Kate Lassen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-portrait in a smock (1913–1914), Museumsberg Flensburg

Berta Katharina (Käte) Lassen (born February 7, 1880 in Flensburg ; † December 22, 1956 there ) was a German painter .

life and work

Käte Lassen: Hilma with mussels , 1933, Museumsberg Flensburg

Käte Lassen was born as the daughter of goldsmith Hans Nicolai Jonathan Lassen and Emmy Henriette. Iwersen was born in Flensburg. After briefly attending the Hamburg trade school, she studied from 1898 to 1902 at the women's academy of the Munich Artists' Association under Ludwig Schmid-Reutte , Maximilian Dasio and Angelo Jank . From 1902 to 1904 she received private lessons from Hugo von Habermann . She had her own studio in Munich. In 1904 she returned to Flensburg. She had a studio there until the end of her life. 1904 Steinberghaff, 1904/5 Copenhagen, 1908/1909 Paris, from 1905 to 1944 summer stays in Denmark (Klitmøller, Vorupør, Stenbjerg), from 1919 repeatedly in Berlin for longer periods.

The figurative image of Käte Lassen developed from Munich Art Nouveau , through Scandinavian - especially Danish - influences and Expressionism until the 1920s to New Objectivity . In the art of glass windows , Käte Lassen was finally able to fully develop her figurative language, which resulted in two-dimensionality, abstraction and clear lines. In terms of content, she delves into existential, even spiritual, discussion.

Church window

For the first time, Lassen dealt with religious issues on a large scale in her mural in the Heilandskapelle von Flensburg-Weiche . After the First World War , she dealt with the fate of war invalids, unemployed people and widows. Since the 1920s she has been creating glass windows (Flensburg, Morsum / Sylt , St. Georg Church (Oeversee) , Karby ) and murals in Flensburg (1922) and Eckernförde (1939). From 1946 onwards the artist received various orders for church windows in Schleswig-Holstein, in Neumünster (1948) and Rendsburg (1950). For the heavily damaged, up to nine meters high glass windows of St. Mary's Church in Flensburg , she designed an overall concept of seven monumental windows on the apostolic creed , of which she carried out six. The sixth window on the Ascension of Christ could only be completed in 1957 after her death. She also designed windows for the Church of Reconciliation in the Flensburg suburb of Harrislee . Although Kate Lassen was in demand as a glass painter in Schleswig-Holstein, there were also voices who found her statements too hard, angular, joyless or irreligious.

Commissioned work in the time of National Socialism

During the Nazi era , three commissioned works were created close to the regime. In 1935 Lassen created a painting for the Flensburg police headquarters under the direction of Konrad Fulda. According to Christina Mahn (2007) it showed two shepherds as symbols of vigilance and loyalty in front of a circular area, possibly a symbol of community . It was to be seen at various exhibitions during the National Socialist dictatorship . B. in the Hamburger Kunsthalle , as well as other paintings by Käte Lassen that Konrad Fulda owned. According to Gerhard Paul (2012), she removed a swastika supposedly originally shown in the picture after the Second World War . After a detailed investigation this turned out to be wrong, as the picture was never changed. The work has been on the Museumsberg in Flensburg since May 2016. The client, Police President Konrad Fulda (1878–1957), with whom Käte Lassen was well known, had to leave office early when the regime's personnel policy tightened in 1937. According to the memories of Margarete Mitscherlich-Nielsen , who lived with the Fulda family in Flensburg between 1932 and 1937, one could read "forbidden" literature such as Freud and Brecht - and mock the Nazi regime.

In 1940/41 Lassen painted a picture of Adolf Hitler for the Flensburger Credit Bank, which was located at Thingplatz in the city. According to Mahn, the head is small and the yellow-brown party uniform is too bulky. The facial expressions seem strained, the right hand is clenched into a hanging fist, while Hitler seems to be crumpling up a piece of paper with his left. This leaves room for speculation as to whether it is a specific document, perhaps the Versailles Treaty or the German-Danish non-aggression pact of 1939, which would lead to a reading that is critical of the regime. The empty background, understood as an underlying emptiness, contributes to an overall ambivalent impression. The picture is in the fund of the Museumsberg.

