Josef de Ponte

Josef de Ponte (born October 5, 1922 in Budakeszi / Wudigeß near Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary ; † May 16, 2006 in Schwaigern ) was a painter, with a focus on building art and especially glass painting, and graphic artist.

Origin and life

Josef de Ponte comes from a German family who lived in the Ofner Bergland , an old name for the settlement area in the west of Budapest with a former largely German-speaking population, until the end of the Second World War . According to the family saga, the family name originally comes from the Lothringen / Mosel area; a name bearer finally ended up in the 18th century, after the liberation of the Turks, in the old capital and trading town of Ofen / Buda .

The father was a photographer with artistic ambitions, who was allowed to grace himself with the addition of “KuKHofphotograph” in Budakeszi , a community just outside Budapest, where de Ponte grew up. After graduating from high school and studying at the University of Applied Arts in Budapest from 1940 to 1944 and studying in Vienna, a military mission followed at the end of the war with subsequent Soviet imprisonment and life-threatening typhoid fever. In the spring of 1946, the family was expelled from their Hungarian homeland together with hundreds of thousands of other Germans. Fate drove the trek into the vicinity of Heilbronn , which was badly damaged by the war , where the family could unexpectedly quickly gain a foothold and participate in the reconstruction. After marriage (1949, to Katharina, née Holl) and the birth of 4 children, the Danube Swabian and now nationally active artist settled with his family in the Württemberg wine town of Schwaigern in 1965 , where he ran and worked in his studio until his death.

plant

Moses, stained glass window by Josef de Ponte in the Church of St. Alban in Kirchhausen , 1981

De Ponte left an extensive work behind. He has artistically designed more than 120 public buildings in Germany, Austria, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands and Brazil, including more than 60 churches, but also schools, town halls, museums, swimming pools and restaurants, as well as numerous private houses. In addition to wall paintings in various techniques ( mosaic , sgraffito , fresco ), glass painting (concrete glass, lead glass), with which de Ponte dealt intensively, should be emphasized. De Ponte also left behind an extensive graphic work and a considerable collection of paintings (oil, tempera, etc.). He has also illustrated and graphically designed several books. Several portfolios were published from the graphic collection, most recently in the year before his death.

In 1984 de Ponte received the Baden-Wuerttemberg Culture Prize . His hometown Budakeszi made him an honorary citizen in 2003, and the local self-government of the Hungarian Germans awarded him the badge of honor in 1996. The city of Schwaigern honored de Pontes work in 2002 with a large exhibition on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

The Christian theme is a focal point in de Pontes' art. In addition, de Ponte also left behind a considerable profane oeuvre, with a wide range of styles ranging from faithfully observed rendering to abstraction. Remaining true to his name, he wanted his works to be understood as bridges, between the countries of Europe as well as between the earthly connection of the individual and the transcendent. The artistic estate with drafts, graphics and paintings was bequeathed by the heirs to the DZM ( Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum ) in Ulm. The most impressive testimony to de Ponte's work, however, are his works of art in buildings, which line his path through life.

literature

• Johannes Weissbarth: Josef de Ponte . Edition Stadt Schwaigern 2002. Catalog raisonné p. 66–74.
• Wilhelm Kronfuss: Joseph de Ponte . Delp'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung Bad Windsheim, undated, ISBN 3-7689-0069-X
• Bernd Künzig: The principle of the higher truth. Notes on the artistic work of Josef de Ponte . In: Kraichgau. Contributions to landscape and local research , volume 18/2003, pp. 131–135, edited by Heimatverein Kraichgau , Eppingen 2003, ISBN 3-921214-28-9
• Werner Clement: Josef de Ponte, painter and graphic artist in Schwaigern, and his works . In: Kraichgau. Contributions to landscape and local research , volume 19/2005, pp. 225-238, published by Heimatverein Kraichgau, Eppingen 2005, ISBN 3-921214-35-1
• Südostdeutsche Vierteljahresblätter, Verlag Südostdeutsches Kulturwerk, Munich, 42nd year 1993, volume 4, ISSN  0562-5297 , pp. 317–322, Between Heaven and Earth. The graphic artist, glass and fresco painter Josef de Ponte, by Ingomar Senz

Web links

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