Hansen-Bahia

Hansen-Bahia (born April 19, 1915 in Hamburg ; † June 28, 1978 in São Paulo , Brazil ; actually Karl-Heinz Hansen ) was a German painter and, above all, printmaker who later took on Brazilian citizenship.

Life

He spent his childhood in Hamburg, went to school here and learned the painting trade from 1930 to 1933. From the beginning he was busy: first he made a trip to Italy and made his way through life as an ice cream seller and artist in a traveling circus. From 1935 to 1936 he served as a seaman in the Reichsmarine , before being employed in the fire department. He was a soldier until 1945. He experienced the end of the war on the Oder front.

He had his first encounter with the visual arts with the painters Paul Borchers and Fritz Schirrmacher, where he practiced painting on Sundays - as he himself stated. Back from the war, Hansen began to paint pictures of the destroyed Hamburg, but also to self-written fairy tales. An exhibition of children's books followed. In 1946 and 1947 he created his first woodcut series Totentanz and Christ and Thomas .

In 1949 he received an invitation to the Gripenberg - Foundation of Sweden and emigrated to Brazil in the same year Norway and England. In 1950 he became a publisher at Comp. Melhoramentes in São Paulo. However, he was now completely addicted to art. He had his first exhibition of woodcuts in São Paulo in the Museu de Arte de São Paulo , the most important art museum in Brazil. He has now been sponsored by Pietro Maria Bo Bardi, the husband of the architect of the Museu de Arte, Lina Bo Bardi .

The year 1955 was to be decisive for Hansen-Bahia. Through the agency of the art magazine Habitat, he traveled to Salvador da Bahia , had an exhibition there, quit his publishing job and became a freelance artist. He set up a studio on the beach at Amaralina in Salvador da Bahia. Between 1956 and 1958 he created a large number of important woodcut series and numerous murals for ecclesiastical and secular buildings.

In 1959 Hansen returned to Germany and in 1960 founded a summer school for woodcuts in his workshop at Tittmoning Castle in the Upper Bavarian district of Traunstein . He also processed his Brazilian impressions in large-format woodcuts. In addition, eight books and portfolios were created .

But it only kept him in Bavaria for four years. In 1963 he took over a professorship at the art academy in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and started a graphics class. The German Cultural Council, Cologne, then organized an exhibition for Prof. Hansen-Bahia in Ethiopia and his students .

At the end of 1966 he gave up his teaching post in Addis Ababa, finally returned to Brazil and became a Brazilian citizen. He took over the chair for graphics at the Federal University of Salvador-Bahia. In addition, he held teaching positions at the University of Bogotá ( Colombia ) and at the Escola de Belas Artes in Belo Horizonte ( Minas Gerais , Brazil). He built a new studio house on the beach in Itapoan (Bahia).

In 1970 Hansen-Bahia received the America Prize at the 2nd International Graphic Biennale, Buenos Aires.

The famous Brazilian poet Jorge Amado added Bahia to the name of Hansen as a tribute to Hansen in the 1950s. He has been known as Hansen-Bahia ever since. But he had never denied his ties to his native Germany and his hometown Hamburg . He was friends with Alfred Pohl . On June 28, 1978, Hansen-Bahia died of cancer in São Paulo.

Monographs (selection)

• Hansen-Bahia. Stations and milestones of a wood cutter '. Hamburg 1960.
• Jürgen Beckelmann: ´Encounter with Hansen - Bahia '. With 57 woodcut reproductions. Darmstadt 1961.
• Konrad Tegtmeier: Hansen-Bahia tells about Brazil. Darmstadt 1962.
• Karl-Heinz Hansen: Primeiro Encontro com a Arte. (First encounter with art). Sao Paulo 1955.

