Johannes Kirsch (sculptor)
Johannes Kirsch (born May 24, 1930 in Wüstensachsen / Rhön ; † January 6, 2015 in Petersberg ) was a German sculptor , wood carver and medalist .
life and work
Johannes Kirsch comes from a farming family from desert Saxony and was one of six siblings. Due to the poor conditions in his family, he had to work as a village herder after attending elementary school . This time was portrayed by the local writer Walter Heller in the book Findlinge . He was secretly instructed in the art of carving from a neighboring wood carver, where one of his uncles had already worked as a wood sculptor.
From 1948 to 1952 he attended the wood carving school in Bischofsheim / Rhön under August Bolz. This was followed by several years of traveling, which led him to Greece, Israel and Egypt, among others. Between 1958 and 1959 he learned sculptural drawing from Rudolf Kubesch. In 1958 he signed up as a member of the Junge Kunstkreis (with Verena Pfisterer , Franz Erhard Walther ) in Fulda. In 1959 he passed his master craftsman examination.
As early as 1962, under Mayor Leonhard Glotzbach, he created a new memorial for those who died in Giesel opposite the new parish church of St. Laurentius made of red sandstone.
Gregor Stasch later recognized him as an artist who recognized the signs of the times early on and then took up modernism as an art movement.
In 1967 he created the sculpture "Morgen" for the space in front of the now closed youth hostel in Hilders, which had been created due to the division of Germany because of the inner German border immediately adjacent to the community . After it has been removed by strangers, it should return to its original location. The fountain on Aschenbergplatz in Fulda , built in 1976 from shell limestone, is one of six fountains that the sculptor Johannes Kirsch created in Fulda and the surrounding area from stone and bronze.
On behalf of the home district of the former Geisa office , he created a 2.20 meter high monument made of shell limestone in the Rasdorf district of Grüsselbach. It commemorates the residents of Geisa in Thuringia who were forcibly resettled after 1945 or who fled to the west.
In 1980 Johannes Kirsch designed the sculpture "Behavioral Power" from Danube shell limestone for what was then BGS accommodation in Fulda and two years later the 3.25 m high "reflected shields" made of cast aluminum for the same client. In 1998, when the Federal Border Guard moved to Hünfeld, both sculptures were rebuilt on the site of today's Federal Police .
Kirsch's works in public space also include the Haunseekreuz , a five-meter-high cross made of red sandstone in the Petersberg district of Marbach, to which star pilgrimages are organized. In Petersberg, Kirsch also equipped the Rabanus Maurus Church with four doors that were built in 1996 and show Rabanus Maurus, Bonifatius , Lioba von Tauberbischofsheim and Nikolaus von Flüe . He created a Pietà for the chapel in the tower of the church .
In 2004 Kirsch worked an ambo for the Elisabeth Church in Marburg ; the church's paschal candlestick also comes from him . When designing a fountain on the church square in Künzell , Kirsch continued to use the font of the St. Antonius Church, which was built in 1900 and demolished in 1969. The set up in 2006 farewell space of Fulda Hospital is equipped with Kirsch objects.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Palatia Marburg student association, a memorial plaque designed by Kirsch was attached to the Palatenhaus in Marburg in 2007 . Kirsch made a memorial stone for the grave of the founder of the Papal Mission Organization of Women in Germany, Katharina Schynse , which is located in the cemetery in Koblenz-Pfaffendorf . At the Wendelinus chapel on the Wachtküppel there is a memorial stone in memory of the chaplain Hermann Mott (1906–1968), which Kirsch made in 1971 on behalf of the Catholic parish of Gersfeld .
Kirsch created a war memorial made of shell limestone for the Hofbieber community . It is located on the upper church square. The parish church of St. Georg in Hofbieber is equipped with an altar table designed by Kirsch.
He lived and worked in Petersberg, where he died of cardiac arrest in his apartment on January 6, 2015 . There are few churches and parishes in the Fulda area that do not have work by Kirsch, who himself commented on the hard work in the quarry in such a way that art would not work without hard work.
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- In 1990 the Vonderau Museum in Fulda showed an exhibition of his works on Kirsch's 60th birthday.
- 2001: On its 70th birthday, the diocese of Fulda showed an exhibition in Fulda and published a catalog raisonné.
- In 2007 Kirsch showed eight of his works in the St. Joseph Church in Fulda.
- 2014: Creations is the title of a review of Johannes Kirsch's life's work, presented by the Kleinsassen art station.
literature
- Johannes Kirsch: sculpture, drawing . Vonderau Museum, Fulda 1990.
- Pedro Herzig (Ed.): The Young Art Circle and the Young Art Gallery . edition cre art, Fulda 1996, ISBN 3-925665-22-6 .
- Dieter Wagner (Red.): Creation, death, resurrection . Diocese of Fulda, Fulda 2001.
- To serve the liturgy. The sculptor Johannes Kirsch and the St. Lukas Church. In: 25 Years of the Parish and Church Center St. Lukas 1977–2002. Katholische Pfarrgemeinde St. Lukas (Ed.) Fulda 2002, pp. 36–41.
- Walter Heller, Foundlinge - Encounters with Rhön originals , Parzeller, 1997, ISBN 978-3-7900-0285-0
Web links
- Literature by and about Johannes Kirsch in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Fuldaer Zeitung : An artist who shaped the region , January 8, 2015, p. 6
- ↑ Grüsselbacher Dorfgeschichte ( Memento of the original from February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.4 MB)
- ↑ Star pilgrimages to the Hauneseekreuz ( Memento from May 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Rabanus Maurus Church in Petersberg
- ^ Pietà in the tower chapel of the Rabanus Maurus Church
- ^ Elisabethkirche Marburg ( Memento from October 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Circular route through Künzell ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF)
- ^ New farewell room at the Fulda Clinic In: Osthessen-News from April 11, 2006.
- ↑ Memorial plaque at the Palatenhaus Marburg ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Memorial stone for Katharina Schynse ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chronik der Pfarrei Gersfeld, p. 50 ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 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. (PDF)
- ↑ Luftkurort Hofbieber, p. 21. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.1 MB)
- ^ Sermons St. Joseph in Fulda 2007, 1st Sunday of Lent ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Faculty report 2006 of the Theological Faculty Fulda p. 94. (PDF) ( Memento from August 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kirsch, Johannes |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German sculptor, wood carver and medalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 24, 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Desert saxons |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 6, 2015 |
| Place of death | Petersberg (Hesse) |