Hans Mertens (painter)

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Hans (actually: Johannes ) Mertens (born January 2, 1906 in Hanover ; † August 18, 1944 in Albi / France ) was a German painter and representative of the New Objectivity .

biography

Oil painting “Houses in Linden ”, 1927;
looking from Fortunastraße to Starkestraße across to Limmerstraße ;
Oil on canvas 67 × 62 cm; Sprengel Museum

Hans Mertens was born on January 2, 1906 in Hanover as the son of a wallpaperer. From 1925 to 1926 he studied at the Hanover School of Applied Arts , where before him Grethe Jürgens , Gerta Overbeck , Ernst Thoms , Erich Wegner and Friedrich Busack were taught by the artist and teacher Fritz Burger-Mühlfeld , who was highly respected by the students . Hans Mertens and his fellow student Karl Rüters joined the group of these artists in 1925, which had a major impact on Mertens artistic work.

Since 1925 he exhibited regularly in the spring and autumn exhibition of the Kunstverein Hannover . In addition, his pictures were shown in exhibitions on painting of the New Objectivity in 1928 at the Kunstverein Nordhausen , in 1929 in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam , in 1932 in the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum in Braunschweig , in 1933 in the Mannheim-Dessau traveling exhibition The World Up Close - German Province - Contemplative Objectivity and shown in 1942 in the exhibition Small Pictures in the old palace of the Reich Propaganda Office South Hanover-Braunschweig.

In 1928 Hans Mertens succeeded in selling his painting Still Life with Household Appliances to the Hanover Provincial Museum for the first time . It is still shown today as part of the permanent exhibition of the works of New Objectivity in the Sprengel Museum in Hanover. Further sales of pictures followed later, also to the Hanover City Council. However, Hans Mertens could not make a living from his picture sales. He took on various jobs, for example as a restorer, commercial artist and children's book illustrator. In 1933 he married Hanna Vogel, who had also attended the arts and crafts school in Hanover. In 1936 their son Michael was born.

From 1939 to 1941 Hans Mertens was a soldier in France, Poland and Russia. In 1943, numerous pictures in his studio were destroyed in an air raid on Hanover , so that his artistic work is no longer fully preserved today. He was killed in the French city of Albi on August 18, 1944 at the age of 38.

Selected Works

“ Still life with household appliances”, 1928

Honors

In 2003, the capital of Lower Saxony honored the painter of New Objectivity by naming Hans-Mertens-Strasse in the Hanover district of List .

Literature (selection)

  • Ludwig Zerull (red., Layout), Günter Barz, Michael Herling (photos): Hanoverian painter of the New Objectivity , accompanying document to the (traveling) exhibition of the Lower Saxony Sparkasse Foundation with pictures from the collections of the Stadtsparkasse Hanover , the Lower Saxony Sparkasse Foundation and the Sprengel Museum Hanover , Ed .: Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung, self-published, Hanover: Th. Schäfer Druckerei, 1991, passim
  • Kristina Heide: The still lifes of the New Objectivity in Hanover. In: Christian Fuhrmeister (ed.): "The strongest expression of our days": New Objectivity in Hanover. December 9 , 2001 - March 10 , 2002 , catalog for the exhibition of the same name in the Sprengel Museum Hannover , Hildesheim; Zurich; New York: Olms, 2001, ISBN 3-487-11440-2 , pp. 63-67, pp. 247f.
  • Sergiusz Michalski: New Objectivity, Painting, Graphics and Photography in Germany 1919-1933 , 2003 TASCHEN GmbH, ISBN 3-8228-2370-8 , pp. 134–145
  • Hugo Thielen : MERTENS, Hans. In: Dirk Böttcher, Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 251 and others; mostly online through google books
  • Hugo Thielen: Mertens, Hans. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 439.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hugo Thielen: MERTENS ... (see literature)
  2. ↑ a b Hugo Thielen: Mertens ... (see literature)
  3. ↑ Compare the results of any search engine
personal data
SURNAME Mertens, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mertens, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter of the New Objectivity, illustrator, commercial artist and restorer
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH August 18, 1944
Place of death Albi