Josep Renau

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Josep Renaus mural The relationship between humans and nature and technology in Erfurt

Josep Renau (born May 17, 1907 in Valencia , † October 11, 1982 in East Berlin ) was a Spanish painter, graphic artist and photomontage artist. His full name was Josep Renau Berenguer .

Spain

Renau studied from 1919 to 1925 at the San Carlos Art School in Valencia and initially worked as a graphic designer . In 1931 Renau joined the communist party . From 1932 to 1939 he was a professor at the Art School in Valencia and worked as editor of the magazine Nueva Cultura , whose covers he also designed. During the civil war , he created propaganda material for the republican troops in the spirit of agitprop . During the siege of Madrid he succeeded in evacuating important works of the Prado to Valencia before it was bombed on November 16, 1936 by the German and Italian air forces on Franco's orders . In 1937 he organized the pavilion of the Spanish Republic at the World Exhibition in Paris and ordered the painting Guernica from Pablo Picasso , which was to epitomize the suffering of Spain during the civil war.

Mexico

After fleeing to France and interning in the Argelès-sur-Mer camp , Renau emigrated to Mexico in 1939 to avoid a death sentence. He initially made his way as a designer of film posters before he switched to the production of still politically colored murals ( muralismo ) and photo montages. In the course of these activities he worked with numerous exiles and Mexican artists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros . It was here that work began on his photomontage work The American Way of Life from 1949 , which was critically related to the American way of life mentioned in the title and, according to his own statement , was influenced by John Heartfield . The graphic alienation of everyday objects in this work is seen by art historians as a foretaste of the later Pop Art .

Berlin and other major cities in the GDR

Mural The peaceful use of atomic energy in Halle

In 1958 Renau moved at the invitation of the government in the GDR over. This is where the photomontages for the book Über Deutschland were created in 1966 . He also worked for the magazines Eulenspiegel and Poesiealbum . He also designed murals for apartment blocks and cartoons for television. He received steady financial support as a persecuted person under the Nazi regime , but was not given many assignments. The clients often complained about the lack of depth of his statements, which contrasted with the quality of his work.

As one of the few commissioned works, from 1979–1983 Renau designed the gigantic wall mosaic Relationship between man and nature and technology on the facade of the cultural center in Erfurt . This was placed under monument protection in 2008 , but had to be dismantled the following year because the associated building was demolished. The careful dismantling and storage was possible because citizens had campaigned for the preservation of the plant. After the mosaic had meanwhile been stored in containers, the Wüstenrot Foundation financed a renovation and new assembly on site at the new building on Moskauer Platz; the last panel was placed on the facade at the end of October 2019. The mural is 30 meters wide and consists of several 7 meter high concrete slabs with a total of 68,000 glass mosaic panels.

The work of this “Spanish John Heartfield” also found recognition in Spain after Franco's death. In 1976, during the Transición , Renau returned to Spain, where he organized exhibitions of his works and published books. He died in 1982 while on a trip to Berlin in an East Berlin hospital.

In 1972 Renau received the GDR Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze for his works .

Renau was married to the artist Manuela Ballester and had five children with her.

literature

  • José Renau - Fata Morgana USA . Eulenspiegel Verlag, Berlin, 1967.
  • Eva-Maria Thiele: José Renau , painter and work series . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden, 1975.
  • Consuelo Ciscar: Josep Renau: Fotomontador . IVAM Center Julio Gonzalez, 2006, ISBN 8448244044 .
  • Josep Renau 1907–1982. Compromiso y cultura . IVAM Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderna, 2008.
  • Anke Scharnhorst:  Renau, José . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Oliver Sukrow: A Rivera from the GDR? Josep Renau's importance as an importer of Mexican "muralism" into the GDR , in: Farewell to Icarus. Imagery in the GDR - seen again , ed. v. Karl-Siegbert Rehberg, Wolfgang Holler and Paul Kaiser, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walter König, Cologne, 2012, pp. 217–227, ISBN 9783863352240 .
  • Oliver Sukrow: Josep Renau's 'Futuro Trabajador del Comunismo'. An Emblematic Work of the Era of the Scientific-Technical Revolution in the German Democratic Republic , in: Arara, 11 (2013), [1]

Web links

Commons : Josep Renau  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary of the editors. In: Eulenspiegel , 29./37. Vol., No. 43/82, ISSN  0423-5975 , p. 3.
  2. ^ A b Antony Beevor : La Guerre d'Espagne . No. 31153 . Éditions Calmann-Lévy, Paris 2006, ISBN 978-2-253-12092-6 , pp. 333 (Original edition: The Battle for Spain , published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in 2006; translated by Jean-François Sené).
  3. ^ Documentation sheet of GDR television for the program Über Deutschland , accessed on October 30, 2019.
  4. ↑ Landesarchiv Berlin Main Committee “Victims of Fascism” (OdF) / Section Persecuted by the Nazi Regime (VdN) ( Memento from May 23, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), p. 215.
  5. ↑ Wilma Rambow: Baugebundene art of the GDR. Exemplary analysis of handling and monument conservation practice , in: Luise Helas / Wilma Rambow / Felix Rössl: Artful surfaces of socialism: murals and molded concrete blocks . Research on the architectural heritage of the GDR, vol. 3, Weimar, Bauhaus-Universitätsverlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-95773-171-5 , p. 151 ff.
  6. ^ GDR large mural in Erfurt is complete again . In: Berliner Zeitung , October 30, 2019 (print edition), p. 21.
  7. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 6, 1972, p. 4
  8. ↑ EDICIONES PLAZA SL: Dones que mugixen: la figura de Manuela Ballester. Retrieved October 30, 2019 (Catalan).
personal data
SURNAME Renau, Josep
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish painter, printmaker and photomontage artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 17, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Valencia
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1982
Place of death Berlin