Helmut Börsch-Supan

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Helmut Börsch-Supan (born April 3, 1933 in Cologne ) is a German art historian and a versatile author of fundamental works mainly on German art of the 18th and 19th centuries.

biography

Helmut Börsch-Supan studied art history, classical archeology and philosophy in Cologne, Hamburg, Freiburg and Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1958 from the Free University of Berlin . After a traineeship in the portrait collection of the Munich museums, he began his work in 1961 as a research assistant in the administration of the State Palaces and Gardens in Berlin . Here he was in charge of the visual arts of the Berlin palaces for more than three decades as curator and was deputy director of the Berlin palace administration until he left in 1995. In addition, he taught from 1974 to 2005 at the Institute for Art History at the Free University of Berlin, where he was appointed honorary professor in 1984 .

His doctoral thesis was the image design with Caspar David Friedrich (1958), the artist occupied him throughout his life. In 1973 he presented - using the archive of the art historian Karl Wilhelm Jähnig (1888–1960) - the most comprehensive work to date on the artist with a catalog raisonné and written sources; his most recent monograph on the artist is from 2008. and 19th century, over 200 articles testify to his scientific productivity. His edition of the “Catalogs of the Berlin Academy Exhibitions” and his handbook on 19th century German painting are widely used. In addition, he published numerous works on architecture and sculpture, especially from the Berlin and Brandenburg region, including several works on Karl Friedrich Schinkel .

On the occasion of his 70th birthday, friends and colleagues dedicated the commemorative publication “Prussia. Art and the individual ”. For his work around the Greifswald- born romantic Caspar David Friedrich, Börsch-Supan was awarded the Rubenow Medal by the city of Greifswald in 2012 as the city's highest award.

Helmut Börsch-Supan is also a keen observer of the museum and cultural politics of the present and also reported in the daily press and in essays and lectures, especially when art and cultural values ​​are endangered by power interests. Committed to contemporary art, for decades he was an important partner for Hann Trier , Joachim Dunkel and Roger Loewig , for example . From the large number of his more than fifty catalog articles and speeches in this area, mention should be made of his contribution to the Kreuzberg Art Prize to the painter Luise Grimm and the catalog contribution to the exhibition "Stone and Bronze" by the sculptor Katharina Szelinski-Singer in the Georg Kolbe Museum . He is a member of the Historical Commission for Pomerania .

His wife Eva Börsch-Supan is an art and architecture historian.

Honors

In 2008, Börsch-Supan and his wife were awarded the Fidicin Medal of the Association for the History of Berlin in recognition of their research on the art and history of the Berlin-Potsdam cultural landscape.

Publications (selection)

Books

  • (Ed.): The catalogs of the Berlin Academy exhibitions 1786-1840. Bruno Hessling, Berlin 1971, 3 volumes. ( Sources and writings on the fine arts. Edited by Otto Lehmann-Brockhaus and Stephan Waetzold; 4).
  • with Karl Wilhelm Jähnig: Caspar David Friedrich. Paintings, prints. Prestel Verlag, Munich 1973. (List of works by Friedrich with biography).
  • Art in Brandenburg-Prussia. Their history from the Renaissance to the Biedermeier period is shown in the art collection of the Berlin palaces. Gebr. Mann, Berlin 1980.
  • German painting. From Anton Graff to Hans von Marées. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 1988.
  • Art museums in crisis. Opportunities, threats, tasks in lean years. Deutscher Kunstverlag Munich, 1993.
  • The Charlottenburg Palace. Berlin Edition, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8148-0005-2 .
  • Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Stage designs. Verlag Ernst & Sohn, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-433-02175-9 .
  • The monk on the Spree. Caspar David Friedrich between the burden of history and the lust for representation. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin 2001. ISBN 3-935455-08-9 .
  • Artist walks to Berlin before Schinkel and afterwards. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-422-06328-5 .
  • with Gerhard Ullmann, Dieter Hildebrandt: Sanssouci. Komet Verlag, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-89836-218-3 .
  • Caspar David Friedrich. Prestel Verlag, Munich 2005, ISBN 3-7913-3333-X .
  • Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Picture inventions. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-422-06672-4 ( Karl Friedrich Schinkel's life's work. Ed. By Helmut Börsch-Supan and Gottfried Riemann. Volume 20).
  • Caspar David Friedrich. Feeling as law. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich, Berlin, 2008, ISBN 978-3-422-06807-0 .

Magazine articles

  • On the genesis of Schinkel's designs for the museum frescoes. In: Journal of the German Association for Art History. 35, 1981, pp. 36-46, ISSN  0044-2135 .

Texts in exhibition catalogs

  • Katharina Szelinski-Singer: Sculpture work. With texts by Ursel Berger and Helmut Börsch-Supan. Ed .: Georg-Kolbe-Museum (exhibition catalog), Berlin 1987, 48 pages, 33 ills.
  • Katharina Szelinski-Singer: stone and bronze. With texts by Wolfgang Schulz and Helmut Börsch-Supan. A publication by the Deutschlandhaus Foundation, Berlin. 1997, catalog for the exhibition Deutschlandhaus, October 19 - December 14, 1997; Meissen, Albrechtsburg February 8 - April 13, 1998. 60 p. With numerous. Fig., Partly colored.

literature

  • Martin Sperlich : laudation for Helmut Börsch-Supan. In: Prussia. The art and the individual. Contributions dedicated to Helmut Börsch-Supan. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-05-003789-X , pp. XI – XV (therein pp. 373–407 Bibliography Helmut Börsch-Supan. Edited by Iris Berndt).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Speech for the award ceremony Luise Grimm Museum Berlin, online ( Memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.luisegrimm-museum-berlin.org
  2. ↑ Directory of members on the website of the Historical Commission .
  3. ^ Announcement of the association - Fidicin medals for historical capacities Börsch-Supan

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Börsch-Supan, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German art historian
DATE OF BIRTH April 3, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne