Heinz von der Way

Heinz von der Way (born January 22, 1888 in Krefeld , † February 20, 1973 there ) was a German commercial artist and painter .

Life

Childhood, adolescence and studies

Heinz von der Way was born as the youngest of eight children of a master baker in Krefeld, whereby the first three died in childhood. In addition to primary school, Heinz von der Way attended the boys' drawing school in Krefeld. He trained as a decorative painter with a friend of the family . After graduating, he attended the arts and crafts school from 1905 . He began to deal with subjects and writings in the humanities , such as German classics and Shakespeare as well as the philosophers Schopenhauer and Kant . The well-known painter Jan Thorn Prikker (1868–1932) was his main teacher at the School of Applied Arts , under whose influence he initially designed textiles such as batiks . A classmate was the later artist and graphic artist Heinrich Campendonk (1889–1957), who emigrated to the Netherlands during National Socialism . Von der Way had to abandon his original career goal of being a drawing teacher, as his elementary school education was insufficient. Instead, he hoped to “earn the money as a commercial artist to be able to work freely as a painter.” Therefore, he decided to work as a freelance commercial artist.

Commercial graphics, first exhibitions and social ties

On a hike with the Krefeld local branch of the Eifelverein Heinz von der Way met his future wife Marya Büttner. After graduating from art school, he learned in close cooperation with the versatile operating Düsseldorf painter Wilhelm Krapoth the portraiture , as well as studies of nature and landscape painting . The circle of friends around von der Way, which arose during their studies and which included the blacksmith Paul Sieben , the architect Eugen Bertrand , the book printer Ernst Düsselberg and the master painters Jupp Lemm and Karl Esser, set up a joint studio in the Sieben workshop in which von der Way designed the first advertising graphics as well as trade fair and exhibition stands. He was soon able to exhibit his work, around 1912/1913 in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum . In addition, he learned the subject of "writing", which is important for commercial graphics, from the painter and graphic artist Reinhold Gruszka .

During the First World War , von der Way was drafted into the Landsturm . After suffering from dysentery , he was used as a "photogrammeter" in France the following year. There he evaluated aerial photographs and transferred the information obtained from them to maps. With the help of such overviews, an enemy railway gun was discovered and destroyed in one case , whereupon the Way was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class . After returning from the war, Heinz von der Way and Marya married. 38 oil paintings, including 17 portraits, were created in 1919 alone. His exhibitions were shown in the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum and in other cities on the Rhine and Ruhr as well as in Baden-Baden .

Breakthrough as a commercial artist

In 1920 he was able to design advertisements for around two dozen Krefeld companies for a municipal publication. This is how the collaboration as an "artistic advisory board" with the chemical factory Stockhausen came about, which lasted until the Second World War . In addition, von der Way taught at the boys' drawing school between 1919 and 1922. In 1920 and 1923 the daughters Freya and Gisela were born. As the new chairman of the German Advertising Association, von der Way organized the 1925 Krefeld traffic and advertising week. Inspired by his discussions with the Lord Mayor Dr. Johannes Johansen , the town on Windmühlenstraße in Krefeld-Bockum built two semi-detached houses with four studio apartments for freelance artists, which were designed by the Ways friend Eugen Bertrand. The von der Way family moved into one of the four apartments in 1929.

Shortly thereafter, he received his most important job as a commercial artist. A printing company in Wesel was looking for an artist to produce beer advertising for breweries . He writes about this in his memoir:

“Until then, such posters displayed liquids in glasses that were more reminiscent of pea soup than beer. The task was to develop a beer glass display that, in addition to the clearness of the beer, should also visually express its refreshing coolness. I achieved this with the following tricks: the beer itself in the backlight, strong light-dark effect, but the foam in the side light, because of the plastic effect, especially with the 'Pilsener Haube'. The cold effect? A freshly drawn glass fogged up with cold beer. A fogged glass, however, has no transparency and therefore no clarity. By touching the glass after tapping, the fogging is partially wiped away and the clarity becomes visible at this point. The effect is even increased by the contrast. I achieved a further increase with the 'cold drop' that flowed over the fogged area and left a characteristic path. That was the hit in the brewery advertisement. "