"Nordic sword dance" in Eckernförde

In 1938/39, Lassen decorated the auditorium of the boys' high school in Eckernförde (now the Pestalozzi School) with a mural. The "Nordic Sword Dance " of naked youths dressed in loincloths was about 4.5 by 9 meters. The chosen theme was in line with the National Socialist idealization of Germanic traditions. The order was placed in 1935/36. In the end, the effort and costs far exceeded the fee. The executed “seagulls” have been preserved on the opposite wall, while from the sword dance after wallpapering and painting over, which were later removed, only the preliminary pencil drawings are preserved.

The school building of the Käte-Lassen-School in Flensburg.

Appreciation

The Käte-Lassen School in Flensburg , founded in 1951, was named after her.

In Käte Lassen's wooden house in Stenbjerg (Stenbjerg Kirkevej), the Museet for Thy og Vester Hanherred ( Museum Thy since 2014 ) and dedicated art lovers have set up a small memorial room for local artists. The information boards also honor other artists who sought the seclusion of the coastal town: Jens Søndergaard , Peder Severin Krøyer and Marie Krøyer .

Exhibitions

  • February 26 to April 23, 2017 - Käte Lassen - painter by the sea - Museum Eckernförde with a visit to the "Nordic sword dance" in the former Jungmann School (now the Pestalozzi School) on the Reeperbahn.

Posthumously

  • Käte Lassen: At the edge of the sea in dune sand , illustrated children's book, ed. from Heinz u. Christian Kuhlmann, Husum 2007, ISBN 978-3-86530-088-1
  • Kate Lassen: I klittens sand ved havets rand, udgivet af Museet for Thy og Vester Hanherred og Christina Kohla, Husum 2010, ISBN 978-3-86530-139-0

literature

  • Katja Behling, Anke Manigold: The painting women. Intrepid artists around 1900 . Munich: Elisabeth Sandmann, 2009, pp. 60–63.
  • Uwe Carstens : Käte Lassen , in: " Tönnies-Forum " 1/2007, vol. 16, pp. 71-75.
  • Christina Kohla: Kate Lassen. Painter by the sea . Heide 2016, ISBN 978-3-8042-1443-9 .
  • Christina Mahn: Käte Lassen 1880 - 1956. Cross-border commuter of modernity (Dissertation Kiel 2006), Heide 2007, ISBN 978-3-8042-1217-6
  • Christina Mahn: Kate Lassen and the North. An artist between Denmark and Germany . In: Grenzfriedenshefte, 2007, issue 2 ( online ).
  • Ludwig Rohling: Kate Lassen. The painter's work , Flensburg 1956.
  • Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Painting in Schleswig-Holstein , catalog of the painting collection of the Städtisches Museum Flensburg, Heide 1989, ISBN 3-8042-0467-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christina Mahn (2007), p. 200.
  2. ↑ Mahn, p. 200.
  3. ↑ Mahn, p. 166
  4. ^ Gerhard Paul: The downfall 1945 in Flensburg . PDF file. In: State Center for Civic Education Schleswig-Holstein (ed.): Background - A series of publications by the State Center for Civic Education Schleswig-Holstein. 2012, p. 14, accessed January 12, 2016.
  5. ↑ Kunstverein-Schleswig.de of January 25, 2017: Excursion to the Museumsberg Flensburg , accessed on August 23, 2018
  6. ^ Stephan Linck: "Working with the leader's work". The heads of the Flensburg police authority, in: Verführung.Verfahren.Kleppt . In: Broder Schwesen et al. (Ed.): Flensburg contributions to contemporary history . tape 1 . Flensburg 1996, p. 75-100 .
  7. ↑ Mahn, p. 167/8
  8. ↑ Mahn, pp. 153–158
  9. ↑ Annegret Rittmann: Käte Lassen , AKL, 2014, p. 247
  10. ↑ Sights in Stenbjerg: Käte Lassens Haus (Danish) Danish Nature Conservation Authority, accessed on August 17, 2014.
  11. ↑ Artists in Stenbjerg (Danish) ( 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. Coast Alive, accessed October 18, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.coast-alive.eu

Web links

Commons : Käte Lassen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Let it go, Kate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lassen, Berta Katharina (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 7, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Flensburg
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1956
Place of death Flensburg