Hansen-Bahia as an illustrator / portfolio works

• Museu de Arte de São Paulo` 20 woodcuts. 25 copies as a portfolio. Sao Paulo 1951.
• Adelbert von Chamisso: Peter Schlemihl's wondrous story. Sao Paulo 1952.
• Flôr de S. Miguel. First edition with 46 woodcuts. Salvador-Bahia 1956. - Second edition with 13 new and 17 woodcuts from the 1st edition. Salvador-Bahia 1957. Third edition with 34 woodcuts. Popular edition in letterpress, in three languages. Salvador Bahia 1958.
• B. Traven: Sun Creation. Indian legend. 12 woodcut illustrations. Hanover 1960.
• The great Tittmoningen Way of the Cross. 14 woodcuts Hildesheim 1964.
• Bertolt Brecht: Songs from the Threepenny Opera. 21 woodcuts. Typography Richard von Sichowsky . Hamburg 1961.
• The adventures of Odysseus. 12 woodcuts (plus cover picture). Hamburg / Darmstadt 1962.
• The Nibelungen. 19 woodcuts (plus final vignette). On verses from the Nibelungen saga (version by K. Simrock). Duisburg 1962. In addition, a text-free hand-printed edition with 20 woodcuts in a cassette was published. Duisburg 1963.
• Woodcuts about the life and deeds of Prince Eugene. 16 woodcuts for the "Heroes - Thats of the Great Field - Herrns Eugenii" published in 1730/39. Vienna / Munich 1963.
• Woodcuts for the ballads by François Villon. 27 woodcuts (plus self-portrait). Hanover 1963.
• Joachim Fernau: And they were not ashamed. A two millennium report. 20 woodcuts. Berlin 1964.
• Stefan Andres: Noah and his children. 16 woodcut illustrations. Munich 1968. (Awarded one of the "Most Beautiful German Books" at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 1968.)
• Lukian - The Hetaera Talks. German by Chr. M, Wieland. 22 two-tone woodcuts Hamburg 1971. - Also as a special edition (portfolio).

Catalogs (selection)

• Museu de Arte Moderna. Sao Paulo 1954.
• Galeria Bonino. Buenos Aires 1955.
• Museu de Arte Moderna. Sao Paulo 1956.
• Galeria Bonino. Buenos Aires 1958.
• Catalog ´A Bahia de Hansen '- Show Europe 1958/59. Melhoramentos de São Paulo, Indústrias de Papel. São Paulo no year
• Hansen-Bahia catalog. Hamburg 1960. (With texts by PM Bardi, Jorge Amado, Remigius Netzer and others) Cologne 1960.
• Hansen-Bahia 49-69 and 20 años en la obra de Hansen-Bahia '. Instituto Cultural Brasil Alemanha or Instituto Goethe con la colaboración del Museo Municipal de Artes Plásticas Sívorini. Salvador-Bahia and Buenos Aires 1970.
• German woodcut in the 20th century. Art Association in Braunschweig eV Braunschweig 1964.
• Catalog of German Woodcut from the Early Period to the Present '. Editor: Society of Friends of Young Art Baden-Baden. Baden-Baden 1966.
• Karl A. Reiser: Catalog German graphics of the last hundred years. In the publication series Art and Antiquity on the Rhine - Guide of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn, no.14 Düsseldorf 1968.

Articles on Hansen-Bahia (selection)

• Wolfgang Pfeiffer: Karl-Heinz Hansen. THE ART and the beautiful home. Monthly magazine for painting, sculpture, graphics, architecture and home decor. Year 53. Munich 1955, p. 54f.
• Gherardo Metsch: Hansen-Bahia. A German graphic artist in Brazil. THE ART and the beautiful home. Year 57. Munich 1959, p. 294f.
• Remigius Netzer: woodcuts by Hansen-Bahia. GEBRAUCHSGRAPHIK - International Advertising Art. Born 27. Munich 1959.
• Helmut Kindler (Ed.): Pictures from Bahia. The work of the German wood cutter Hansen. THE MOST BEAUTIFUL - The Art and Literature Review. Volume 5, Book III. Munich 1959, p. 44.
• Maurice Morisset: Hansen-Bahia. ARTS. Paris 1960.
• Helmut Kindler (ed.): A master class for woodcut (with photos by Stefan Moses). THE MOST BEAUTIFUL - The Art and Literature Review. Volume 6, Book XI. Munich 1960, p. 74ff.
• Armin Eichholz: in the moonlight of Soho. Woodcuts by Hansen-Bahia for the Threepenny Opera. GEBRAUCHSGRAPHIK - International Advertising Art. Volume 30, Issue 2. Munich 1962, p. 8ff.
• Joachim Fernau: Demonia in Wood. Hansen-Bahia illustrates the Nibelungs. THE ART and the beautiful home. Year 61. Munich 1963, p. 556f.
• Hans-Joachim Gelberg: The way of the wood cutter Hansen-Bahia. ILLUSTRATION 63. Magazine for book illustration. Volume III, issue 2. Memmingen 1965.
• NN: The Addis Ababa Art School. MERIAN. The monthly magazine of cities and landscapes. Issue 10 / XIX "Ethiopia". Hamburg 1966.

Web links

• Website about Hansen-Bahia
• Literature by and about Hansen-Bahia in the catalog of the German National Library