Horst Leifer

Horst Leifer (born May 22, 1939 in Altreichenau , Silesia , † 2002 in Sanz ) was a German painter.

Life

Horst Leifer came from a family of miners. His father was a third generation miner. In 1946 the family of nine was relocated from Silesia to Langenau near Freiberg in Saxony. Leifer attended elementary school there from 1946 to 1953. This was followed by an apprenticeship in mining. Leifer was until 1960 Hauer in the lead ore mine in Freiberg. In 1960 he attended the Faculty of Workers and Farmers at the Dresden University of Fine Arts . From 1961 to 1966 he studied painting there with Paul Michaelis and graduated with a diploma. In 1965 he married the painter and graphic artist Sibylle Günther. The marriage produced three sons. From 1967 to 1969 Leifer was an aspirant at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. From 1969 he worked as a freelance painter in Dresden and Altentreptow in Mecklenburg and worked as a contract restorer for the Institute for Monument Preservation in Dresden.

In 1972 the Leifer family moved their second home from Altentreptow to Sanz near Greifswald. The acquaintance and later friendship between Horst Leifer and Otto Niemeyer-Holstein began .

From 1988 to 1993 Leifer was senior assistant to Gerhard Kettner at the University of Fine Arts. From 1993 he lived and worked as a freelance painter with his family in Sanz near Greifswald. In 1995 and 1997, Leifer traveled with the collector Alfons Butz from Neuburg an der Donau to Stampa , Switzerland, to Alberto Giacometti's birthplace. In 2001 Horst Leifer received the Bautzen Art Prize. On January 24th, 2002 he died in Sanz near Greifswald after months of serious illness.

In the months after the medical certainty that Leifer's life was coming to an end, the painter created a cycle of self-portraits (ink drawings), 68 of which are kept as a gift from the Leifers family in the possession of the Dresden Kupferstichkabinett . Under the title “Last Self-Examination”, the drawings were exhibited in Ernst Rietschel's birth house in Pulsnitz in 2003 on the first anniversary of the artist's death. Hans-Ulrich Lehmann, curator of the Kupferstichkabinett Dresden, wrote in the exhibition catalog: “Like a diary, initially at longer intervals, the artist explores the changes in his face in view of the approaching death.” Diether Schmidt stated in his opening speech of the exhibition in Pulsnitz in 2003 : “It is an effort to keep the last distance, despite the nearness of death, to assert the last superiority. I see, I design, I bear witness. "

Works (selection)

• 1976: Portrait of Hans Jüchser, Galerie Neue Meister Dresden
• 1976: Portrait of Otto Niemeyer-Holstein, Kunsthalle Rostock ; II. Version, Evangelisches Kreuzgymnasium Dresden
• 1983: Portrait of Hermann Glöckner, Galerie Neue Meister Dresden
• 1984: Portrait of Fritz Löffler, Galerie Neue Meister Dresden
• 2001: Self-portraits, cycle of 68 drawings, Kupferstichkabinett Dresden