Because of this completely new type of representation, he then received numerous orders from breweries throughout the empire . His employment was secured for the next few years. During the Second World War , Heinz von der Way initially continued his commissioned work, but in 1943 he was called in as an auxiliary policeman for the security service in Bockum . The daughters had meanwhile been given jobs: Freya worked in the Lyceum on Moerser Strasse as a trade teacher , Gisela at the Stockhausen company as a chemical technician . Shortly after the end of the war, von der Way was able to resume his poster work. In 1949, the German Brewers' Association commissioned him to design various beer motifs and advertising texts for joint advertising. For example, restaurants should generally advertise beer consumption without referring to specific brands.

Painting, especially the landscape on the Lower Rhine and portraiture , accompanied him all his life and outweighed his work as a graphic artist from around the time after the death of his wife in 1959. Since then he has been financially more independent, so it did not matter it was noticed that his way of working was considered outdated by photography .

The "Niederrheinische Künstlergilde"

With his colleagues Karl Görgemanns , Heinz Kaumanns , Wilhelm Röttges , Edith Strauch as well as Erika and Richard Zimmermann, Heinz von der Way founded the “Niederrheinische Künstlergilde e. V. ”, of which he became chairman in 1949. Combined by a lack of space, finance and material, a group of like-minded, but not like-minded artists emerged. Everyone had their own style. They were connected by a love of art and, last but not least, of their homeland. Accordingly, the motifs often related to the hometown or the Lower Rhine. The group described themselves as "conservative". The artists painted less “modern” or avant-garde , but turned away from the experimental and the other tendencies of current art.

The " artist group 1945 " , which was founded in the same year and was active until the beginning of the 1960s, worked as a kind of antipole . There, new forms were consciously sought and the further development of art was promoted. The group included artists from Krefeld such as Fritz Huhnen , Laurens Goossens , Ernst Hoff and Walter Icks .

The “Gilde” artists subsequently held joint exhibitions in the region almost every year. At regular “slaughter festivals” in Heinrich Korff's inn “ Königshof ”, they critically examined the works of two or three of their colleagues, which was intended to train people to get to know each other and develop their own critical skills . In addition, there were specialist lectures on a wide variety of artistic and literary topics, joint visits to exhibitions and trips to external conferences. The “Königshof” became the new hangout of the “Gilde” after a large exhibition was shown here in 1949, followed by individual works by its members. In the meantime, about thirty people belonged to the "guild", including the graphic artist Hermann Kampendonk (1909–1994), nephew of Heinrich Campendonk , or the Niederrhein painters Franz Deselaers (1912–1989) and Heinrich Gillessen (1910–1997), who had mostly been students of the former arts and crafts school. After von der Ways' death on February 20, 1973, the “guild” quickly lost its importance in Krefeld's local and art history.

Works

The Krefeld city archive keeps the part of the estate that includes the commercial graphics and some documents such as order books or about the "Niederrheinische Künstlergilde". His previously unpublished memoirs also belong to this collection. They are publicly available there. Most of the paintings are in the administration of the granddaughter in Krefeld. They have been on display again and again in exhibitions since the 1990s, most recently in a double exhibition by the Krefeld City Archives and the "Kunst und Krefeld eV" association in autumn 2019.

literature

• Freya von der Way (Ed.): Heinz von der Way - Painting and Graphics 1913-1971. Catalog for the exhibition at the Krefelder Kunstverein . Sassafras, Krefeld 1998.
• Christian Krausch: Heinz von der Way - a Krefeld artist , in: Die Heimat - Krefeld yearbook . No. 68, pp. 113-117.
• Georg Opdenberg: in memoriam 2005. 60 years Niederrheinische Künstlergilde, artist group 1945 Krefeld , in: Die Heimat - Krefeld yearbook . No. 77, pp. 25-32.
• City of Krefeld - City Archives, Art and Krefeld eV (Ed.): Heinz von der Way 1888-1973. The life's work of the Krefeld artist - double exhibition . Krefeld 2019.