Josef Henselmann

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Josef Henselmann (born August 16, 1898 in Laiz ; † January 19, 1987 in Munich ) was a German sculptor , sculptor and object artist .

Life

Josef Henselmann grew up as the son of a miller and farmer in Laiz in Hohenzollern . He attended high school in Sigmaringen , where his talent was first noticed by his art teacher. After high school, he completed an apprenticeship as a wood sculptor in the Sigmaringen art workshop of the sculptor Franz Xaver Marmon . Henselmann confidently decided to embark on a career as an artist. He took part in the First World War with distinction until he was seriously wounded as a sergeant in 1917.

From 1921 to 1928 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich . His teachers were the sculptors Hermann Hahn and Karl Killer . During this time, the penniless art student living in Munich first drew attention to himself as a sculptor: he received his first prize for the sculpture “Furcht”. From May 31 to September 21, 1930, he took part in the Künstlerbund exhibition in Stuttgart with a two-meter-high wooden figure depicting the forest god " Sylvanus " . Henselmann received the Villa Romana Prize for this singular, figurative position . A scholarship in Florence was associated with this award . While his early works were predominantly characterized by portraits that he carved out of large blocks of wood in an expressive, realistic form, he also worked in plaster and terracotta during his Florentine year. Also in 1930 he and his college friend Heinrich Söller founded a branch of the artist group “ Vereinigte Werkstätten ” in Munich.

From 1933, Henselmann was entrusted with the management of the class for building and church sculpture at the School of Applied Arts in Munich . A full professorship followed in 1936, making him the youngest art professor in Munich. He tried to go his straight way through the confusion of so-called German art under National Socialist rule. His house and studio were destroyed in World War II.

In the middle of the reconstruction in the difficult post-war period, the Academy of Applied Arts was merged with the Munich Art Academy to form the Munich Academy of Fine Arts . From then on, Henselmann worked as a professor of sculpture at the largely destroyed Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he led a sculpture class. Among his students were Leopold Hafner and Anton Rückel . In July 1948 the college of the Munich Academy elected him after the resignation of the previous Rector in his office, which he held from 1948 to 1957 while he retained his professorship. His appointment was followed by a decade of external and internal reconstruction of the academy. In 1963 he was again president of the academy, but resigned from office in the new situation around 1968.

Henselmann was married to the painter Marianne Henselmann , b. Euler (* 1903 in Aschaffenburg , † 2002 in Munich ), with whom he had two children. One of Henselmann's grandsons is Josef Alexander Henselmann , who also works as a sculptor.

Josef Henselmann was a member of the German Association of Artists .

Works

Henselmann was very productive artistically. With the regained freedom of "mind and hands", as he himself retrospectively assessed the post-National Socialist era, a rich artistic creation began over four decades with large, interesting commissioned works.

Fischbrunnen, at Marienplatz in Munich
Rindermarktbrunnen

He received major church commissions in Passau (1947 to 1953) and Augsburg (1962 and 1985), where he designed the high altars in a contemporary way:

On the occasion of the death of Josef Henselmann in 1987, the art historian Norbert Lieb wrote : "Henselmann's cathedral high altars in Passau 1953 and Augsburg 1962 are considered the last great works of their genre in a 600-year history of sacred art." He also created the choir arch crucifix in the Munich Women's Cathedral .

In addition, numerous fountains come from him, for example in his home town of Sigmaringen and in Munich:

  • Fischbrunnen (Marienplatz, Munich), 1954, shell limestone, bronze
  • Moses Fountain (inner courtyard of Maxburg , Pacellistraße 5, Munich), 1955, granite ( monolith ), bronze
  • Rindermarktbrunnen (Rindermarkt, Munich), 1964, Maggia gneiss , Moskart granite
  • St. Benno-Brunnen , (Frauenplatz, Munich), 1972
  • Four seasons fountain (in the Sigmaringen pedestrian zone), 1979
  • Ceres fountain (in front of the Sigmaringen district office )
  • Prinzregent-Luitpold-Brunnen , (Luitpoldblock, Brienner Straße 11/13, Munich), 1983

Evidence of the figurative representations created by Henselmann in the Bavarian and Upper Swabian region include:

Important for understanding Henselmann's artistic conception is the “speech about the value of the undervalued” that Henselmann gave on December 6, 1963 as the re-elected President of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. This speech is reproduced in full in the volume. “Genius doesn't have to be madness! On the contrary, the good painters, sculptors, etc. I got to know are healthy and normal in the highest sense and lack the perfume 'genius and madness' ”, says Henselmann, among others, strikingly in this speech.

Honors

Henselmann won art prizes and received great orders of merit:

Museum preparation

When Henselmann died in Munich in 1987, his daughter Margret and her husband Lothar Henselmann set up a collection in Munich. In 1997 Lothar Henselmann bought the former infirmary in Laiz and extensively renovated the old substance of the building. The collection was then moved from Munich to Laiz. His sculptures made of wood, plaster of paris and bronze stand on pedestals, on half-timbered beams and behind glass. The pictures of his wife Marianne hang on the whitewashed walls.

literature

  • Rupert Henselmann: Sculptor Josef Henselmann: 1898–1987 - His path in the XX. Century . Kunstverlag Josef Fink, Lindenberg im Allgäu December 2010, ISBN 978-3-89870-669-8
  • Henselmann, Josef . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 423 .

Web links

Commons : Josef Henselmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Henselmann, Josef. In: leobw - discover regional studies online. Retrieved February 4, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Full members of the German Association of Artists since it was founded in 1903 / Henselmann, Josef ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. kuenstlerbund.de; accessed on August 22, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
  3. ^ Juliane Reister: Fountain art & water games . Walks in 10 Munich districts. München-Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-937090-26-9 , pp. 11 .
  4. ^ Reister: Fountain art & water games . 2008, p. 48 .
  5. ↑ "Genius doesn't always have to be madness" . In: Schwäbische Zeitung . December 23, 2010 ( online [accessed December 16, 2011]).
  6. ↑ Vera Romeu: The Laizer infirmary has become an insider tip as a museum . In: Schwäbische Zeitung , July 5, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Henselmann, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor, sculptor and object artist
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Laiz
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1987
Place of death Munich