Hans Kaiser (artist)

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Hans Kaiser

Hans Kaiser (born April 29, 1914 in Bochum , † October 2, 1982 in Soest ) was an informal artist .

Kaiser was best known for his glass art and his late monochrome work. He created stained glass windows for sacred buildings, including the National Cathedral in Washington, USA , and the Patroclidom in Soest.

Family and origin

Hans Kaiser was born as the eleventh and youngest child of the silk weaver August Kaiser and his wife Friederike in Bochum. Five of Kaiser's siblings died in childhood. Kaiser maintained close contact with his sister, the actress Hella Kaiser (1900–1994), who played all the major roles in the repertoire at the Braunschweig State Theater until 1966.

life and work

In 1929, the then fifteen-year-old Kaiser left home and began an apprenticeship as a painter. His master recognized Kaiser's artistic abilities at an early stage and promoted them by agreeing a special arrangement with Kaiser: Kaiser worked overtime for three weeks and he had the fourth week to paint. In this way he acquired the journeyman's certificate in addition to his artistic work.

In 1936 Kaiser moved into his first studio in the Bakkes (bakery) of the “Hof Stockgrewe” in Bochum-Querenburg on what is now the Ruhr University. At this time Kaiser, who was to be drafted into a motorcycle rifle company , vehemently opposed the Nazi hustle and bustle of the time and military service. He refused to use the weapon in any way. Thanks to the intervention of a doctor, he succeeded and was discharged as unfit after a long stay in a Wehrmacht hospital. Kaiser moved to his sister Hella in Braunschweig for a year. Many portraits, watercolors and drawings were created during this time. In 1942, Kaiser married Hilde Wortmann and moved into the Bakkes of the Bielefeld court in Eilmsen near Welver in the Soester Börde. The studio in Bochum remained. In 1943 the daughter Barbara was born. In 1944, large parts of Kaiser's early work were destroyed in a bomb attack in Bochum.

In 1946, Karl Hovermann founded the Hans-Kaiser-Kreis, the members of which were mainly friends from the Westphalian and Ruhr area, so that the artist could buy paints and canvas. Kaiser thanked them with paintings and drawings. In the same year Kaiser took part in group exhibitions in Ahlen, Arnsberg and Münster. The second daughter Anna Hiltrud was born.

Kaiser's first solo exhibitions took place in 1949 in the Municipal Art Gallery in Bochum and in the Municipal Gustav Lübcke Museum in Hamm. At the opening ceremony of this exhibition, the city directors of Hamm and Soest offered Hans Kaiser studio space, and Kaiser finally decided on Soest, u. a. because he should have worked in a former barracks in Hamm. In 1950 he moved into the studio on Westenhellweg in Soest and from then on until the 1970s he shaped the cultural life in Soest together with committed friends from architecture, literature, art and business. Politicians have actively supported this commitment for many years.

During the time of National Socialism , Kaiser, like many other artists of the time, was severely inhibited in his work and his artistic freedom. By staying in Paris in 1951/1952, Kaiser wanted to “ catch up with modernity ”. In the following years Kaiser refrained from exhibitions in order to find his own visual language. He made contact with French artists such as Alfred Manessier and Frédéric Mathieu , with whom he also organized an exhibition in the art pavilion. In 1955 their son Johannes was born.

In 1957/58 the work complex of "Losschritten" was created. Writing and writing took up more and more space in artistic work. In 1959 a solo exhibition took place in the Gustav-Lübcke-Museum in Hamm. In the same year Kaiser received the Wilhelm Morgner Prize from the city of Soest and became an art teacher for the lower grades at the Aldegrever high school in Soest for three months . Encouraged by the Hagen poet Ernst Meister , with whom he had a close friendship, and driven by his “longing for Spain” (title of the work), Kaiser traveled to Ibiza for the first time in 1960 . That was the beginning of a recurring encounter between the emperor and the island. The first part of the "Ibizan Diary" was created as well as numerous portraits. In 1961 the second stay in Ibiza followed. This was marked by an encounter with the Italian painter Emilio Vedova . At the mediation of Kaiser, Vedova exhibited in Soest.

Since 1962, Kaiser turned to gouache in addition to paintings . He worked for a few weeks in a studio in Pewsum Castle in East Friesland, where the cycle “The Pewsum Towel” and some pictures from the “East Frisian Diary” were created, many of which were burned or lost. In 1963 Kaiser showed his "Ibizan Diary" in Troyes, France. In addition, Kaiser created great works in public and sacred spaces in the following years.

