Josef Picker

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Josef Picker (born February 12, 1895 in Füchtorf ; † December 22, 1984 in Delbrück ) was a German sculptor and stonemason .

Life

He was born in 1895 as the third of eleven children in Füchtorf, the son of a farmer. His talent was discovered by the village school teacher who advised his parents to take up an artistic profession in 1909. On October 4, 1912 he moved to Kevelaer , where he received training from the sculptor Jacob Holtmann , who belonged to the artist community around Friedrich Stummel , in "figurative art" and ornamentation in wood and stone. When he became a journeyman, he joined a Catholic journeymen's association and immediately had to go to the First World War . On June 12, 1915 he was drafted to the 2nd Alsatian Pioneer Battalion 19 , at a time when the battalion was in the Loretto Battle . He suffered severe gas poisoning. An experience that is said to have shaped his later artistic direction. He vowed that if he survived the war, he would devote himself to creating religious works. At the end of the First World War, he initially settled at home in Füchtorf as a freelance artist. On May 26, 1924, he went on a one-year hike to complete his training . His path led him to the following stations: Kassel , Nuremberg , Regensburg . - There he studied with the portraitist Professor Maximilian Roider . - Then on to Munich , Neheim , Siegen ; On the night of May 16-17, 1925, he stayed in Cologne for the last night before returning home. All nights he slept in the houses of the Kolping family's Catholic journeyman's associations . On July 12, 1925, two months after his wandering, Josef Picker went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He covered a large part of the 1500 km long route on foot. He stayed in Siegen, Stuttgart , Kempten , Füssen , Reutte , Innsbruck , Brixen , on Lake Garda , Verona , Padua , Venice , Assisi . On August 10, 1925, after 28 days, he arrived in Rome , where in the jubilee year he concluded his pilgrimage by visiting the pilgrimage churches and studying the classical masterpieces of the Renaissance . On the way back he stayed in Kempten, Ulm , Heidelberg , Koblenz , Cologne and Münster .

During World War II he served in the air raid in Münster and had to rescue the dead and injured from the battlefields and from the rubble city. Before and after the Second World War he worked as a student and assistant to Professor Franz Guntermann in Münster . He worked in the sculptor class, which was founded as the Münster Werkschule after the war and was known as the Münster Werkkunstschule from 1947 to 1956, and which eventually became part of the design department of the Münster University of Applied Sciences . On behalf of Prof. Guntermann, he carried out numerous works, such as B. the miraculous image of Vinnenberg. On October 1, 1948, Guntermann certified his artistic maturity, whereby Picker went from a craft sculptor to an academic-artistic sculptor. From 1947 to 1952 he moved his studio to the estate of his brother August in Freckenhorst . On November 19, 1951, joined the German Society for Christian Art in Munich. On February 21, 1952, at the age of 58, he married Änne Lipsmeier (February 27, 1902 - January 8, 1985), the widow of the sculptor Martin Lipsmeier in the Gnadenkapelle in Telgte and settled in Delbrück as a freelance artist. The artist found his final resting place in the birthplace of his wife in the new cemetery in Lichtenau . He created the tomb himself; it is said to have stood in his garden in Delbrück years earlier.

The work

Opening of the exhibition on the life, works and creations of Josef Picker on August 10, 2014 in Füchtorf. On the gable of the Heimathaus there is the figure of "King Christ", which he created around 1925.

In 1925 he created the larger than life oak cross of the "King Christ" figure, which was placed in the cemetery in Füchtorf and remained there before it fell victim to a storm in the 1950s. The Second World War interrupted his artistic work again. In 1946 he created his most important work of art, the new miraculous image for the Vinnenberg Monastery , which was recognized by the Vatican as an official miraculous image in 1952 following a petition from Bishop Michael Keller . For years it was believed that Prof. Guntermann had created the image of grace. It was only on his 85th birthday in 1980 that Picker revealed his authorship, which he was able to prove with the plaster model.

"The 1950s were the happiest, most productive and most diverse years of his life for him."

- Gerhard Lohmeier

The works of this time include the wayside crosses at Niehues in Füchtorf, at August Tepe in Subbern, at Otte in Füchtorf, the Milter Cross, the Altar Cross in the old district hospital in Warendorf . The depiction of "Christ as Ruler" at Möllmann-Rüschenschulte was made from Baumberger sand-lime brick . The depiction on the two-winged cloister gate of Gerleve Abbey near Coesfeld. One shows the expulsion of the monks, the other the return of the monks. In Freckenhorst in the war memorial chapel of the collegiate church, he created the relief of Judas Thaddäus . For the Franciscan Church of St. Elisabeth in Hagen he created a nativity scene with figures, almost one meter high and with movable joints. In 1951 he carved a Christ for the memorial chapel in Warendorf, which was given its place in the tower next to the Marienkirche.

Since Picker did not keep or leave a catalog raisonné, the question of the scope of his oeuvre cannot be answered. It must have been several hundred. Many works have been given to missionaries whose paths can hardly be followed. He became known in Westphalia and beyond through road pictures and court crosses. His place of birth in Füchtorf was honored in an exhibition in August 2014 organized by Heinrich Ostholt and Gerhard Lohmeier.

Works

Füchtorf

Warendorf district

Coesfeld district

Paderborn district

Web links

Commons : Josef Picker  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the trail of an artist's soul. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. August 15, 2014. (Link)
  2. ↑ Membership number 20866
  3. ↑ On the trail of an artist's soul. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. August 15, 2014. (Link)
  4. ↑ Josef Picker is still carving. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. February 12, 1981.
  5. ↑ Josef Picker's art shapes the region. In: The bell. August 15, 2014. (Link)
  6. ↑ On the trail of an artist's soul. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. August 15, 2014. (Link)
  7. ↑ Picker exhibition in the Heimathaus. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. August 9, 2014. (Link)
  8. ↑ Heimatverein shows works by Josef Picker. In: Westfälische Nachrichten. June 12, 2014. (Link)
  9. ↑ Everyone is talking about our village. ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on: westline.de , February 8, 2014.

literature

  • Gerd Lohmeier: Münsterland yearbook of the district of Warendorf 2015. 64th year, chapter Josef Picker.
personal data
SURNAME Picker, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Füchtorf
DATE OF DEATH 22nd December 1984
Place of death Delbruck