Helmut Symmangk

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Helmut Symmangk (born August 6, 1931 in Stimmersdorf (now Mezná in the Czech Republic ); † June 10, 2018 in Starnberg ) was a German painter and graphic artist.

Life

Helmut Symmangk was born on August 6, 1931 in Stimmersdorf in Bohemian Switzerland in a small half-timbered house . His father Emil Symmangk (1907–1984) was a cabinet maker and his mother Marie Symmangk nee. Kleinpeter (1909-1993) was a worker. In 1932 his sister Hilda was born. He attended elementary school in Obergrund near Tetschen-Bodenbach and absolutely wanted to become a forester. In 1946 Symmangk got to know the young painter Emil Hille and the first works based on nature were created. In 1946 the family was expropriated and relocated to Schwaan in Mecklenburg .

In Schwaan they tried a new beginning under the poorest conditions. Helmut Symmangk worked as an unskilled worker. From 1947 to 1949 he completed an apprenticeship as a stove fitter . His talent for drawing was noticed at the vocational school in Güstrow and, on recommendation, in 1950 he applied to the newly founded technical school for applied arts in Wismar (later Heiligendamm ). From 1950 to 1953 he studied graphics there with Hans Schlapmann. The first lithographs were made here . In 1954 he was an assistant there for a year and taught writing. In parallel, he continued to work with Emil Hille. The two stayed in contact until his death in Parchim in 1988.

From 1954 to 1959 he studied painting at the College of Fine and Applied Arts Berlin-Weißensee , first with Toni Florence Mau , with the young Günther Brendel and from the second year with Kurt Robbel . It was here that Symmangk met the painters Ronald Paris and Klaus Roenspieß , the beginning of a lifelong friendship and a lively correspondence. From 1966 to 1968 he was a master class student at the Academy of Arts of the GDR in Berlin, first with Otto Nagel and then with Bert Heller , in 1967 he traveled to the former Soviet Union for three months to study . He got to know the sculptor Friedrich B. Henkel .

From 1960 to 1963 Helmut Symmangk was an employee for lithography at the central workshops for graphics in Berlin with Fritz Dähn . He printed there for, among others, Ronald Paris , Hans Vent , Otto Niemeyer-Holstein , Arno Mohr , René Graetz and Herbert Sandberg . Through this work he made many contacts with artist colleagues.

The graphic works of Helmut Symmangk are of particular importance, all prints are made by himself. This took place from 1963 to 1974 in our own printing workshop on the back wall in Meißen , in the house of the parents-in-law, from 1974 to 1990 in the studio on Leninstrasse in Meißen. After the studio was closed in 1990 due to the exorbitantly increased rents after the fall of the Wall, his graphic production ended.

From 1963 Helmut Symmangk worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist in Meissen. Between 1968 and 1978 numerous murals, porcelain friezes and mosaics were commissioned. From 1978 to 1984 he was a restorer in the reconstruction of the Semperoper Dresden ( lunettes , ornaments, large curtain). From 1983 to 1984, he worked for several months on the panoramic image Peasants' War of Werner Tübke in Bad Frankenhausen with.

From 1984 to 1992 he was an evening lecturer at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts . At the same time, in 1984 he also restored historical wallpaper in Pückler's Branitz Castle . Several wooden sculptures were created between 2011 and 2012, all of which are in the estate. From December 2014 until his death, Symmangk lived and worked in Gauting near Munich. A few more pictures of the Alps were taken here.

In the course of his work there were several extensive destruction of works, the last one after the death of his son Ronald (2010) in winter 2011.

Helmut Symmangk was married to the ceramicist and designer Ellinor Symmangk from 1952 to 2004 († 2004). The marriage resulted in a son (* 1963) and a daughter (* 1967). Symmangk died in 2018 after a brief serious illness at the Starnberg Clinic . He was buried on June 29, 2018 in the Frauenkirchfriedhof in Meißen next to his wife Ellinor.

Works (selection)

  • 1958: At the Jannowitzbrücke, oil on canvas, Stadtmuseum Berlin
  • 1961: Reading girl, lithograph
  • 2007: Die Brücke von Wieck, acrylic on canvas
  • 2017: Waxensteine ​​at the Riessersee near Garmisch, acrylic on canvas

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1961: Participation in the exhibition Young Art - Painting under Fritz Cremer , German Academy of the Arts Berlin
  • 1962: Exhibition HELMUT SYMMANGK, KLAUS ROENSPIESS and KONRAD KNEBEL , Erich-Weinert-Haus Berlin
  • 1963: Solo exhibition Helmut Symmangk - Young artists introduce themselves , Meissen Porcelain Manufactory
  • 1969: Solo exhibition Helmut Symmangk - 32nd studio exhibition , Leonhardi Museum Dresden
  • 1971: Participation in exhibition II Indian Triennale , New Delhi
  • 1982: Kurt Robbel and his students participated in the exhibition , Altes Museum Berlin
  • 1994: Exhibition Helmut Symmangk and Renée Reichenbach - Painting and Ceramics , Gallery at Ratswall Bitterfeld
  • 2012: Solo exhibition Helmut Symmangk - Painting 1992–2012 , Bennohaus Kunstverein Meißen (works from this period as well as wooden sculptures 2011–2012 were shown)
  • 2018 participation in the exhibition The Beauty of the Big City , Museum Ephraim-Palais Berlin

literature

  • Gert Claußnitzer: Rhythmic unity of colors. Text on the exhibition Helmut Symmangk in the Schloßgalerie Siebeneichen 1994, Sächsische Zeitung August 9, 1994.
  • Kathleen Krenzlin, Monika Meiser: Klaus Roenspiess painting 1957-2011. Lukas Verlag, 2012, pp. 115, 117, 135.
  • Jörg Makarinus: About the development of the Berlin school. Research and reports Vol. 31. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 1991, p. 319.
  • Paul Spies , Dominik Bartmann : The beauty of the big city. Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation, 2018, pp. 90–91.
  • Angelika Weißbach: Breakfast in the open air - freedom in the official art business of the GDR. The exhibitions and actions in the Leonhardi Museum in Dresden 1963–1990. Dissertation Humboldt University Berlin 2009, pp. 32, 88, 302 ( online ).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Symmangk, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH August 6, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Stimmersdorf , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 2018
Place of death Starnberg