Become Hubert

Hubert Werden (born September 19, 1908 in Eschweiler , † February 2, 2005 in Aachen ) was a German painter , sculptor and art teacher.

life and work

After graduating from high school in 1927, Werden studied German and art studies in Munich . He received his artistic training in 1931/1932 mainly from Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann at the Cologne factory schools. From 1932 to 1937 he studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and was trained at the Hildesheim works teacher seminar. He passed his exams as an art teacher in Berlin in 1937.

During the war he was employed as a cartographer on the Eastern Front. He survived the war unscathed and was able to return home in August 1945.

As soon as the material for painting was available again, he began to work - freed from the ideological restraint of National Socialism. In this spirit, he founded in 1948 together with his painter colleagues Karl Fred Dahmen , KO Goetz , Herbert Kaufmann, Fritz Martin, Hanns Pastor , Raoul Ubac and others. a. the "New Aachen Group".

Werden's first artistic period (1948–1953) was based on French Cubism. But he soon left him and devoted himself to informal painting (until 1970). In a further phase he then turns to the “secret of simple objects”. In this creative period he mainly devotes himself to the atmospheric design of internal structures and faces, such as B. with the picture Scala santa (1977). In this way, a series of images “made up of dance and gesture” as well as other, primarily graphic works from what he called “Mystic Realism” series was created.

In the 1980s he experimented with special forms of representation such as B. Sculptures and reliefs. Here, however, abstract dance images for choreographies are also created. The extensive informal older work (1990–2001) captivates in numerous, partly quite large-format pictures and in many gouaches due to its harmony of shapes and colors.

Werden taught art and German at the Kaiser-Karls-Gymnasium in Aachen from 1939 to 1971 and was head of art at the Aachen study seminar. In 1971 he retired.

Creative phases

• 1931–1933: Art Academy: portraits, animal studies, woodcuts and linocuts

• 1937: Werkkunstschule (oil paintings, handicraft objects)

• 1939–1945: individual drawings, children's portraits ("Front vacation pictures")

• 1950: watercolors (landscapes), figures (violin players, lute playing)

• 1951: figurative themes, processed (cubist, in "French" style)

• 1953: first "abstract" works ("untitled"), but then also some graphics with figurative themes (fish and anchors, sacred dance, etc.)

• 1954: gradual dissolution of figurative forms; "Jazz", "frutti di mare"

• 1955–1970: abstract gouaches, graphics and oil paintings (now called "informal")

• 1970: Creative break: some portraits, "Siesta"

• 1971–1976: “Mystical Realism”: figurative works. Graphics (etchings, screen prints) with the character of drawings; Oil paintings with "veils" (behind curtains etc.), mystified themes

• 1977–1980: “Images from dance and gesture” - first figurative, then more and more dissolved

• 1981–1985: Landscapes; Experiments with reliefs

• 1987–1990: abstracting dance images (choreographies)             

• 1990–2001: Shapes and colors - the extensive "old work"

Applied artistic techniques

• Watercolors, tempera
• Lead, charcoal and wax pencils
• Oil and acrylic paints
• Color pastes (e.g. for gouaches)
• Collages (various materials)
• Drypoint and etching
• Screen prints
• Woodcuts and linocuts
• Graffiti reliefs
• Objects made of wood, metal, etc. a.
• Monotypes
• Plastic works made of wood

Exhibitions

• 1949 Aachener Künstlerbund, Aachen
• 1950 Aachener Künstlerbund, Aachen
• 1952 West German graphics, Recklinghausen, Hanover, Osnabrück, Münster a. a. (Catalog)
• 1952 Graphics and gouaches, Suermondt Museum, Aachen
• 1953 New Aachen Group, Aachen
• 1954 New Aachen Group, Aachen
• 1954 Six abstract painters, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum , Aachen
• 1955 Association of Young European Artists, Aachen and Düsseldorf (catalog)
• 1956 Association of Young European Artists, Aachen and Düsseldorf
• 1956 Galerie La Roue, Paris, together with Karl Fred Dahmen and Hanns Pastor
• 1957 Galerie Arnaud, Paris, together with Karl Fred Dahmen
• 1957 CCC Gallery, Rotterdam-Schiedam (solo exhibition)
• 1958 German Association of Artists, Essen
• 1958 Eloge de Petit Format, Clermont-Ferrand
• 1959 Suermondt Museum, Aachen (solo exhibition, catalog)
• 1959 Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren (solo exhibition)
• 1959 Galerie La Roue, Pari (solo exhibition)
• 1959 14th Salon de Réalitées Nouvelles, Paris
• 1960 Participation in the “Prix Suisse”, Lausanne
• 1962 Parnass Gallery, Wuppertal
• 1962 Winter exhibition of the artists from NRW, Düsseldorf (also in the following years)
• 1964 Essen Forum of Fine Artists, Essen (solo exhibition)
• 1965 Suermondt Museum, Aachen (Werden - Löneke)
• 1968 Kulturring Bergneustadt (solo exhibition)
• 1969 Suermondt-Museum, Aachen (solo exhibition - catalog)
• 1970 West German Artists Association, Hagen
• 1971 Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm (solo exhibition - catalog)
• 1973 Suermondt-Museum, Aachen (solo exhibition)
• 1974 West German Artists Association, Hagen
• 1974 Galerie Koep, Erftstadt-Liblar (solo exhibition)
• 1977 artist between the Rhine and Erft, Frechen
• 1977 Linnich Municipal Cultural Office
• 1978 Great Düsseldorf art exhibition (also in the following years)
• 1979 artist between the Rhine and Erft, Frechen
• 1979 Eschweiler Municipal Cultural Office
• 1980 Suermondt Museum, Aachen (solo exhibition)
• 1984 Galerie Koep, Erftstadt-Liblar (solo exhibition)
• 1984 artist in Aachen today, Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen
• 1985 "Pictures from dance and gesture", foyer of the Aachen town hall (solo exhibition)
• 1988 Structure and Gesture (1950s), Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen
• 1989 Photography from the 50s and 60s, Museum Burg Frankenberg, Aachen
• 1990 "The 50s", Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen
• 1992 "Hubert Werden - The painterly and sculptural work 1952–1992", August Pieper House [Episcopal Academy of the Diocese of Aachen]
• 1998 Galerie van der Milwe, Aachen (retrospective on the 90th birthday)
• 2006 "Departure in the West" (with KO Götz, Fred Dahmen, Raul Ubac and others), Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen
• 2008 Pictures from 7 decades, Carpe Diem senior park, Aachen (catalog)
• 2015 Hubert Werden - Time Travel, Gallery of the Kulturwerk Aachen eV, Aachen

literature

• Municipal Suermondt Museum, Aachen: Hubert Werden. January 11 - February 1, 1959 . City Suermondt Museum, Aachen 1959
• Maria Diederichs (Ed.): Hubert Werden. The painterly and sculptural work 1952–1992 . Einhard, Aachen 1992, ISBN 3-920284-72-0
• Joachim Melchers, Adam Oellers (ed.): Awakening in the West. The informal painting of the 50s and 60s in the Maas / Rhine region . B. Kühlen, Mönchengladbach 2006, ISBN 978-3-87448-270-7

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Exhibits from the exhibition Zeitreise on lebiges-Aachen.de