Heinz-Joachim Theis

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Heinz-Joachim Theis (* 1954 in Flörsheim am Main ) is a German gallery owner and director of the Berlin Ceramic Museum .

Life

Born in 1954 in Flörsheim, Hesse, Heinz-Joachim Theis completed an apprenticeship as an aircraft mechanic at Deutsche Lufthansa AG in Hamburg and Frankfurt / Main after graduating from school . In addition, language studies took him to Barcelona and Paris and, thanks to his knowledge of Russian, he obtained a translation diploma. But Theis was looking for a satisfying job, but in the search for it "slipped" into his future profession by chance: During an internship, he got to know the craft of ceramic molding in a pottery course. But he didn't want to just produce mediocre earthenware himself , but rather surround himself with "beautiful", artistically high-quality ceramic objects. His first pieces he bought at flea markets, while later lace pieces, including vessels and sculptures, for example, from Germany, Denmark, Japan or South Africa, to the - - counter exhibits its established on 1 May 1986. Gallery Theis in Schustehrusstraße in Berlin-Charlottenburg include .

Four years after the opening of his gallery, the Ceramics Museum Berlin (KMB) was also founded: a base of 4,000 ceramics was donated to the Berlin Senate as a private foundation and the Senate in turn made it available to the museum as a permanent loan. The association founded by Theis with the support of collectors, artists and scientists at the same time has set the public-law sponsorship of the museum by the State of Berlin as one of its goals. In the meantime, the museum was able to move into the roughly three-hundred-year-old town house near Charlottenburg Palace in 2004 and has since presented 81 special exhibitions there - primarily on ceramics from the German cultural area.

Heinz-Joachim Theis runs the Ceramic Museum Berlin, which is located in the immediate vicinity of the Galerie Theis, on a voluntary basis together with his employees. The income to cover operating costs and the occasional purchase of irretrievable collection items is generated through membership fees, monetary donations and comparatively modest entrance fees for the museum.

Only 50 m further, just around the corner from the ceramics museum, Theis runs a “Bollhagen shop” with decorative and utility ceramics from the HB workshops  that produce in Marwitz : they had their still affordable dining services, vases, bowls and cans " Grande Dame of East German Ceramics", who died in 2001, designed by Hedwig Bollhagen , who was one of the first sponsors and had already become an honorary member of the Ceramic Museum in 1992; just one of numerous well-known ceramic artists from the circle of friends around the museum director.

Theis was also able to show works by other leading personalities of the modern ceramics scene, including Jan Bontjes van Beek , Beate Kuhn , Else Harney , Otto Lindig , Hubert Griemert , Renée Reichenbach , Petra Benndorf and the Korean artist Kap-Sun Hwang . For the 25th anniversary of the founding of his gallery, Heinz-Joachim Theis had already presented the majority of the artists in Group 83 in solo exhibitions - in addition to the numerous changing exhibitions in the ceramics museum, the Theis gallery has only been presenting special exhibitions sporadically since its 25th anniversary.

As an author and editor, Heinz-Joachim Theis published on current trends in ceramic art, various potters and artists, such as Rudolf Kaiser , Friedrich Festersen and Friedrich Festersen's art pottery or Paul Dresler and the Grootenburg pottery .

As early as 2010, the tireless volunteer who said about himself in 2016: “I work as long as possible, I'm not aiming for a pension”, was honored with the award of the citizen's medal for the Berlin district of Charlottenburg.

Fonts

  • Heinz-Joachim Theis (Ed.): Berlin and Brandenburg - Ceramics of the 20s and 30s (= Märkische Ton-Kunst ; Vol. 2) (= component ... of the German Historical Museum, Berlin , Vol. 10), accompanying document for the exhibition of German Historical Museum in cooperation with the Friends of the Ceramic Museum Berlin from October 15, 1992 to January 5, 1993 in the Zeughaus Berlin, 260 z. Partly illustrated pages 260 and a sheet of catalog supplement, Stuttgart: Ed. Cantz, 1992, ISBN 978-3-89322-497-5 and ISBN 3-89322-497-1
  • Heinz-J. Theis (ed.): Bontjes - Aspects , supplementary booklet for the exhibition Jan Bontjes van Beek - Ceramists 1899–1969 from August 1st – 26th. September 1999. The Ceramic Museum Berlin visits the Great Orangery of Charlottenburg Palace. Edited for the Association for the Promotion of the Ceramic Museum Berlin (KMB), Berlin: KMB, 1999; contents
  • Heinz-J. Theis (Ed.): Art Pottery Friedrich Festersen. Berlin 1909–1922 , publication for the exhibition in the Ceramic Museum Berlin from April 4 to June 1, 2009, published for the Association of the Berlin Ceramic Museum (KMB), Berlin: KMB, 2009
  • Heinz-J. Theis (ed.): Paul Dresler and the Grootenburg pottery (1879–1950) , accompanying publication for the exhibition at the Ceramic Museum Berlin from August 29, 2010 to January 24, 2011, 2nd edition, ed. for the Friends of the Ceramic Museum Berlin (KMB), Berlin: KMB, 2010
  • Heinz-J. Theis (ed.): In memoriam Rudolf Kaiser (1910–1980) , accompanying publication for the exhibition at the Ceramic Museum Berlin from June 19 to September 20, 2010, ed. for the Friends of the Ceramic Museum Berlin (KMB), Berlin: KMB, 2011
  • Heinz-J. Theis (Ed.): The timeless form. Porcelain and ceramics by Hermann Gretsch (1895–1950) , accompanying publication for the exhibition in the Ceramic Museum Berlin from November 5, 2011 to January 30, 2012, 1st edition, ed. for the Friends of the Ceramic Museum Berlin (KMB), Berlin: KMB, 2011; contents
  • Heinz-J. Theis (Ed.): Hedwig Bollhagen (1907-2001). Decorative and utility ceramics , 1st edition, ed. for the Friends of the Ceramic Museum Berlin (KMB), Berlin: KMB, 2012; contents

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Camilla Blechen: Keramik / Die gute Form in Ton ... on the taz website from August 17, 2011, last accessed on July 24, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Charlene Rautenberg: Heinz-Joachim Theis and his love for ceramics on the imwestenberlins.de page of Berliner Morgenpost GmbH on September 4, 2016, last accessed on July 24, 2017
  3. ↑ Compare for example Heinz-Joachim Theis in the catalog of the German National Library
personal data
SURNAME Theis, Heinz-Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German gallery owner and director of the Berlin Ceramic Museum
DATE OF BIRTH 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH Flörsheim am Main