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1969: Leonhardi-Museum Dresden (with Wolfram Hänsch, Peter Makolies; closed before opening by the Stasi)
• 1972: Rubenow Club of the Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald
• 1972: District exhibition, Dresden
• 1972: Leonhardi Museum, Dresden
• 1973: Galerie Jürgen Schweinbraden, Berlin East (with Peter Makolies)
• 1974: District exhibition, Rostock
• 1974: Museum Greifswald (with Sibylle Leifer, Otto Niemeyer-Holstein, Herbert Wegehaupt)
• 1975: Leonhardi Museum Dresden (with Ulrich Eisenfeld and Peter Hermann)
• 1977–1978: VIII. Art Exhibition of the GDR , Dresden
• 1985: District exhibition, Dresden
• 1985: Heringsdorf Art Pavilion / Usedom
• 1985: "Drawing in the Art of the GDR 1974–1984", Cottbus
• 1985–1986: "Dresden today, painting and graphics after 1945", Galerie Döbele, Ravensburg, also Ulm, Stuttgart, Singen, Gelsenkirchen
• 1986: Art Basel , Galerie Döbele
• 1987–1988: Xth Art Exhibition of the GDR , Dresden
• 1989: Galerie Samuelis-Baumgarten, Bielefeld , with Gerhard Kettner, Siegfried Klotz, Ursula Rodeczko
• 1992: Weinheim / Bergstrasse (with Peter Makolies, Max Uhlig and others)
• 1994, 1996: Gallery of the Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturringes e. V. in the culture hall of the Klinik Schloss Pulsnitz
• 1994: German Evangelical Congregation, Brussels , exhibition of Dresden artists
• 1996: Klinger Gallery, Görlitz
• 1996: Galerie Döbele, Dresden
• 1997: Bautzener Kunstverein eV, 2nd Bautzen Autumn Salon "pro figura"
• 1998: Museum Schloss Hoyerswerda
• 1998: Art and culture barn of the sculpture park in Katzow , with Sibylle Leifer
• 1999: Society for Art and Culture e. V., Old Town Hall, Sigmaringen
• 1999: Regional Council, Dresden
• 2000: BBK Braunschweig , Torhausgalerie, Braunschweig
• 2000: Kunstverein Aurich e. V., Aurich Art Pavilion
• 2001: City Museum Bautzen , exhibition on the awarding of the Bautzen Art Prize 2000 to Horst Leifer
• 2001: Exhibition in the gallery in the house where Ernst Rietschel was born in Pulsnitz, " Horst Janssen , Horst Leifer - Me and Counter-Me"
• 2002: Usedomer Kunstverein e. V., Heringsdorf art pavilion, "Horst Hermann Leifer in memory"
• 2002: Oberlausitzer Kunstverein e. V., Kunstlade Zittau , Horst Leifer, watercolors
• 2002: Neuer Kunstkreis e. V., art association for Anklam and the surrounding area, art gallery of the graphic school
• 2003: Gallery in Ernst Rietschel's birthplace, “Last self-examination”, memorial exhibition
• 2003: House of the Cathedral, gallery in the city wall, participation in the exhibition: "Dying in Life"
• 2006: Gallery in the house where Ernst Rietschel was born, "Two voices in the snow, Horst Leifer and Christiane Latendorf"
• 2009: Gallery in the house where Ernst Rietschel was born, Horst Leifer and Alfred Hrdlicka
• 2013: Ostsächsische Kunsthalle Pulsnitz, "Leifer and Friends", Horst and Sibylle Leifer with Wolfram Hänsch, Christiane and Gunter Herrmann, Peter Kaiser, Bärbel and Wolf-Eike Kuntsche, Christiane Latendorf, Peter Makolies, Gudrun Nützenadel, Gottfried Reinhardt, Bärbel Schulz, Lothar Sell, Max Uhlig, Heike Wadewitz, Christine Wahl, Claus Weidensdorfer, Ute and Werner Wittig
• 2014: Gallery in Ernst Rietschel's birthplace, Horst Leifer on his 75th birthday
• 2014: Painting, graphics and photographic works by Horst Leifer and Vincent Leifer, Horst Leifer memorial studio in Sanz Hof 3
• 2018: Usedom Refugium Zinnowitz , pictures by Horst Leifer from the Andreas Schorlemmer collection
• 2019: Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring e. V., Ostsächsische Kunsthalle Pulsnitz, commemorative exhibition for the 80th birthday, paintings, watercolors & drawings from the Alfons Butz collection

Literature (selection)

• VIII. Art Exhibition of the German Democratic Republic, portrait of Hans Jüchser, portrait of Otto Niemeyer-Holstein, Dresden 1977/78, page 138.
• Lothar Lang, Painting and Graphics in the GDR. Edition Leipzig, 1978, pages 206 and 210.
• Fritz Löffler, Die Union, insight into an intensive work, March 29, 1984.
• Catalog, "Horst Leifer - Pictures and Leaves", text by Prof. Dr. Diether Schmidt, editor. Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring eV, 1994.
• Erhard Frommhold, Elisabeth Heinrich, Dresden painting 1945–1985, Art Fund of the Free State of Saxony, 1995.
• Catalog, Horst Leifer - self-portrait, text by Arie Hartog, publisher: Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring eV, 1999.
• Anton Thormüller, Wie Sägespäne, Horst Leifer turns sixty, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 22, 1999, page 46.
• Diether Schmidt, Melancholy and serious view of life, Horst Leifer painted for his life, Sächsische Zeitung, January 25, 2002, page 13.
• Detlef Lücke, speech at the opening of the exhibition Horst Leifer - Pictures and Pages in the Alt-Langsow School and Prayer House held on May 17, 2003 in collaboration with the Alt Langsow School and Prayer House Association
• Hans-Ulrich Lehmann, Horst Leifer - last self-examination, drawings, publisher: Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring eV in cooperation with the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, 2004.
• Sibylle Leifer, Das Zimmer, Horst Leifer in memory of his sons Vincent, Ludwig, Immanuel, edited by Sibylle Leifer, 2006.
• Artist's portfolio, Horst Leifer, last self-examination, with three collotype prints of Horst Leifer's ink drawings and texts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and the Brothers Grimm, publisher: Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring eV, 2006.
• Robert Wolf, Sanz Hof III: the art temple by Sibylle and Horst Leifer, marginalia, 2017, 225, pages 15–24

Web links

• Literature by and about Horst Leifer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Horst Leifer in the SLUB
• Works by and about Horst Leifer Deutsche Fotothek
• Biographies Ostsächsische Kunsthalle
• Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring e. V.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Lehmann: Horst Leifer - last self-examination, drawings. Publisher: Ernst-Rietschel-Kulturring e. V. in cooperation with the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, 2004.