Herbert Volwahsen

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Herbert Volwahsen (born October 11, 1906 in Skorischau , Upper Silesia , † March 23, 1988 in Murnau am Staffelsee ) was a German sculptor and university professor .

Life

After attending the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium in Wroclaw , he first completed an apprenticeship at the wood carving school Bad Warmbrunn in the Giant Mountains . From 1925 to 1931 Volwahsen studied at the Dresden Art Academy with Richard Born . From 1929 on he was also a master class student with Karl Albiker . During his studies he worked in various studios, after graduating as a freelance artist in Dresden.

In addition to his sculptural work, he was also interested in expressive dance . He came into contact with the expression dancers Mary Wigman and her student Gret Palucca , who founded her own dance school in Dresden in 1925 . The photographs of Volwahsen's expressive dances show the sculptor's gaze at the dance figures, and the formal language is reflected in some of the sculptures. By engaging with expressive dance, the sculptures receive Volwahsen's dynamism and inner movement.

In 1933 he received the Ilgen Culture Prize of the State of Saxony for the sculpture The Blinded . From 1935 to 1953 he had his studio in the Künstlerhaus Dresden-Loschwitz . During this time, Volwahsen created numerous commissioned works in addition to freelance work, particularly in churches in the Rhineland, Saxony and Berlin. In 1946, together with Will Grohmann , Josef Hegenbarth , Karl Hofer and Max Pechstein, he organized the first General German Art Exhibition , which took place in Dresden from August to October. For the first time after the war, the works of art that were ostracized by the National Socialists were shown at this exhibition, from expressionism to abstraction . During these years, Volwahsen campaigned intensively for the interests of artists in Dresden. From 1945 to 1946 he was President of the State Chamber of Fine Arts of Saxony , until it was transferred to the FDGB trade union .

Between 1946 and 1948 the large relief “Passion” was created for the Gertraudenfriedhof in Halle (Saale) . Volwahsen created the five-meter-long work under the impression of an encounter with emaciated concentration camp prisoners and the bomb attack on Dresden , which he witnessed from Loschwitz .

After the city of Cologne was awarded the Art Prize in 1952 to Volwahsen and Bernhard Heiliger , Ernst Wilhelm Nay and Georg Meistermann , the decision was made to flee the GDR to the West, as Volwahsen was unable to continue his artistic work in East Germany continue. In 1953 he first went to Uffing am Staffelsee with his family . At the end of 1955 he moved to Bielefeld , where he was appointed head of the plastics department at the Werkkunstschule in 1956 . In 1964 he became a professor at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences . After the end of his teaching activity, he moved to Murnau am Staffelsee in his studio house in 1972. Mainly portraits and small-format works were created here, but also larger sculptures such as the aria .

His first marriage to Anne Volwahsen geb. Rose are the children of Barbara Wishy, ​​Catherine Philippon and Andreas Volwahsen, the second marriage to Dorothee Volwahsen geb. Weber 's son Veit Volwahsen.

Public sculptures

Fountain in Hanover
The foot-washing woman , Gütersloh
After the escape , Espelkamp
  • 1946–1948: Relief Passion , limestone , on the Gertraudenfriedhof in Halle (Saale)
  • 1956: Fountain in front of the Hanover telecommunications office, shell limestone , called "Postbrunnen"
  • 1958: Memorial for the dead of wars, bronze , in Werther (Westphalia)
  • around 1960: Crucifix, bronze, in the Gospel Church in Gütersloh
  • 1960: The foot-washing woman , bronze, in downtown Gütersloh
  • 1960: The walker , in the courtyard of the state house in Münster
  • 1963: Merkurbrunnen in Bielefeld
  • 1966: After the escape , Espelkamp
  • 1968: Memorial for all victims of war and tyranny, bronze, on the south cemetery in Herne

Exhibitions

Exhibitions for the 100th birthday

  • 2006: Art Center Alte Molkerei, Worpswede
  • 2006: House of the German East, Munich
  • 2006: Kunstverein Murnau “Die Tür”, sculptures, drawings, photographs
  • 2008: House of Silesia, Königswinter, The Timelessness of Form

Participation in exhibitions

  • 1946: Dresden, First General German Art Exhibition
  • 1952: Cologne, artist association exhibition
  • 1956: Recklinghausen, German art award winner since 1945
  • 1988: Berlinische Galerie in the Martin-Gropius-Haus, stations of modernity
  • 1990: Dresden, expatriated artist from the GDR 1949–1989
  • 1994: Kunsthalle Mannheim, Human Images - Figure in the Times of Abstraction 1945–1955
  • 1998: Leonhardi Museum , Dresden-Loschwitz, 100 years Künstlerhaus Loschwitz
  • 2012: Galerie am Blauen Wunder, Dresden, 21st summer exhibition - Herbert Volwahsen - Peter Junghanß - Libuscha Bambula

Honors

literature

  • Esslingen Artists' Guild (Ed.): Ernst Schremmer. Herbert Volwahsen. (= Fine Arts , Volume 3.) Esslingen 1963.
  • Kulturwerk Schlesien eV (Ed.): Herbert Volwahsen. Sculptures, texts. Wuerzburg 1976.
  • Günther Ott: The sculptor Herbert Volwahsen. In: Der Wegweiser , edition 7/1979.
  • Exhibition catalog of the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, 2006
  • Stations of modernity. The major art exhibitions of the 20th century in Germany. (Exhibition catalog of the Berlinische Galerie) Berlin 1988.
  • Nicola Doll, Ruth Heftrig, Olaf Peters , Ulrich Rehm (eds.): Art history after 1945. Continuity and a new beginning in Germany. (= Bonn Contributions to Art History , Volume 3.) Cologne 2006.

Web links

Commons : Herbert Volwahsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stations of Modernity. The major art exhibitions of the 20th century in Germany. (Exhibition catalog of the Berlinische Galerie) Berlin 1988, p. 355 ff.
  2. ^ Stations of Modernity. The major art exhibitions of the 20th century in Germany. (Exhibition catalog of the Berlinische Galerie) Berlin 1988, p. 362.
  3. a b c culture portal west-east