Ingo Kirchner

Ingo Kirchner (born December 25, 1930 in Berlin , † June 16, 1983 in Berlin) was a German painter and graphic artist .

life and work

The extensive work of the Berlin painter and graphic artist Ingo Kirchner was recognized early on - especially abroad and in what was then the Federal Republic of Germany . In 1968 he received the Grand Prix of the II Graphic Biennale in Kraków and became a member of the Laureates Club. After that, his life was marked by existential political reprisals in the GDR and an early death in 1983.

Studying at the Berlin-Weißensee School of Art from 1949 to 1955 had little or no impact on the future. In the following years, the postulate of a restrictive concept of realism, which was widespread in the GDR, began to have an increasing effect, so that it was a difficult beginning for those of Kirchner's generation who wanted to start their path according to a different law than the one prescribed. He and his colleagues opened their eyes to the great phenomena of 20th century art and looked for a scale in them.

The resulting oeuvre did not develop in context, but in contrast to the official art scene, and it went unnoticed for a long time. It was characteristic that his talent, which appeared at an early age, received its first decisive recognition not in his own country but in neighboring Poland . He, who had sent the International Graphic Biennale in Kraków in 1966, received the Grand Prix for free subjects, and the following laureates exhibition was dedicated to him in 1970.

On his own initiative, he took part in numerous graphic biennials and exhibitions, such as those everywhere, from Ljubljana to Buenos Aires , like mushrooms in the soil that was so fertile for this in the 1960s and 1970s. The mobility of the medium of graphics helped him, his medium - although works had been created using other techniques over and over again.

In the GDR, there was a first exhibition in 1964 in Lothar Lang's then so deserving series at the Pankow Teachers' Training Institute - after all, it often remained the only public forum for many of those exhibited there for years - for a long time nothing followed. It was not until the 1970s that, in addition to the number of collectors that had always existed, graphic cabinets in Berlin and Dresden that had attracted attention decided to buy.

Often accompanied by the necessary bread-and-butter work, a rich, multi-layered work was created in the 1970s, which gained formal and technical brilliance, perhaps following the maxim that Kirchner himself again verbally put: "Surrender to the free play of forces with due discipline." turned to almost all classic media, finally concentrated again and again on woodcuts, but also particularly loved watercolor and collage . The work increased in intensity, reached a level of culmination and broke off suddenly and tragically in 1982.

Kirchner himself recognized two characteristics for the content of his work: “the mentally analytical and an emotionally intuitive component”. The intentionally chosen titles of some sheets explain and underline: strange landscape , calligraphic notation , presumed portrait , simultaneous event on different levels . They always make it clear that conceptually associative elements are intended, that, as with the visual metaphors, references to meaning are suggested through verbal references.

There are works in public ownership, including in collections in Berlin, Dresden, Kyoto, Fredrikstad, Warszawa, Kraków, Erfurt and Frankfurt (Oder).

literature

• A. Dzieducki: Echo krakowa 1969, No. 143, Zycie Literackie 1969, III. Międzynarodowe Biennale Grafiki w Krakowie 1970 - Catalog Bibliotheque des Laureats du Grand Prix de la Biennale Internationale de la gravure a Cracovie No. 4, 1970
• Henry Galy-Carles: Ingo Kirchner . In: Les Lettres francaise . 1970.
• Chr. Dittrich: Ingo Kirchner . In: Drawings in the art of the GDR . Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden 1974 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, September 1 to November 10, 1974).
• Klaus Werner (Ed.): Ingo Kirchner. Testimonials . Galerie arkade, Berlin 1978 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name).
• Dieter Gleisberg, M. Tschirmer: Ingo Kirchner . In: Günter Feist, Ursula Feist: companions - contemporaries. Visual arts from three decades . Altes Museum, Berlin 1979 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, October 4 to December 31, 1979).
• Ingo Kirchner. Gouaches, watercolors, collages, graphics . Lippische Gesellschaft für Kunst eV Detmold 1980 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, June 1 to 29, 1980).
• Gabriele Muschter: 3rd Berlin studio 1983 (catalog).
• Gabriele Muschter: Ingo Kirchner . In: Fine Arts , 1984, No. 1.
• Edwin Kratschmar: Galerie im Cranachhaus, Weimar 1989 (catalog of the exhibition October 17 to November 23, 1989).
• Gabriele Muschter, Dieter Tucholke: Art in the GDR . Publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Berlin 1990.
• Hans-Jörg Schirmbeck: Ingo Kirchner. Painting, graphics, montages . Ephraim-Palais, Berlin 1990 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name February 14 to March 18, 1990).

Web links

• Museum of Young Art: Ingo Kirchner