Josef Steib

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Memorial plaque in Cochem

Josef Steib (born February 13, 1898 in Munich , † September 29, 1957 in Cochem ) was a German painter and etcher .

Live and act

Steib first began a commercial apprenticeship, but went to Düsseldorf before the outbreak of war to study with Wilhelm Herberholz . From 1915 he took part in the First World War as a volunteer in the Navy . In 1920 he returned to Düsseldorf and in 1921 began studying as a freelance student at the Düsseldorf Art Academy . Josef Steib, he wrote himself, wanted to be nothing more than a “painter”, which is why he acquired technical knowledge from Wilhelm Herberholz and created numerous etching plates as early as the 1920s. In the mid-1920s, Josef Steib also undertook various trips that also took him to Italy, where he restored wall paintings in the Fiesole monastery. In 1932 Josef Steib divorced his first wife. He continued to live in Düsseldorf until 1934, after which he moved to Berlin in 1935 . There he met his wife Brunhilde (née Titscher) a year later.
Regarding his past during the Nazi era, it can be said that Steib was a member of the SA and joined the NSDAP in 1933. During his time in Berlin, Josef Steib spent many hours making animal studies in the Berlin zoo, which he put on his erasers. This place was a place of retreat for him, where he not only devoted himself to subjects that moved him in painting or drawing, but also matured in him texts that he wanted to use for a later animal book. In 1942 the Steib couple fled to Bad Frankenhausen on the parental estate of his wife Brunhilde due to the terrorist bombing. Then the route led them via Rennertshofen to Cochem. From 1948 the Steib couple lived in Cochem on the Moselle .

His oeuvre includes oil paintings, drawings, watercolors, etchings and various gold ground works. Thematically, Steib dealt with depictions of landscapes, especially the Eifel, portraits, nudes, travel views, depictions of animals, but also everyday scenes and still lifes. In addition to these often very naturalistic and sometimes impressionistic-looking works, Josef Steib also produced abstract works. He himself referred to these as "metaphysical" works, gave them long titles and tried to add explanatory texts for the viewer that describe his search for the higher self. Josef Steib painted these pictures in secret, for himself personally and expressed moods, moments and his world of thoughts. Later, from 1954, he added drawings of the industrial plants for Ruhrstahl AG of the Hattinger Henrichshütte and drawings of industrial work processes.

Grave site of Josef and Brunhilde Steib in Cochem

Steib occupies a place within the Eifel painting and was firmly anchored with his wife Brunhilde in the community of Cochems. Numerous etchings and paintings by Josef Steib can be found in private households in Cochem and the surrounding area. His adopted home Cochem honored him with a plaque at the Enderttor. The Rhineland-Palatinate Foundation for Culture inherited the estate of Brunhilde and Josef Steib in 1997 and has managed it ever since. This estate includes the couple's former home with the artist's studio and the entire inventory. Special exhibitions are regularly organized in Cochem in cooperation with the Hotel Café Germania, the Josef Steib Gallery and the Rhineland-Palatinate Foundation for Culture , which make Steib's art accessible to the public. A square in Cochem was also named after Steib.

A scientifically sound study of the person Josef Steib and his work is still pending. Various questions that have arisen in connection with research carried out by the Rhineland-Palatinate Foundation for Culture are currently being processed and evaluated. An initial result of this research was the discovery of autobiographical notes by Josef Steib in 2014. The evaluations of the documents now available will help to research in detail various creative phases, especially during the Nazi era and Steib's membership in the NSDAP.

Exhibitions

  • 1925 anniversary exhibition in Düsseldorf, May – October
  • 1928 Exhibition of German Art in Düsseldorf, May – October
  • 1929 Rhenish secession. Anniversary exhibition. Municipal art gallery, May 4th to June 30th
  • 1941 Large German art exhibition in the House of German Art in Munich
  • 1942 Spring exhibition at the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin
  • 1942 Large German art exhibition in the House of German Art in Munich
  • 1943 Exhibition “ Young Art in the German Empire ” in the Vienna Künstlerhaus
  • 1943 Large German art exhibition in the House of German Art in Munich
  • 1944 Large German art exhibition in the House of German Art in Munich
  • 1954 Special exhibition in the Galerie Schloss Benrath in Düsseldorf
  • 1958 in the Spandhaus in Reutlingen
  • 2009 Cochem: Josef Steib as a connoisseur
  • 2010 Cochem: Nude Studies
  • 2010 Trier: Dreaming water
  • 2011 Cochem: portraits and important self-portraits
  • 2012 Neuburg Residenzschloss: portraits and important self-portraits
  • 2012 Cochem: Travel pictures with a focus on Africa
  • 2013/14 Cochem: I… - The Metamorphoses of Josef Steib
  • 2015: Animal representations in the Josef Steibs plant

Awards

literature

  • Steib, Josef . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 4 : Q-U . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1958, p. 351 .
  • Steib, Josef . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 31 : Siemering – Stephens . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1937, p. 541 .
  • Conrad-Peter Joist: Josef Steib. In: Landscape painter of the Eifel in the 20th century. Eifelverein, Düren 1997, pp. 157–160.
  • Franz Kreim: Born to interpret our time - the painter Josef Streib. Porta-Verlag, Munich 1955.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Uta Grün: News on the case of the Nazi artist Josef Steib. ( uta-gruen.de , accessed on December 16, 2017).
  2. ↑ Knut Soiné: For painting Franz Radziwill 1933 to 1945. In: Bruckmanns Pantheon. 56, 1998, p. 171.
personal data
SURNAME Steib, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and etcher
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1957
Place of death Cochem