Josef Fenneker

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Josef Fenneker (born December 6, 1895 in Bocholt ; † January 9, 1956 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

The early years

Fenneker was born in 1895 as the son of a grocer. Little is known about his childhood and youth. One can assume, however, that his mother's brother, the church painter and architect Anton Marx , gave him artistic suggestions. In 1917 he moved from Bocholt. After studying in Münster, Düsseldorf and Munich, Josef Fenneker went to Berlin, where he last attended the class for graphic arts and book art at the teaching institute of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin as a master student of Emil Orlik . Emil Orlik was a committed teacher who is likely to have influenced Fenneker at least in his early days.

life and work

At the beginning of his career, Fenneker initially devoted himself to commercial graphics , and from 1918 onwards he designed various film posters for major Berlin premiere cinemas. His work quickly made him known, so that the then director of the Marmorhaus movie theater , Dr. Siegbert Goldschmitt, to his house on Kurfürstendamm. Fenneker soon designed an enormous number of posters here and, at the age of 30, could look back on a total of over 250 works. His mostly large lithographs , often 142 × 95 cm in size, were considered to be technically perfect. For some films he created up to four independent images. Sometimes he had posters for three different films on the advertising pillars . Josef Fenneker provided one of his last motifs in 1948 for the Defa feature film Affaire Blum about a judicial scandal in the 1920s. Christian Schröder quoted Fenneker in 2018 in the Tagesspiegel about his way of working: “It is important to feel the idea of ​​the film, its style and atmosphere so strongly that it becomes possible to translate it into a poster draft.” “No photo can do the 'excessive drama 'of the cinema, only the drawn and painted illustration can do that. However, it is a 'lottery game' to push through a draft, because the film companies regularly panic when 'artistic propaganda' is demanded ”.

In addition to his artistic domain, he played a decisive role in the refurbishment of the Lunapark in Berlin-Halensee. In addition, he illustrated magazines, mostly artistically oriented, and there were some book graphic works. In 1928, however, he also prepared the equipment for the revue “Schön und Schick” - one of the last major revues of the 1920s in Berlin's Admiralspalast . In 1932 he accepted an engagement at the Prussian State Theater in Berlin . Here, as later from 1938 to 1944 at the Schillertheater in Berlin , he was responsible for furnishing the sets . In the 1935/1936 season, Fenneker, now known through various publications of his work throughout Germany, was engaged at the Duisburg Opera. The city's art collection set up a special exhibition for him here, where not only his posters and stage design were shown, but also his free works such as paintings and drawings. In 1938 he returned to the Schillertheater in Berlin, where over the years his collaboration with Walter Felsenstein intensified. After the war (1946) Fenneker first worked for the city opera in Berlin. His first theatrical work outside of Berlin was the German premiere of the “Beggar Opera” at the Hamburg State Opera in 1950. In 1951, when he signed up for the Royal Opera in Stockholm , he came into international conversation again. In addition, he continued his work in Berlin. In 1953 he received orders from Helsinki and Milan as well as from Frankfurt and Munich. Until 1954 his work intensified for the municipal theaters in Frankfurt am Main , where he accepted a permanent position as head of the equipment department. At the “European Theater Exhibition” in Vienna in 1955, stage designs and figurines were shown by him.

On January 9, 1956, Josef Fenneker died of heart failure in Frankfurt am Main. In the obituaries of the regional and national press he was described as one of the most important and idiosyncratic German stage designers who helped design the Berlin theater in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1960, the city of Bocholt acquired the estate from the artist's widow, which comprises over 6,700 objects. An overview of his work can be seen in the Bocholt City Museum .

Style description

"With exaggerated gestures and facial expressions as well as grotesque distortions of the figures, unreal surroundings, extreme lighting and unnatural colors, he tries to express the emotional states of the main characters in his posters, in some cases greatly exaggerated."

- 60th Berliner Kunstblätter, 1988

literature

  • Holger Kirsch: Josef Fenneker's film posters. The work for the Marble House Berlin 1919–1924. Master's thesis, LMU Munich 2002.
  • Rolf Badenhausen :  Fenneker, Josef. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 77 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Josef Fenneker: Posters. The Bocholt stock. In: Our Bocholt. 65.2014, issue 1/2.
  • Georg Ketteler: Josef Fenneker - life and work. In: Our Bocholt. 65.2014, issue 1/2, pp. 97-106.
  • Heinz Kretschmann: Fenneker, Josef . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 38, Saur, Munich a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-598-22778-7 , p. 179 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Schröder: Revolution in the zigzag. Digitized film posters by Josef Fenneker. In: Der Tagesspiegel. January 19, 2018, accessed March 1, 2019 .
  2. ↑ When the desire to go to the cinema catches the eye. Expressionist silent film posters by Josef Fenneker in the Arndtstrasse Gallery . In: Interest Group Berlin Art Dealers eV (Ed.): 60. Berliner Kunstblätter . 58/1988, October – December, 1988, ISSN  0170-1665 , pp. 89 f .
personal data
SURNAME Fenneker, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and stage designer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Bocholt
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1956
Place of death Frankfurt am Main