Hermann Focke
Hermann Focke (born March 5, 1924 in Metelen / Steinfurt district; † March 26, 2020 in Düsseldorf ) was a German sculptor, draftsman and painter. He lived and worked in Düsseldorf.
Life
Hermann Focke was born in Metelen / Steinfurt district in 1924. His career as a freelance artist was not mapped out because he grew up in modest circumstances with eight siblings. From 1942 to 1945 he was a soldier and was then taken into Soviet captivity until 1947. After these formative experiences, he began practical training with the sculptor Peter Haak (1912–1983) in Erkelenz, before going to the Werkkunstschule Münster from 1950 to 1953 , where he became a student of Kurt Schwippert and Hugo Kükelhaus . His main work from 1934 original number and gesture. Basics of a coming sense of measureexercised lasting influence on him. This book provided him with the theoretical tools for his work in all creative phases.
- Sculptures in Fockes garden
From 1953 to 1959 Focke studied sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Ewald Mataré , most recently as his master student. Since 1959 he has been working as a freelance sculptor in Düsseldorf, where he lived for a long time in the Künstlerhaus on Sittarder Strasse and moved to the Künstlerhaus in Golzheim in 1979 . At first he followed Mataré's tracks stylistically and thematically with small animal sculptures; In addition, he carried out numerous commissions for churches in the Rhineland and Westphalia in the 1960s. In 1965 he began with abstract works on paper.
Since 1970 Focke undertook extensive study trips to Japan, Korea, Malta, Russia, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. He also stayed several times in Paris for study purposes.
In 1986 he returned to three-dimensional work and began with abstract folding objects made of paper. He made some of them as larger sculptures for outside in zinc sheet and copper.
In 1997, Focke took part in a workshop for Chinese painting and calligraphy at Hangzhou University in China. Ink-brush drawings make up an essential part of his oeuvre to this day. In 2017 he was honored with the Art Prize of the Artists .
In the winter of 2017, Hermann Focke was the winner of the Great Art Exhibition NRW Düsseldorf with an exhibition from February to March in the Museum Kunstpalast .
Artistic activity
Two artists had a lasting influence on Focke: the art theorist Hugo Kükelhaus and the sculptor Ewald Mataré. In practical lessons with Mataré at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, Focke had the opportunity to deepen Kükelhaus' theoretical knowledge and put it into practice. In the first years of his free artistic work, Focke orientated himself stylistically and thematically on Ewald Mataré. He created small stylized animal sculptures and took on numerous religious commissions. With them he tied stylized figures into ornamental designs, again in the style of his academic teacher. This commissioned work promised economic success and recognition, but in Focke's own opinion it did not take him further artistically.
In 1965 he dared to make a radical break. He broke away from conventional representational art, did not create sculptural works for two decades and concentrated on abstract drawings. In his search for new forms of expression, he experimented with different materials and techniques. He processed monotypes with colors and painted over photographs that were partially dissolved by chemical solutions. Since the 1970s, Focke returned to representational imagery with pen drawings and watercolors. They were created spontaneously and surprise with their rich colors: organic and amorphous, head and body fragments, surrealistically alienated and sometimes erotically charged. Although these images come from subconscious layers, they are formally disciplined. Another facet of his work is India ink painting, which he has dealt with intensively since his extensive travels to East Asia. Focke's numerous calligraphies show the characteristic interplay of abundance and emptiness, movement and calm, dynamism and silence.
1986 Focke returned to his artistic beginnings, to three-dimensional work. Inspired by the art of Japanese folding, he began to experiment with paper, a simple and unpretentious material. He drew geometric figures such as triangles, hexagons and octagons on paper, photocopied and folded them so that abstract fragile structures emerged. Although they are based on geometric shapes and mathematical calculation, these objects are full of poetry. Breakthroughs and open contours convey the impression of lightness and weightlessness. The fine, often star-shaped web of lines on the paper especially contributes to this. Fockes folded objects appear light and playful, but they are based on a number of theoretical considerations, above all the investigations by Kükelhaus on number symbolism, tracery and the original Platonic parts such as triangles, squares and pentagons. Focke has dealt with the importance of the number as a principle of order in music, metrics, architecture and the theory of proportions of the Italian Renaissance. She played a fundamental role in his work.
The relationship with nature was just as important for Focke's work. He dealt intensively with the geometrical structures in botany and the laws in nature. In doing so, he encountered the consistent principle of symmetry such as the pentagram of the rose blossom, the hexagon of the snow crystals and the Fibonacci spiral on the sunflower. With his folding objects, Focke has been creating his own, self-contained system analogous to nature for years.
Focke found two different principles in nature: structure and growth, crystalline and organic. They are two sides of the same coin, known in Chinese philosophy as yin and yang, opposites that are mutually dependent and inseparable. This Far Eastern principle stands like a leitmotif over all of Focke's work and it explains the different poles of his oeuvre.
Fockes greatest achievement was the folding works from paper, in which he had developed his own and unmistakable artistic language. When implemented in zinc sheet and copper, the sculptural properties of these objects came to the fore.
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- 1972 Rheine, Falkenhof Museum
- 1975 Düsseldorf, artist association Malkasten
- 1978 Düsseldorf, Kulturwerk BBK district Düsseldorf
- 1979 Düsseldorf, State Church Building Office
- 1980 Düsseldorf, Robert Schumann Institute
- 1983 Düsseldorf-Angermund, town hall
- 1984 Emsdetten, town hall
- 1990 Kleve, Koekkoek House Museum
- 1993 Düsseldorf, Ministry of Economics and Transport
- 1997 Wiesbaden, Bellevue Hall
- 2000 Büttgen, Municipal Gallery Kaarst
- 2003 Düsseldorf, EKO House of Japanese Culture
- 2005 Geilenkirchen, Municipal Gallery
- 2007 Düsseldorf, Higher Regional Court
- 2008 Schwerte, Catholic Academy
- 2009 Meerbusch , Evangelical Bethlehem Church Büderich
- 2012 Düsseldorf, fiftyfifty gallery
Working in public space
- Meerbusch-Büderich, Evangelical Bethlehem Church, portal, 1965
- Meerbusch-Büderich, Evangelical Bethlehem Church, star on the campanile , 1983
- Meerbusch-Büderich, Evangelical Bethlehem Church, Altar Cross, 1983
- Bethlehem Church
Door (detail)
Star, campanile
Altar cross
literature
- Hermann Focke. Sculptures and objects, works on paper 1959–1990. Modifications made by Guido de Werd . Exhibition catalog. Municipal Museum Haus Koekkoek Kleve, Kleve 1990.
- Margot Klütsch: Meerbusch art trails, works of art and monuments in the cityscape. Grupello, Düsseldorf 2010, ISBN 978-3-89978-132-8 , pp. 49, 52, 132.
- Hermann Focke (Ed.): Hermann Focke. Foldings, unfolding, objects. Catalog. Lünen 2012.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Catalog Kleve
- ↑ DIE BIG: The 2017 Art Prize for Artists will be presented to Hermann Focke. (Illustration of a folding object made of paper and Focke's studio; catalog text) , on diegrosse.de, accessed on March 27, 2017
- ↑ Geometric shapes by the award winner Hermann Focke formed the perfect visual basis for the design concept for the exhibition “The Great Art Exhibition NRW Düsseldorf” in the Museum Kunstpalast 2017. , at lambertundlambert.de, accessed on March 27, 2017
- ↑ personal conversations with Hermann Focke
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Focke, Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sculptor, draftsman and painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 5, 1924 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Metelen , Steinfurt district |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 26, 2020 |
| Place of death | Dusseldorf |