Heinrich Ilgenfritz

Heinrich Ilgenfritz (born April 16, 1899 in Nuremberg ; † May 27, 1969 in Kleinmachnow near Berlin) was a German painter , designer , stamp artist , graphic artist , and especially copperplate engraver .

Life

Heinrich Ilgenfritz was born in Nuremberg in 1899. He grew up in very humble circumstances. His talent for drawing was discovered by a school inspector who initiated his training with an engraver . As often as possible, he used the opportunities of the open drawing room in Nuremberg in his free time to further develop his artistic talents. From January to November 1918 he was a soldier. As a rider on the western front, he experienced the atrocities of the war.

1919–1921 he attended the Nuremberg School of Applied Arts , supported by a municipal scholarship . After completing his training, he moved to the north. He spent the years 1922 to 1927 as an engraver and draftsman in Flensburg, Kiel and Bremen: he designed jewelry and silverware. During this time he began to paint. In nearby Worpswede and Fischerhude there were encounters with Heinrich Vogeler and Otto Modersohn , among others , who inspired him in 1927 to go on a study trip to Paris. There he discovered copper engraving as a means of artistic expression for himself, the graphic technique he later preferred, which was then used and further developed by the “Peintres Graveurs” in free work. "Girl in the Wind" was one of his first engravings.

This was followed by the master's examination as an engraver for copper and steel engraving (1929) in Kassel, the examination as a craft teacher for elementary, middle and high schools (1929) and a study at the State Art Academy Kassel (1928-1932), which ended with the dissolution the academy came to an early end. He took part in exhibitions including “The contemporary German copperplate engraving” in Bautzen in 1929 (initiator Johannes Wüsten ), and he was shown with watercolors at the “December exhibition from the Künstlerbund Bremen e. V. “represented in 1929. In 1930 he received the Albrecht Dürer Prize from the city of Nuremberg.

He was able to continue his studies in Berlin in 1932 at the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts, among others with Georg Walter Rössner . There he became a master student with Hans Meid (until 1935). In 1932 he was also included in a colleague exhibition in the Gurlitt Gallery in Berlin.

He found a job as a cartographic engraver and architectural engraver. He also worked as a book designer and illustrator, mainly with monochrome pen drawings as book decorations.

At the end of the Second World War he was drafted into the Volkssturm and was taken prisoner.

After a brief activity as an art and craft teacher at a Berlin high school, Heinrich Ilgenfritz was a lecturer at the University of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin-Weissensee from 1947 to 1952, and in 1952 he became head of the technical school for graphics, printing and advertising in Berlin-Oberschöneweide. From 1956 to 1961 he worked as a lecturer at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig, where the training of engravers for value printing was in his hands.

In 1963 he retired to Kleinmachnow near Berlin. Illness increasingly restricted him in his work. He died in 1969. He found his final resting place in the south-west cemetery Stahnsdorf in the Lietzensee block, field 20, election point 119.

Works (selection)

• Pictures: occasionally preserved in private ownership (including “Flowers at the Window”, 1923; “Spring Night”, 1924; “Children on the Tree”, 1925; “Morgentoilette”, approx. 1926), disappeared from public art collections in the 1930s
• Copper engravings: "Three Women" (1928), "Mothers" (1929), "Potato Harvest" (1929), "Fish Sales" (1931), "Motette" (1934), "Riders" (1948), "Horses" (1949) ), "We bid you hope" (1949)
• Small graphics: including many bookplates and pour féliciter greetings for the New Year
• Etchings: "Where to?" (1947), "Vandalized" (1948), "Platform" (1950)
• Lithographs: cycle "The Hunger Whip", 8 stone drawings (1928)
• Woodcuts: "Way home" (approx. 1930), "Fishermen returning home" (1934)
• Book illustrations: mother. A book of love and thanks , Gutenberg Book Guild 1933; Hans Fallada: Little Man - What Now? , Book Association Berlin approx. 1935; Stefan Andres: El Greco paints the Grand Inquisitor , 1936; Otto Pentzel: Bush fight in East Africa , undated; Ernst Wiechert: The Holy Year , 1936; John Masefield: The Golden Rooster , 1938; Ernst Wiechert: The Children's Crusade , 1938; Estrid Ott: The island trip , 1939; Hans Aanrud: Kroppzeug , 1942; Claude Tillier: My Uncle Benjamin , 1946; Johann Peter Hebel: Treasure Chest , 1947

