Irmgard Uhlig

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Irmgard Uhlig (born October 29, 1910 in Oberwiesenthal ; † August 17, 2011 in Dresden ) was a German painter and mountaineer . She was best known for her landscape watercolors of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains and was considered the most important contemporary painter in Saxon Switzerland .

Life

Uhlig was born in Oberwiesenthal in 1910 as the daughter of a postal administrator, city councilor and deputy mayor Uhlig. After the early death of her father, she moved to Nossen with her mother and brother Rudolf in 1915 , where she spent her school days up to high school graduation. From 1930 to 1933 she studied pedagogy with the subjects art education and geography at the Pedagogical Institute of the Technical University in Dresden and from 1933 to the end of the Second World War she worked as an art education teacher, initially in Dresden and later as a substitute teacher in 32 other schools in Dresden and the surrounding area, including in Lohmen , Rennersdorf, Wehlen and Hohnstein . At the end of the war she became a teacher in Langenwolmsdorf .

In 1933 she joined the Dresden section of the German Alpine Club . From 1931 to 1945 she undertook several high-altitude tours and study trips into the high Alps and in 1934 climbed her first four-thousand-meter peak, the Piz Bernina . Even then, the combination of mountaineering and painting resulted in some watercolors that were unusual from their perspective. In March 1945, shortly after the bombing of Dresden , which Uhlig had experienced as a teacher in Langenwolmsdorf, she returned to Dresden and lived in Kleinzschachwitz until her death . She first designed hand puppets for a toy company and worked for a landscape architect before finally turning to painting. In 1945 she walked through Dresden in mountain boots, “climbed over the mountains of rubble and painted. The chimneys and corners of houses that remained standing, the brick knockers. And the signs of the beginning of life, the blooming fields of weeds between the ruins ”. A large part of the approximately 60 "rubble pictures" is now in the possession of the Dresden City Museum .

Later, as in 1933, Uhlig was mainly out and about in the local Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Here, too, she combined her passions of climbing and painting. From 1946 she worked as a freelance artist, in 1958 she was one of three women part of the first alpine expedition from the GDR to the Soviet Union in the Elbrus area and in 1963 climbed in the Tienschan . Before the fall of the Wall, Uhlig drew landscapes in Vietnam and China and after 1990 also in other regions of the world, so from 1990 she traveled to Greece, Egypt, Tenerife, Canada, Morocco and Brazil, among others. Many of her pictures were commissioned.

In addition to painting, Uhlig also wrote articles in festival publications and created landscape models. A twelve square meter overview model of Saxon Switzerland in five parts has been in the possession of the Haus des Gastes in Hinterhermsdorf since 1998 . Other models, including a 15 square meter relief of the Elbe valley area, are stored in Königstein. Uhlig also worked on nature conservation exhibitions. At the age of 89 she climbed the Plattenstein on her last mountain tour and at that time also temporarily stopped painting.

Uhlig was a member of the GDR Academy of Arts . She was honored with the golden badge of honor of the Saxon Mountaineering Association (SBB) and has been an honorary member of the SBB since 2003. In May 2011, she founded the Art and Mountains Foundation together with SBB in order to pass on her artistic legacy. The foundation's foundation is made up of 681 works by Uhlig. Other works of art on the subject of mountaineering are also to be included in this foundation.

Uhlig died in Dresden in August 2011 after a brief illness and was buried in the Stephanus cemetery in Meußlitz near Kleinzschachwitz.

Act

Uhlig's earliest drawings date from 1930 and show the Limestone Alps near Salzburg. Uhlig mainly created her works on site in the mountains and was able to draw motifs that other artists remained hidden. She preferred the watercolor technique when working on the mountain, as this was the best way to work on site. “The rock was created in the water and destroyed by water. You can model wonderfully with a drop of water while painting, ”said Uhlig in 1998. She couldn't use an easel when working in the mountains.

By 2002 she had created over 1,000 watercolors from Saxon Switzerland alone. According to the criticism, her pictures were in the tradition of the old Dresden painting school.

reception

"Whether Allgäu, Berchtesgaden Alps, Rügen chalk cliffs, Fichtelberg, or Zugspitze - the well-traveled painter, who lives in Kleinzschachwitz, always tries to capture something special and peculiarities on her forays into nature", so the Sächsische Zeitung in 1997.

“Irmgard Uhlig's paintings are particularly captivating because of the varied play of watercolors on a light painting background, her eye for detail without being naturalistic. Every nuance of nature in the synthesis of mountains, hills, coniferous and mixed forests, fields, streams and rivers, whether close or from a distance, reveals in her watercolors the love for Saxon Switzerland, a landscape that is unparalleled in the world. "

- Peter Salzmann 2002

Critics saw her as the "mountain painter of Saxon Switzerland" and "the most important among contemporary Elbe sandstone painters". Articles on the occasion of her 100th birthday named Uhlig "the nestor of German mountain and landscape painting"; it was "a living legend in mountaineering circles [...]". One of twelve portraits of the Dresden women's calendar in 1999 dealt with her.

Uhlig's watercolors were also valued as contemporary witnesses: "Like a photographer, she [...] not only creates small works of art, but also contemporary witnesses of landscape views that have changed their original appearance over the years, partly through human hands and partly through natural processes." are owned, among other things, by the Dresden City Museum , but above all in the Art and Mountains Foundation of the Saxon Mountaineering Association.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Since 1937, works by Irmgard Uhlig have been shown at over 50 exhibitions.

