Jürgen Wittdorf

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Jürgen Wittdorf, 2008

Jürgen Wittdorf (born July 25, 1932 in Karlsruhe ; † December 2, 2018 in Berlin ) was a German painter and graphic artist . He was best known for his book illustrations and his partly large-format wood and linocuts .

Life

Jürgen Wittdorf completed his school education in Königsberg . In 1950 he became a member of a graphic arts group in Stollberg in the Ore Mountains . He studied at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig and then worked as a freelancer in Leipzig from 1952 to 1957 . In 1957 he became a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR (VBK). At the same time he began teaching at the Volkshochschule Leipzig, which he continued from 1959 to 1964 as a lecturer at the Pedagogical Institute of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig .

In 1961/62 Wittdorf created the cycle For the Young , consisting of nine woodcuts , which made him known throughout the GDR in the years that followed. Wittdorf's portrayal of young people as so-called thugs represented a break with the usual conventions of art in the GDR, as they seemed to question moral concepts and gender roles of the time. Beyond mythical exaggeration, the work reflects the youth's desire for change and a life beyond the German post-war bourgeoisie. In 1963 Wittdorf was awarded the FDJ Art Prize. In the same year, For the Young was published as a large-format graphic portfolio by the Junge Welt publishing house with an edition of 10,000.

The writer and playwright Volker Braun addressed Wittdorf's cycle in the first edition of his book Provokation für mich , which was published by Mitteldeutscher Verlag in 1965 . The composer Helmut Kontauts took the cycle as the basis for his musical Young People in a Big City (A cycle comes to life) .

In 1964 Wittdorf designed the cycle youth and sport, a commissioned work for the new building of the German University for Physical Culture in Leipzig. The work focuses on the male body and clearly bears homoerotic features, which are so unique in the art of the GDR. In the same year he bought a half-timbered house in Carwitz that was more than a hundred years old , which he renovated himself and then lived in during the summer months.

After he had worked freelance again in Leipzig, Wittdorf moved to East Berlin in 1970 and was a master student at the Academy of Arts there with Lea Grundig until 1970 . He then worked as a circle leader in the House of Young Talents (HdjT) and taught from 1975 until his retirement in 1991 in the teacher's house .

Jürgen Wittdorf spent his old age in a Berlin handicapped shared apartment and died there at the age of 86.

In 2004 the first exhibition after 1989 on Jürgen Wittdorf's work took place in the Schwules Museum, which initiated a rediscovery of the artist. A ceramic wall designed by Wittdorf in the Sportforum Hohenschönhausen was destroyed after the fall of the Wall.

Works (selection)

  • 1959 woodcut couple
  • 1961 Cycle For the Young (9 woodcuts; exhibited 1962/63 at the 5th German Art Exhibition in Dresden)
  • 1963/64 woodcut brigade of sports students
  • 1963/64 woodcut under the shower
  • 1964 Youth and Sport cycle
  • 1964 Mural girl with pigeons at the administrative building of the VEB dairy chub ( sgraffito )
  • 1973 Youth cycle * GDR 25

Exhibitions (selection)

Jürgen Wittdorf's solo exhibitions have been shown in Poland , the CSSR , Finland and the Soviet Union . Exhibitions in recent years:

  • 2007 Galerie Pohl, Berlin-Pankow: Jürgen Wittdorf - woodcuts
  • 2007 Kunstverein Feldberger Land e. V .: 75 years Jürgen Wittdorf, 55 years artist, 44 years Carwitzer
  • 2007 Kutscherhaus, Berlin: Jürgen Wittdorf - anniversary exhibition with painting, graphics and photography for the 75th
  • 2009 Eisenherz Buchladen, Berlin: time window, drawings from the years 1958 to 2007
  • 2011 Stiller Don, Berlin: youth and sport , woodcuts
  • 2011 HS-SOLID exhibition rooms, Berlin Town & Country license partner: Cycle for young people (on the occasion of the 50th anniversary, the original woodcuts of the cycle were shown)
  • 2012 Kino Krokodil, Berlin: Images of men
  • 2012 Bar every view, Mainz: prints by Jürgen Wittdorf
  • 2012/13 Schwules Museum : Chronicler of everyday life in the GDR. For the graphic designer Jürgen Wittdorf on his 80th birthday
  • 2012/13 SCHMIT-Z, Trier: prints by Jürgen Wittdorf
  • 2013 GBM Gallery, Berlin: Jürgen Wittdorf - Testimonies from six decades
  • 2013 Stadthaus - Museum Lichtenberg: Drawn through life , drawings from six decades
  • 2020 Berlin, KVOST (Kunstverein Ost. EV)

Exhibitions as part of the GDR art exhibition in Dresden

1958 - Fourth German Art Exhibition

  • "Animal mothers" cycle, sheets 1–3 and chalk drawing of resting pony herd

1962 - Fifth German Art Exhibition

  • "For the youth" cycle and woodcut for the conclusion of a peace treaty

1972/73 - VII art exhibition of the GDR

  • Ink drawing interpreter Tamara (from the series of portraits from the Soviet Union )

Other exhibition participations

Awards

Literature (selection)

Book illustrations

Secondary literature

  • 1965 Volker Braun : Provocation for me (Mitteldeutscher Verlag Halle). The first edition of the book contains poems from Wittdorf's cycle For the Young .
  • 1965 Wolfgang Hütt : Young visual artists of the GDR (VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig)
  • 2011 Franz Werner: Cycle for young people and other prints 1958-1988 (HS - Solid Bautreuhand, Berlin, ISBN 3981411927 )
  • 2013 Michael Sollorz : Master student in brown coal. The graphic designer Jürgen Wittdorf (Friedrichshainer Chronik, title and pages 18 to 23, March 2013)
  • 2013 Franz Werner: From animal mothers and children - desk calendar 2014 (HS - Solid Construction Trust, Berlin, ISBN 978-3-9814119-9-7 )

additional

Jürgen Wittdorf is one of the protagonists of the documentary film Unter Männer - Schwul in der DDR by Ringo Rösener and Markus Stein.

Web links

Commons : Jürgen Wittdorf  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c cf. Peter Michel : A cycle comes to life. Life's work for the young at heart: A memory of Jürgen Wittdorf (July 25, 1932 - December 2, 2018). In: jungewelt.de . December 29, 2018, accessed December 29, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c Four decades - four artists - SMU. Retrieved May 13, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ a b Prints by Jürgen Wittdorf in the SMU archive - SMU. Retrieved May 13, 2020 (German).
  4. ↑ Gay chronicler of everyday life in the GDR: On the death of the artist Jürgen Wittdorf. Retrieved May 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Among men. Retrieved May 13, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Image index of art & architecture
  7. ↑ Ingeborg Ruthe: The gay construction brigade. In: Berliner Zeitung, Berlin, August 28, 2020, p. 16
  8. ↑ Pirckheimer Blog, August 5, 2020
  9. ↑ Pictures for the gays of the GDR , queer.de, August 28, 2020, accessed on August 29, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Wittdorf, Jürgen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist, painter and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Karlsruhe
DATE OF DEATH 2nd December 2018
Place of death Berlin