Since 1973 Kaiser did not take part in group exhibitions, because he felt the competition on the art market as a restriction of his artistic freedom. Instead, Kaiser turned more and more to monumental works. That year he traveled to New York and Washington to visit the Washington Cathedral, for which he had received the order for a three-part, lead-glazed window. In the following three years, Kaiser traveled to Tehran for several weeks because he had been commissioned to design a mosaic wall for the residence of the German ambassador. He began his last phase of work, the “Imaginary Spaces” in 1976.

In 1978 Kaiser bought his own studio in Ibiza. In 1979, in the new work room at Cap Martinet, a central picture in Kaiser's late work was created, “The earthen bowl”. In the same year there was a retrospective exhibition by Kaiser in the Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus in Soest. The artist fell seriously ill during the exhibition. Despite the progressive illness, Kaiser traveled several times to Ibiza in 1980/1981, completed the design for the second window in Washington Cathedral and prepared the retrospective for the Märkisches Museum in Witten . Hans Kaiser died on October 2, 1982 in his studio in Soest.

In 2002, after the death of Hilde Kaiser, the Hans-Kaiser-Kreis was re-established in Soest.

The artistic creative phases

1. Landscape, still life and portraits

During the years of isolation under National Socialism and the first post-war years up to around 1950, Kaiser's most important themes were still lifes , portraits, landscapes and, in particular, the motif of the clown. Kaiser uses a loose and flaky color scheme and emphasizes graphic elements so as not to get lost in the interplay of the "dabbed" colors. Emperor's role models at this time were Wilhelm Morgner and Lovis Corinth .

2. "catching up with modernity"

In Paris, Kaiser was impressed by Cubist painting . He was particularly inspired by Alfred Manessier . Kaiser's color scheme becomes clearer and more extensive. He structures these so-called “islands of color” by creating black, scaffold-like spaces. This creates non-representational pictorial spaces. The later glass art of Kaiser can already be seen in these pictures.

3. "Lot letters" and fire pictures

In 1957 Hans Kaiser found his graphical picture divisions too narrow. The phase of so-called “lottery entries” begins, in which Kaiser takes a stand against the working methods of his role models and destroys all preconceived ideas of how an effective image should look. His pictures now show written actions in the color space. Through this “lottery”, the color tones that he uses become fuller and clearer. The previously dark, constructive picture frameworks spray into shorthand graphical traces that themselves become colored. At this time, Kaiser also turned to the technique of working with contrasts, light at the back, which simulates spatial illusions. This metaphor of space or place remains a central motif of Kaiser, which runs through all of the artist's creative phases. Kaiser describes the places as "liberation places", in which the lots are written.

4. Stained glass (sgraffito and mosaic)
Window in the crypt of St. Patroclus

From 1953 to 1981 Kaiser received a number of graphic commissions in connection with architecture in public and sacred spaces. There are 91 individual windows in 28 years. These include, for example, the St. Albans Cathedral in Washington and the stained glass windows in the main crypt of St. Patroclus in Soest, dating from 1977. The specialty of Kaiser stained glass windows lies in his approach. Kaiser doesn't start with a sketch, but works from the start with a ratio of 1: 1. For example, he writes quotes and thoughts from studying Bible texts on a cardboard box, which are then adapted to the technical and visual conditions. He uses expensive glass to increase the luminosity and avoids lead solder .

5. Inspiration Ibiza

From 1960 onwards the "Ibizenkische Tagebuch" (Ibizan Diary) was created, which summarizes the first series of pictures resulting from Ibiza's inspiration: For example, "White Line", Am Cap Martinet, strongly colored, "exploding landscapes" ( John Anthony Thwaites ), but also the series the dedications and "In the old town". They consist of a variety of gray and white hues. Some of these are faded, partly translucent or irregularly applied layers of paint. Characters can be recognized that are sometimes grouped into bundles or lines or applied with broad strokes of the brush and a hard brushstroke. After this “gray phase”, however, the pure color soon returns. For example, within 5 years, from 1960 to 1965, the large picture “Ibiza 1960–1961–1965, and what became of me” was created by applying many different layers of paint. Despite the apparent disorder, there is a certain order that can be found in the swelling and swelling of the dense scriptural webs , the different depths of color and the non-representational pictorial space.

