Hans Mettel

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Bartholomew frieze on Frankfurt Cathedral , 1957

Hans Mettel (born April 10, 1903 in Salzwedel , Germany ; † January 23, 1966 in Falkenstein im Taunus ) was a German sculptor and medalist , the son of a well-known family of stonemasons from Salzwedel.

Life

Hans Mettel was born in Salzwedel in 1903 as the son of master stonemason Carl Mettel. From 1913 he attended the Royal Humanistic Gymnasium in his hometown. In 1921 Mettel moved to Dresden and completed an apprenticeship as a stone sculptor there until 1923. After this apprenticeship he switched to the Prussian Academy of Fine Arts and was from 1925 to 1928 master class with Professor Hugo Lederer and Professor Edwin Scharff .

After several exhibitions, Mettel received the Rome Prize in 1930 with a study visit. From 1930 to 1931 he completed this study visit as a scholarship holder of the Prussian Academy of Arts in the Villa Massimo in Rome . After his return, Mettel worked as a freelance artist in Berlin from 1931 . In 1936 his art was declared degenerate under the National Socialist regime . He was banned from exhibiting. During the Second World War he was conscripted as a soldier from 1940 to 1945 and was taken prisoner by the French.

Mettel returned to Salzwedel in 1946 from captivity. In 1947 he was appointed professor and head of the sculpture class at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main . Arnold Bode appointed him to Club 53 in 1953. From 1950 to 1956, Mettel was director of the Städelschule. The sculptor Willi Schmidt was one of his students there . Hans Mettel died on January 23, 1966 in his house in Falkenstein im Taunus.

In his hometown Salzwedel there are still few works of art by Mettel, the fountain figure in the courtyard of the district music school (behind the house where Jenny Marx was born ), the memorial for the fallen in the Jahngymnasium and various tombs.

Hans Mettel was a member of the German Association of Artists , from 1955 to 1960 he was a member of its board.

In the course of the Nazis' "Degenerate Art" confiscation campaign in 1937, three sculptures by Hans Mettel from the National Gallery in Berlin, the Mannheim City Art Gallery and from Berlin state property were confiscated. Two of the works are listed as destroyed.

Awards

  • In 1931 he received the State Prize in Rome for his works.
  • In 1957 Mettel was awarded the Darmstadt City Art Prize.

Works

Mettel's figural sculptures made significant contributions to sculptural work in Germany in the 1950s and 1960s and are of international relevance. For example, he was a participant in documenta 1 (1955), documenta II (1959) and documenta III (1964) in Kassel .

gallery

literature

  • Ernst Holzinger : Hans Mettel, winner of the Darmstadt City Art Prize: Exhibition d. City of Darmstadt under co. Kunstverein Darmstadt May 10 to June 14, 1958 in d. Art Gallery. Exhibition catalog, Darmstadt: Magistrat, 1958.
  • Kerstin Schlüter: The sculptor Hans Mettel: with a critical catalog of sculptures , Frankfurt am Main; Berlin; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Vienna: Lang, 2001, European University Theses: Series 28, Art History; ISBN 3-631-36906-9 .
  • Kerstin Schlueter: Hans Mettel - The estate in the Städel. In: Alexander Bastek (arr.): Of heads and bodies. Frankfurt sculpture from the Städel , Frankfurt a. M .: Städel 2006, ISBN 9783935283113 , pp. 70-83.
  • Hans Mettel: sculptures, medals, drawings, prints; Exhibition catalog, September 30 - November 5, 1972, Städelsches Kunstinst., Frankfurt am Main / catalog editing: Christian Lenz; Ellen Spickernagel , 1972
  • Ralf Bormann: Time becomes space here. The work process for Hans Mettel's Hölderlin monument in Frankfurt am Main. In: Oliwia Murawska (ed.), Grenzgänger. Festschrift for Prof. Dr. Andreas Hartmann . Rheinisch-Westfälische Zeitschrift für Volkskunde 62/63, Bonn, Münster in Westfalen 2018, pp. 307–343
  • Mettel, Hans . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 3 : K-P . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1956, p. 379 .

Web links

Commons : Hans Mettel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Board members of the German Association of Artists since 1951 ( Memento from December 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  2. ^ Research center "Degenerate Art", FU Berlin: Confiscation inventory "Degenerate Art". Retrieved November 6, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Mettel, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzwedel , Saxony-Anhalt
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1966
Place of death Falkenstein im Taunus , Hesse