the Small Graphics Gallery Bremen in the desert site in Bremen's Schnoor quarter . He died unexpectedly in Brockel at the age of 55.

Works (selection)

Artistic work

• 1960–1961: Vertical structure , painting, material image in mixed media , acrylic and resin ( polyurethane cast resin), 49 × 29 cm
• 1962: p. 17–62 , graphic, color silkscreen , 29 × 40 cm
• 1962–1963: S 17–62 / S 22–63 , collage of two graphics / serigraphs, 40.8 × 29.5 cm
• 1964: p. 26–64 , graphic, colored silk screen print , 36.6 × 26.6 cm
• 1970–1971: Black image , material image , 81 × 55 cm
• 1974–1975: Breast Altarches, art object Roland , graphics, color silkscreen, embossed printing on cardboard, 57.8 × 42.8 cm
• Church in the mountains , painting, oil on canvas, 50 × 54 cm

Plaque on the memorial for the victims of the "Reichskristallnacht"

• Before 1980: memorial for the victims of the “Reichskristallnacht” in Bremen, draft. The memorial commemorates the five Jewish victims who were murdered by the National Socialists during the Night of the Reichspogrom within what is now the city of Bremen . After Voss' death, it was executed according to his design and inaugurated in 1982. It is located in front of the Landherrnamt house in the Schnoorviertel , near the main synagogue of the Jewish community in Bremen, which was set on fire and destroyed by the National Socialists in the so-called "Reichskristallnacht" on November 9-10, 1938 . The memorial is designed in simple, cubic forms made of black-colored concrete, it has the dimensions 2.1 m × 3.4 m × 0.7 m and bears a plaque with an inscription.

Publications

• Wolfgang Hainke, with the collaboration of: Hans D. Voss and Jürgen Weichardt : Siebdruck. Technology, practice, history . Initial release. DuMont, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1071-4 .

Exhibitions (selection)

Solo exhibitions

• 1962: On the technique of my serigraphs, by Hans D. Voss , Kunsthalle Bremen
• 1966: Hans Dieter Voss. Screen prints , Folkwang Museum , Essen
• 1968–1969: Hans D. Voss , in Oldenburg, Fredrikstad (Norway) and Witten
• 1969: Hans D. Voss, serigraph , House of Artists - Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
• 1972: Hans D. Voss. The graphic work 1956–1972. Pictures , Kunsthalle Bremen
• 1978: Hans D. Voss. Collages 1959–1978. Serigraphs 1972–1978 , Kunsthalle Bremen and Märkisches Museum in Witten
• 1991: Hans D. Voss , Museum am Ostwall , Dortmund

Group exhibitions

• 1972: Two aspects of serigraphy: Herman Hebler and Hans D. Voss , Kunsthalle Bremen
• 1972: Internationale Graphik 72 , Kunsthalle Bremen
• 1976: International Graphics 1976. Exhibition by the Laureates Club of the International Graphic Biennale, Cracow 1976 , Kunsthalle Bremen

literature

• Hans D. Voss, serigraphs, catalog raisonné from 1956 to 1962. Material images: from 1960 to 1962, printed from the artist's list . Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen 1962, without ISBN (exhibition catalog: On the Technique of My Serigraphs, by Hans D. Voss , Kunsthalle Bremen, 1962).
• Hans D. Voss, serigraph . Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo 1969, without ISBN (catalog: exhibition Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, November 22 to December 14, 1969 ; text in Norwegian).
• Jürgen Schultze, Annemarie Winter (catalog editing): Hans D. Voss. The graphic work 1956–1972. Pictures . Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen 1972, without ISBN (Catalog: Exhibition Kunsthalle Bremen, May 7 to June 11, 1972 ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans D. Voss in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Hans D. Voss. (No longer available online.) In: Art piece of the week. On: Website of the Märkisches Museum / Kultur Forum Witten , January 12, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 15, 2009 .  ( 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.    
2. ↑ ^{a b} Jürgen Schultze, Annemarie Winter (catalog editing): Hans D. Voss. The graphic work 1956–1972. Pictures . Kunsthalle Bremen, Bremen 1972, without ISBN (Catalog: Exhibition Kunsthalle Bremen, May 7 to June 11, 1972 ; excerpts from Google Books ).
3. ^ The art collection >> "German Informel". On: Website of the Märkisches Museum / Kultur Forum Witten , February 8, 2008, archived from the original on September 21, 2005 ; accessed on March 18, 2014 . 
4. ↑ Memorials >> Voss, Hans D .: Memorial for the victims of the Reichskristallnacht. On the online database: k: art in public space bremen , archived from the original on November 7, 2014 ; Retrieved December 15, 2009 .