6. Gouaches

In the course of the 1960s and early 1970s, Kaiser turned to a gouache technique that sometimes has a watercolor-like effect. Some bright colors on a white surface determine the picture. The light background thus takes on a spatial character. Scriptural characters are visibly reduced. With the help of the remaining scripturals, Kaiser tries to integrate areas of his conceptual world and his intellectual knowledge into his painting.

7. "full color"

The Kaiser's last creative phase began around 1978. Huge areas of color are created, which in turn have a spatial effect through modulation . In many works there is a kind of foreground at the lower edge, which is formed by separate parts. This gives the pictures a landscape character. These landscapes cannot be localized in the environment, but result solely from the process of painting. In 1979, Hans Kaiser fell seriously ill. The awareness of imminent death is also reflected in his pictures. Shining, bright openings arise and it seems as if these are displacing the environment around them, and they suggest another, more mysterious room. Color, space and symbols form a unit here.

estate

The artistic estate of the artist came to the Gustav-Lübcke-Museum in Hamm in 2002 after the death of the artist's wife, Hilde Kaiser , the written estate went to the Soest city archive.

Works in public and sacred space (selection)

Crypt of St. Patroclus
Dortmund, Bonifatius Church, window "The burning thorn bush", 1967, in the north aisle
  • 1957 Opaque glass mosaic wall in the Aldegrever high school
  • 1957 mosaic relief on the swan pharmacy
The relief depicts the pharmacist's activity. The scales symbolize the accuracy with which a pharmacist works, the sun and moon symbolize the availability of a pharmacist around the clock, vertical bones symbolize that life and death are often close together, the red tiles symbolize the blood of life
  • 1957 Haverland office building: small opaque glass mosaic wall
  • 1958 Large opaque glass mosaic wall in the swimming pool, destroyed when the swimming pool was demolished
  • 1960 Baptism window in St. Patroclus in Soest
  • 1962 Creation window in the westwork
  • 1964 St. John's Church: thick glass-concrete window strip
  • 1965 Erlöserkirche Arnsberg : Thick glass-concrete window bands around both gables
  • 1964 Window in the Soest District Health Office
  • Stained glass window in the main crypt of St. Patroclus

Awards

Exhibitions (selection)

literature

  • Hans Kaiser: Randgang - Enrollments from 1960–1982. Mocker & Jahn, Soest 1992.
  • Anna H. Berger-Felix, Martin Gesing: Hans Kaiser - Written in the room. Pictures 1952–1968. Works on paper. City of Hamm / Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm 1998, ISBN 3980506932 .
  • Hugo Kükelhaus : Hans Kaiser's window “The body of the living”. Westfalenpresse special edition, 1964.
  • Hugo Kükelhaus: To the window of creation St. Patrocli-Soest. In: Art and Church. 1963.
  • JA Thwaites: Hans Kaiser. Cologne 1979.
  • Wolfgang Zemter: Hans Kaiser. The painterly work. Münster 1981, ISBN 3-88547-155-8 .
  • Hans-Kaiser-Kreis (Ed.): Hans Kaiser - The green vessel. NeueMedienKultur, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-024323-3 .
  • Kolhoff, Kolja: Hans Kaiser: Light rooms. Kerber, Bielefeld; Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86678-757-5 .

Filmography

  • Ulrich Frey: Hans Kaiser , In: German and French painters in the present, TV series 1968
  • Walter Klemann: Hans Kaiser and his glass windows , TV film 1970
  • Hans Vetter: Hans Kaiser , TV film (ARD) 1973
  • Kurt Schaumann: Inspiration - The painter Hans Kaiser and his work , short film

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b John Anthony Thwaites: Hans Kaiser. Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7927-0524-9
  2. ↑ Hans Kaiser - Written in the room, pictures 1952–1968. Catalog for the exhibition in the Gustav-Lübcke-Museum Hamm. Edited by Ellen Schwinzer and Anna H. Berger-Felix, Hamm 1998, p. 33ff
  3. ^ Written estate in the Soest City Archives
  4. ^ Announcement on the exhibition , accessed on August 3, 2014

Web links

Commons : Hans Kaiser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kaiser, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Bochum
DATE OF DEATH 2nd October 1982
Place of death Soest