John Anthony Thwaites
John Anthony Thwaites (born January 21, 1909 in Kensington , County London , † November 21, 1981 in Leienkaul ) was an English art critic and author who worked in West Germany since 1946 .
life and work
John Anthony Thwaites studied history at the Universities of Lausanne and Cambridge . From 1931 to 1949 he was in the British Foreign Service. Until 1943 he was the British Vice Consul in Hamburg , New York , Chicago , Kattowitz , León (Mexico) and Panama . In 1946 he was transferred from London to the British consulate in Munich .
Thwaites has worked as an art critic since 1933. He began collecting works by artists such as Paul Klee , Wassily Kandinsky and Henry Moore , who are now counted among the masters of classical modernism . This activity came to an early end in 1939 with the German invasion of Poland and the hasty evacuation of the British diplomats there, when he had to leave his entire collection behind in his private apartment in Katowice .
In 1949 he quit diplomatic service and from then on devoted his life to establishing modern art in West Germany with the means of publicists and lecturers. Together with the painter Rupprecht Geiger , he initiated the artist group ZEN 49 . As a correspondent for English and American magazines, he sought to restore German art to the international standing that he believed it deserved. Active in Düsseldorf since 1955, Thwaites supported the artists of Gruppe 53 and ZERO . In the 1970s he worked as a freelancer for West German Broadcasting and as a seminar leader at the Düsseldorf Art Academy .
Thwaites saw art as a mirror of the world of experience of each epoch. For him, good artists were those who interpreted this reality in a truthful and original way. On the other hand, he campaigned against others, whom he considered copyists and epigones ; likewise against Joseph Beuys , in whom he saw not an artist but a demagogic seducer of the youth, whom he finally compared with Adolf Hitler .
As a critic, Thwaites was a strict moralist. In 1961 he wrote in the Deutsche Zeitung:
- The critic must be able to tear up his personal friends and praise artists he personally does not like. He can harm himself if need be. He is never allowed to write in order to have a personal advantage. Power and position can be just as corrupt as money. A situation where the critics coincide and respect each other's protégés leads to intellectual corruption that strangles art. (quoted from Eickhoff)
Books
- I hate modern art. Ullstein Verlag , Frankfurt am Main 1960.
- Norbert Kricke . Thames and Hudson, London 1964.
- The double standard. Adam Silk , Frankfurt am Main 1967.
- Hans Kaiser . Cologne 1979.
literature
- Christoph surcharge: “Vive la critique engagée!”. Art critic of the zero hour: John Anthony Thwaites (1909–1981) . In: Christoph Zusatz, Hans Gercke, Annette Frese (eds.): Brennpunkt Informel. Sources - currents - reactions . Exhibition catalog Heidelberg, Wienand, Cologne 1998, pp. 166–172.
- Beate Eickhoff: John Anthony Thwaites and the art criticism of the 50s. VDG, Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-89739-337-9 .
Web links
- Literature by and about John Anthony Thwaites in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ↑ This collection of Thwaites has been lost to this day, it is recorded in the database of lost cultural property of the Coordination Office for the Loss of Cultural Property .
- ↑ Eickhoff, p. 212.
- ^ Later on in the German newspaper - Christ und Welt
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Thwaites, John Anthony |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English art critic and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 21, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kensington , County London |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 21, 1981 |
| Place of death | Leienkaul |