Heinrich Ilgenfritz also designed medals and postage stamps. The most important stamp series is the series “Famous Germans” from 1948 for the Deutsche Post (SBZ). Graphic sheets can be found in various public art collections and museums (including in Berlin, Kassel, Leipzig, Görlitz, Vienna), especially ex-libris in Castle Burgk / Saale, Mainz and Frederikshavn / DK. He has been interested in the horse motif since childhood, and in various techniques it has become the subject of many works. He wrote the book: The copperplate engraving. Art-historical overview and description of the technology , Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1958.

His signet until about 1930 is a monogram of H + I in various forms, including the letters IL, ILGEN, later he chose the tz.

Exhibitions

The first

1929 “December exhibition, Künstlerbund Bremen e. V. "(watercolors)

1929 “The contemporary German copperplate engraving”, Bautzen

1931 “The new engraving in copper, wood and stone”, Berlin

1935 "Third International Exhibition of Etching and Engraving", Chicago

The last

1995 "Druckgraphik", gallery in the town hall Berlin-Treptow

1999 "Copper Engravings and Etchings", Hintersdorf Gallery, Berlin

2000 "Kopperstik - grafiske arbejden", Frederikshavn Art Museum and Exlibrissamling

2003 “Works from the Estate”, Hintersdorf Gallery, Berlin

2007/08 "Under the St (r) ich. The copper engraving in the modern age ”, Galerie Carlshorst, Berlin

2007/08 “Heinrich Ilgenfritz - A Master of Copper Engraving. Works from his life's work ”, Socio-Cultural Center Ratz-Fatz, Berlin

Information and literature (selection)

• HH Engelhardt: Vitality of the brand language. Eight drafts straight away . In: Collector's Express. Issue 20, 1948, p. 308.
• Ilgenfritz, Heinrich . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 546 .
• KK Doberer: Heinrich Ilgenfritz and his postage stamp designs. In: The collector service. 1959, issue 17
• Renate Wenger: The engraver Heinrich Ilgenfritz. In: Fine arts. 1962, No. 12, pp. 635-639
• Hans Schulze: Heinrich Ilgenfritz. In: Artisti dell'Exlibris. I, Como 1968, pp. 173-184
• Hans Schulze: Heinrich Ilgenfritz. In: Bookplate art and commercial graphics. Yearbook of the German Ex-Libris Society. 1971
• Lexicon of Art in 7 volumes. EA Seemann, Leipzig 1991 ff., Volume III, p. 397
• Joachim Pohl: Heinrich Ilgenfritz 1899–1969. Eight gravure prints. Edition Pohl, Berlin 1993
• Hartmut Pätzke: Heinrich Ilgenfritz. In: Communications from the German Ex-libris Society. 1999-1, pp. 3-5
• Maria Viktoria Schubert: Bookplate work list Heinrich Ilgenfritz. In: Communications from the German Ex-libris Society. 1999-1, pp. 6-8
• Hartmut Pätzke: Heinrich Ilgenfritz on the 100th birthday. In: Heinrich Ilgenfritz 1899–1969. Engravings and etchings. Catalog for the exhibition in the Hintersdorf Gallery. Berlin 1999, pp. 4-5
• Maria-Viktoria Schubert: Heinrich Ilgenfritz 1899–1969. Engravings and etchings. Catalog for the exhibition in the Hintersdorf Gallery. Berlin 1999
• Detlev Lorenz: Traces of Artists in Berlin from the Baroque to Today. Berlin 2002, pp. 24, 338
• Peter Hahn: Southwest Cemetery Stahnsdorf. Lexicon reading book park guide. Badenweiler 2003, pp. 141-142.
• Manfred Neureiter: Lexicon of ex-libris artists. Berlin 2009, p. 204.
• Ulla Heise: Ilgenfritz, Heinrich . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 76, de Gruyter, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-023181-6 , p. 203.

Henriette Ilgenfritz initially looked after the estate until 1995, since then daughter Maria-Viktoria Schubert and son Ernst-Michael Ilgenfritz have looked after him. Now the estate is in the graphic collection of the museums of the city of Nuremberg.

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Ilgenfritz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files