Hellmuth Chemnitz

Hellmuth Max Chemnitz (born November 30, 1903 in Leipzig ; † January 17, 1969 there ) was a German sculptor and head of the sculpture department at the Leipzig School of Applied Arts .

Chemnitz is primarily associated with memories of numerous animal sculptures, made in small-scale and as open-air sculptures for public spaces. They were created over a period of more than 30 years. Stylistic changes hardly or not at all took place during this time. The basis remained the detailed study of anatomy, physical appearance, movement and the type of behavior of animals, carried out especially in the Leipzig zoological garden not only as drawn studies, but also through direct plastic work in front of the animal as a living model.

Life

Chemnitz was closely connected to Leipzig Zoo, "especially during Professor Schneider's lifetime , these relationships took on almost friendly forms ... from ideas and drafts ... to finished sculptures," wrote zoo director Siegfried Seifert in his letter of condolence in 1969. In addition to beavers , young baboons (1962) and orangutans (commissioned in 1940 as plastic advertising for the zoo, completed in 1943, installed at the Natural History Museum and destroyed in the attack on Leipzig in the same year ), the orders placed in 1943 and 1944 to design extinct ones are also included Species such as giant aalk , dronte or kiwi are particularly noteworthy, for which the artist carried out intensive animal anatomical studies.

Chemnitz's artistic work was based on a solid technical training, initially from 1918 to 1922 as a wood sculptor in the Pönicke & Grau company, where the sculptor Rudolf Oelzner, who later became friends, was an apprentice. During this time he was already a modeller for architectural models at the building department of the city of Leipzig. He worked as a journeyman in the cabinet-making workshop Albert Müller and from 1921 attended Alfred Thiele's (1886–1957) courses as an evening pupil at the municipal trade school . From 1925 to 1931 he studied in the plastic department at the Leipzig School of Applied Arts. Here, too, his teacher was Alfred Thiele, in whose private studio he had worked for years. In his leaving certificate from 1931, he attested his pupil and co-worker “a fundamentally honest disposition” and emphasized: “I was able to entrust him with all work, work in stone, wood, etc .; Plaster cast u. Modelling…. In his achievements he has already… brought to artistic maturity ”. After completing his studies, Chemnitz worked as a freelancer in Leipzig from 1931. The acquaintance and later lifelong friendship with Walter Arnold (1909–1979), who learned wood sculptor like him, goes back to his student days . In 1960, based on Arnold's drafts, Chemnitz created the models for the decorative overhangs on the new opera house and monitored their transfer in stone. He independently created the model for the acroteries on the stage, the four-fold, gold-plated, light-metal cast pigeons.

Chemnitz, who was a lecturer in drawing at the Volkshochschule Leipzig in 1951 , took over from Alfred Thiele in 1953 as head of the plastic department at what was now the Technical School for Applied Arts in Leipzig until 1964; afterwards he worked until 1969 as a lecturer for sculpture at the University of Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig . In addition to Chemnitz, E. Ducke, H.-J. Förster, Bruno Kubas and Rudolf Oelzner , ultimately goes back to Alfred Thiele, in whose oeuvre animal representations are an essential element. Precise observation of animals, concentration on closed outlines, harmonization of the sculptural masses and a certain statuary, as well as the fact that the artistic formulation derived from the natural form was not subject to any subjective style were characteristic. This is what distinguishes the "Leipzig School" of animal art from other important sculptors who dedicated themselves to animal design in the 20th century, such as August Gaul , Philipp Harth or Renée Sintenis . Like its teacher, Chemnitz was also a guarantee for numerous students of solid training in all technical and formal basics as the foundation for later independent artistic development. Among them were u. a. V. Beier, D. Dietze, R. Fleck, FB Henkel, V. Kühn, G. Morgner, K. Schwabe and K. Thiede.

Plant locations (selection)

• Bad Elster: peacock, brass, 1960s
• Berlin, Humboldt University, Anatomical Institute: Pelikangruppe (fountain sculpture), sandstone, 1955
• Eisenhüttenstadt, Rosenhügel: Lying donkey, bronze
• Görlitz Nature Protection Park: Young collar bear, bronze, 1959
• Leipzig, Kindergarten Nordstrasse: Group of goats, bronze, 1960
• Leipzig Opera House: Eckakroterien (pigeons)
• Facade design, 1956–1960 residential building:
  • Windmühlenstrasse / corner of Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz : blast furnace workers
  • Farmer's wife (relief), Muschelkalk, 1953–1955
• Leipzig Zoo:
  • Otter (fountain sculpture), bronze, 1934
  • Darter, bronze on stone column, 1940
  • Dronte, Stein, 1948-1949
  • Dronte, bronze, 1949
  • Elbe beaver, bronze, 1949
  • Kiwi, bronze, 1949
  • Riesenalk, bronze, 1949–1950
  • Young baboon, stone, 1962

exhibition

For the 100th birthday of the artist; Gallery in the KUNSTkaufhaus Leipzig , July 18 - August 24, 2003;

Literature (selection)

• Chemnitz, Hellmuth . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 1 : A-D . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1953, p. 429 .
• Günter Meißner: Leipzig contemporary artists . Leipzig 1977
• Peter Guth: Walls of Promise . Leipzig 1995
• Ute Camphausen (Ed.): The Leipzig School of Applied Arts . Leipzig 1996
• Chemnitz, Hellmuth . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 18, Saur, Munich a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-598-22758-2 , p. 386.