  • 1997: Dresden, Frauenstadtarchiv
  • 1998: Dresden, Museum for Saxon Folk Art , Jägerhof
  • 1998: Königstein, Naturfreundehaus
  • 1998: Eibau, "Lusatian Landscapes", exhibition in the Heimat- und Humboldtmuseum
  • 1998: Pirna, Galerie Großmann
  • 2000: Dresden, "Memento Dresden", including works by Uhlig in the city museum
  • 2000: Reitzendorf, small farmer museum
  • 2001: Dresden, exhibition "Mountain landscapes" in the Frauenstadtarchiv
  • 2003: Großschönau, German Damask and Terrycloth Museum
  • 2005: Dippoldiswalde , cabinet exhibition in the Osterzgebirgsgalerie
  • 2005: Dresden, exhibition “Magical motifs between sandstone and granite” at Schönfeld Palace
  • 2006: Dresden, "Destroyed Dresden - Reconstruction", exhibition by the Dresden City Gallery in Dresden-Leuben Town Hall
  • 2007: Neustadt, exhibition “Irmgard Uhlig - Painter of Saxon Switzerland” in the Heimatmuseum
  • 2008: Reitzendorf, exhibition “Harvest Time - Corn Puppet Time” in the smallholder museum
  • 2008: Dresden, "Views and prospects in rock and ice" at the 5th Mountain Views Festival from November 14th to 16th, 2008
  • 2010: Sebnitz , Artificial Flowers and Local History Museum “Prof. Alfred Meiche ” , in the premises of the Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden, branch Sebnitz
  • 2015: Pirna, "With climbing rope and brush" The mountain painter Irmgard Uhlig, special exhibition in the Pirna City Museum from August 22 to November 8, 2015

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Saxon Switzerland - Painters & Composers & Others (accessed October 26, 2011)
  2. ↑ a b 100 pictures on the occasion of the 100th birthday: The "painter of the mountains" Irmgard Uhlig is celebrating her anniversary with a very special exhibition ( Memento from August 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), press release from the Pirna District Office on the occasion of an exhibition, 8. October 2010.
  3. ^ Jördis Lademann: Search for the beautiful . In: Sächsische Zeitung , June 25, 2007, p. 21.
  4. ↑ Uhlig's watercolors in the Kleinbauermuseum . In: Dresdner Latest News , October 7, 2000, p. 19.
  5. ↑ Ingrid Roßki: Bank papers drifted in a firestorm . In: Sächsische Zeitung , February 10, 2000, p. 11.
  6. ^ Susanne Voigt : Rubble woman with sketch pad . In: Sächsische Zeitung, February 14, 2001, p. 7.
  7. ↑ Erik Bergfreund: Half a century ago there was a first for GDR alpinists in the Caucasus . In: Dresdner Latest News , October 20, 2008, p. 16.
  8. ↑ Andreas Hammer: Mountain painter Uhlig: "The Falkenstein was gone" . In: Sächsische Zeitung , April 4, 1998, p. 9.
  9. ↑ a b Andreas Hammer: Pictures arouse longing . In: Sächsische Zeitung , October 13, 2000.
  10. ↑ Peter Salzmann: What actually does ... The mountain painter Irmgard Uhlig? . In: Sächsische Zeitung , March 26, 2003, p. 22.
  11. ↑ MDR television magazine Biwak , September 7, 2011
  12. ↑ Painter establishes a new foundation for art and mountains . In: Sächsische Zeitung , June 20, 2011, p. 16.
  13. ↑ Sächsischer Bergsteigerbund establishes the “Culture and Mountains” foundation . ( Memento from September 3, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) DNN Online , June 16, 2011.
  14. ↑ a b Klaus Wilk: The mountain painter Irmgard Uhlig celebrates 100th with an exhibition . In: Dresdner Latest News , June 14, 2010, p. 16.
  15. ↑ a b hei: The mountains have done it to her . Sächsische Zeitung , October 26, 1998, p. 10.
  16. ↑ a b Peter Salzmann: Close to the mountains with brush and paint . In: Sächsische Zeitung , July 5, 2002, p. 9.
  17. ↑ lb: Galerie Großmann shows works by Irmgard Uhlig . In: Sächsische Zeitung , November 4, 1998, p. 11.
  18. ↑ Lilli Vostry: Mountainous landscapes and life pictures of Dresden . In: Sächsische Zeitung , October 9, 1997, p. 23.
  19. ^ Anja Rost: Easter exhibition with demonstrations in the Jägerhof . Dresdner Latest News , April 4, 1998, p. 11.
  20. ↑ Christine Forst: Elderly summiteer exhibits watercolors . In: Dresdner Latest News , January 26, 2005, p. 15.
  21. ↑ Open confessions by women artists . In: Sächsische Zeitung , January 30, 1999, p. 12.
  22. ^ Richard Schmieder: "Mountain painter" Irmgard Uhlig is 100 years old. ( Memento from July 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) dpa announcement, September 16, 2010.
  23. ↑ Report of the Reichstädter Nachrichten ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 26, 2011) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.professor-heger.de
  24. ^ Exhibition by Irmgard Uhlig ( Memento from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Schönfeld Castle, October 10, 2005.
  25. ↑ Destroyed Dresden - Reconstruction. In: dresden.de. State capital Dresden, January 27, 2006, accessed on August 15, 2015 .
personal data
SURNAME Uhlig, Irmgard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and mountaineer
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberwiesenthal
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 2011
Place of death Dresden