Herbert Kunze (painter)

Herbert Kunze (born July 6, 1913 in Chemnitz ; † November 17, 1981 in Dresden ) was a German artist and lecturer at the University of Fine Arts in Dresden.

Life

Kunze moved to Dohna near Dresden during his childhood in 1919 , where he attended elementary school from 1920 to 1927. After attending the higher commercial school in Pirna and attending evening courses at the Dresden School of Applied Arts , he began studying at the Dresden Art Academy in 1932 .

During a study trip to Holland in 1937 he came into contact with works by Permeke and de Staël . In 1939 he was called up for military service, as a result of which he was a Soviet prisoner of war from 1945 to 1948. He then returned to Dohna , where he worked as a drawing teacher and in 1949 became a member of the artists' community “ Das Ufer ”. From 1952 to 1975 Kunze was a lecturer at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts .

Artistic work

Kunze studied at the Dresden Art Academy with Karl Albiker and Wilhelm Rudolph . The few pre-war works testify to the quality of the academic training he enjoyed until 1937. The draft for military service in 1939 and the ensuing captivity, first in Romania and later in the Soviet Union , interrupted his work for a period of nine years. Kunze began to work creatively again as a prisoner of war. He worked on the creation of posters, banners and backdrops for the camp theater.

In 1948 he returned to Dresden. At that time, his work was still very realistic. He joined the Dresden artist group “Das Ufer” and later became a lecturer at the University of Fine Arts. The work of Nicolas de Staël and Georges Braques gained increasing influence on the work of Kunze. Like de Staël, Kunze also succeeded in uniting abstraction and objectivity in his work.

In his later works, which were created especially after Kunze's retirement , he came to a completely free use of color and form. Kunze became one of the most important representatives of the Dresden Art Informel .

Herbert Kunze's students were among others Joachim Böttcher , Manfred Böttcher , Michael Freudenberg , Eberhard Göschel , Veit Hofmann , Günther Hornig , Gerda Lepke , Marlies Lilge , Sigrid Noack , Stefan Plenkers , Max Uhlig and Rainer Zille .

Exhibitions

• Participation in all exhibitions of the artist group "Das Ufer"
• "2. German Art Exhibition ”, Dresden 1949 - participation in an exhibition.
• “Man and Work”, Berlin 1949 - participation in an exhibition.
• “Artists create for peace”, Berlin 1951 - participation in an exhibition.
• “Dresden Artists”, State Art Collections Dresden 1952 - participation in an exhibition.
• "3. German Art Exhibition ”, Dresden 1953 - participation in an exhibition.
• Artists' cooperative exhibition "Art of Time", Dresden 1961 - participation in an exhibition.
• "Painting and Graphics - Bruno Konrad - Herbert Kunze" Personal exhibition at the Kunst der Zeit Gallery , Dresden 1973.
• "The collage in the art of the GDR", National Gallery Berlin 1975 - participation in an exhibition.
• “Color graphics of the GDR”, Staatliche Museen Schwerin 1975 - participation in an exhibition.
• Personal exhibition in the Leonhardi Museum , Dresden 1976.
• "Dresden Art - Today", Galerie Nord Dresden 1977 - participation in an exhibition.
• Personal exhibition and portfolio in the Schweinbraden Gallery , Berlin 1977.
• "Collage in the GDR", Galerie am Sachsenplatz, Leipzig 1978 - participation in an exhibition.
• "Dresden Artists", Galerie Mitte, Dresden 1981.
• Personal exhibition, Galerie Mitte, Berlin 1981.
• Personal exhibition, Galerie Kunst der Zeit, Dresden 1983.
• Personal exhibition, Small Gallery, Wilhelm-Pieck-Stadt Guben 1983.
• "Herbert Kunze. Anreger und Freund ”, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Cottbus and HfBK Dresden 1988.
• “Art space. Positions - Inspirations “, Brandenburgische Kunstsammlungen Cottbus 1993 - participation in an exhibition.
• "Herbert Kunze. Calligraphies and Collages ”, Brandenburgische Kunstsammlungen Cottbus 1997.
• "Emil Schumacher and Herbert Kunze", Galerie Döbele, Dresden 1997.
• Personal exhibition, Neuer Sächsischer Kunstverein , Dresden 2003.
• “Without Us!” - on art & alternative culture in Dresden before and after '89, Prager Spitze, Dresden 2009.
• “Herbert Kunze - On the 100th birthday”, personal exhibition, Dresden 2013.
• Personal exhibition, Neue Sächsische Galerie Chemnitz 2014.

literature

• Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Ed.): "The collage in the art of the GDR." Berlin 1975.
• Lang, Lothar: “Nothing but collages” in: Die Weltbühne - a weekly for politics-art-science, 70th year, issue 10, Berlin 1975, p. 314.
• Fine arts, No. 2 1982, p. 104.
• GALLERY Kunst der Zeit (Ed.): “Herbert Kunze - Painting, Graphics.” Dresden 1983. With an introductory text by Fritz Löffler .
• Office for Fine Arts of the Dresden District Council: “Das Ufer - Gruppe 1947 Dresden artists. Exhibition in the Pretiosensaal Dresdner Schloß. “Dresden 1984.
• Small gallery, Wilhelm-Pieck-Stadt Guben (Ed.): "Herbert Kunze", Guben 1986. With an introductory text by Reinhild Tetzlaff .
• Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Cottbus (Ed.): "Herbert Kunze - Anreger und Freund." Dresden 1988.
• Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Cottbus (Ed.): "The Art of Collage in the GDR 1945–1990.", Cottbus 1990.
• Tiesler, Frank: Non-European art and Dresden modernism. A prohibited exhibition. Dresden 1992. p. 5, p. 8, p. 11 and plate 63.
• Tetzlaff, Reinhild: “On the fate of the forgotten and their formative power.” In: Neuer Sächsischer Kunstverein (ed.): Fama, edition 6, October, November, December 1993, p. 36ff.
• Rector of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (ed.): "Working on paper - drawings, watercolors, gouaches.", Dresden 1995.
• Tetzlaff, Reinhild (Ed.): "Herbert Kunze - Imaginations." Dresden 2003. Published in the series "KUNSTgenuss" of the New Saxon Art Association.
• Blume, Eugen and März, Roland (ed.): "Art in the GDR - a retrospective of the Nationalgalerie." Berlin 2003.
• Sigrid Hofer (Ed.): “Counterworlds - Informal Painting in the GDR.” Marburg 2006.
• Altmann, Susanne: “Working in a rough climate.” In: art - Das Kunstmagazin, No. 1, January 2006, p. 82 ff.

Web links

• extensive website for Herbert Kunze
• Herbert Kunze at Art in the GDR
• Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden honor Herbert Kunze on his 100th birthday
• Literature by and about Herbert Kunze in the catalog of the German National Library