Karl-Heinz Knoedler

Karl-Heinz Knoedler

Karl-Heinz Knoedler (born January 15, 1926 in Ludwigsburg , † November 2, 2000 in Ellwangen ) was a German painter.

The extensive and stylistically diverse oeuvre of Knoedler includes around 4,000 paintings and drawings, which are now in private hands or are largely kept in his estate in Ellwangen. Knoedler also worked for public spaces ; his works can be found in churches, public buildings, on squares and streets.

Life

Karl-Heinz Knoedler was born as the son of Martha and Karl Knoedler on January 15, 1926 in Ludwigsburg. After serving as an air force helper and finishing school in 1944, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in France. There he was taken prisoner, from which he returned in 1947. In 1948 he made up his Abitur and learned life drawing from the painter Walter Wörn in Stuttgart. In 1949 he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart with Willi Baumeister and in 1950 with Fernand Léger in Paris , where he met Maurice Utrillo and Alphonse Quizet , the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and the architect Auguste Perret . This was followed by stays in Spain, Holland, Belgium and again France in 1951 and 1952. In 1951 he took part in a first group exhibition in the Salon d'hiver in Paris and in the Salon des indépendants in the Grand Palais . After his return Knoedler moved into his first studio in Ellwangen and married Anna Maria Zeller in 1955. In the same year there was a first joint exhibition with the art teacher and graphic artist Helmut Esdar. After meeting the architect Wolf Irion, Knoedler turned increasingly to art in public spaces in the following years, for which he received numerous commissions, especially in the Ellwangen area. In 1960 Karl-Heinz Knoedler moved into an apartment and studio in Schloss Ellwangen . He lived here until his death in 2000.

Ox - 1966

1962 to 2000

His up to now figurative phase ends with a stay in Rome in 1962, as a result of which he creates numerous abstract ink drawings. Under the impression of the Frankfurt National Socialist trials, Knoedler created an Auschwitz series in which he tries to grasp the horror with ink like a way of the cross. Where the horror of the design refuses to take place, symbols and metaphors come into play, the object is raised to the level of abstraction. This stylistic device will shape the artist's work to a large extent - already recognizable in his so-called temple pictures, in which he partially dissolves the form in color with a wild gesture. At the beginning of the seventies, the intoxication of colors was directed into the orderly paths of Concrete Art. But hard-edge painting basically resists the painterly temperament of Knoedler. Even in the seventies he shed the fetters of geometry and set out for new shores. As an artist who understands art as a social obligation to interfere, he takes a pointed position on environmental destruction, belief in technology, nuclear risk and the mania for war. His “cosmograms” and rocket images can be read dialectically, like much with Knoedler, as new beginnings and decline, hope and destruction. The same applies to his sky-striving "Torri" as places of refuge and monuments of hubris. At the beginning of the nineties he addressed the Gulf War in ghostly pale colored sheets and, two years before his death, the war in Kosovo in another series - all in all, parables for the contradictions of the world. In the last decade of his life, Knoedler, mastering both the small and the large format, has found an expressively charged language of color with elementary power, drawing on his immense experience, in which object and abstraction are intimately connected.

Southern Vision 1957

In 2000 the city of Ellwangen awarded him the gold medal for his life's work. Karl-Heinz Knoedler died at the age of 74 on November 2, 2000. Works by Knoedler are represented in numerous museums and private collections.

Ellwangen Schönbornhaus main window of the chapel 1970

plant

In the 1960s, Knoedler tried out various expressions of abstraction, which dominated his work in the following decade. The initially organic abstraction culminated in a clear, geometric hard-edge design language in the early 1970s . Parallel to his painting, Knoedler turned to art in public spaces in the 1960s. Art in architecture projects continued constructivist elements into the 1980s.

Testimonials are, for example, the professional association training center Illertissen (1976), in whose design, which is in the Bauhaus tradition, the artist was included in the concept from the beginning. The geometric shapes of the concrete reliefs and sculptures in the outdoor area are incorporated into the color scheme of the interior and naturally integrated into the architecture. Ten years earlier he had designed a powerful concrete relief wall for the Heiligenäcker cemetery in Geislingen, in which he explored the possibilities of building ornamentation without color as an independent structural element in concrete. Twenty years later, a head-high bronze sculpture ("battered head") by Knoedler was erected in the same place in memory of the women who perished in the Geislingen subcamp. Further bronze sculptures by Knoedler can be found u. a. in Ellwangen in the form of representational and abstract fountains. The wave pool there is also adorned with one of his most striking works in public space: the “Icarus”, a square block in the city colors of blue and red, which is broken up into cheerful, playful volumes by exciting cuts. Knoedler also worked with other materials such as enamel based on sheet iron. The trail of his enamel doors in schools can be traced across Germany, from Fellbach to Norderney.

Art in architecture (selection)

Some of the art in building projects by Karl-Heinz Knoedler are:

• Overall design of the training home, Illertissen (1976)
• Design of the wave pool, Ellwangen (1981/82)
• Square design and fountain LVA, Stuttgart (1983)

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1963: Exhibitions in Ludwigsburg and Metzingen. Series of acrylic images.
• 1964: 1200th anniversary in Ellwangen. Design of posters and commemorative publications.
• 1968: Exhibition at the Hohenheim Academy
• 1971: Large exhibition in the Cavazzen in Lindau, at Interdomus in Karlsruhe and Wiesbaden.
• 1975: Exhibition in the Ludwigsburg district office.
• 1985: Exhibition in Langres with Max Hérve and Jean Fabre.
• 1986: Exhibition on Knoedler's 60th birthday in the Villa Franck in Ludwigsburg and in Ellwangen in the jury room.
• 1996: Retrospective for the 70th birthday in the courtroom / district court Ellwangen
• 2001: Retrospective in the Palais Adelmann
• 2005: Graphics and drawings in the Adelmann Palace and in the branch of the Ostalbkreis / Ellwangen district office.
• 2008: "JKaves" Ellwangen Castle. Rooms of the art association
• 2011: Sales exhibition, Palais Adelmann
• 2013: "In the land where the lemons bloom". Ellwangen Castle

Estate (Karl-Heinz Knoedler Foundation)

His widow Anni Knoedler (née Zeller, † 2006) set up the Karl-Heinz Knoedler Foundation to preserve and distribute the works of Karl-Heinz Knoedler. The Karl-Heinz Knoedler Foundation is supported by the Ellwangen city administration (cultural office), which is also responsible for the administration of the artistic estate.

literature

• City of Ellwangen (Ed.): Karl-Heinz Knoedler - Creativity in Contradiction. Stations of a manuscript. With contributions by Wolfgang Nussbaumer, Hermann Schludi, Wolfram Krehl and Willi Habermann. City of Ellwangen, Culture, Press and Tourism Office, Ellwangen 2001.
• Egbert Hering (Ed.): Karl-Heinz Knoedler. Life and work. Works on paper and canvas from 1947 to 1991. Schwabenverlag, Ellwangen 1991.
• Hermann Baumhauer (Ed.): Art scene East Württemberg. With contributions by Wolfgang Nussbaumer and Hermann Schludi. Theiss, Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-8062-1108-6 .
• Anni Knoedler (Ed.): Karl-Heinz Knoedler. Traces. With a foreword by Wolfgang Nussbaumer. Ellwangen 2001.

Web links

Commons : Karl-Heinz Knoedler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Karl-Heinz Knoedler in the catalog of the German National Library
• Karl-Heinz Knoedler Foundation
• Knoedler at Kunstaspekte

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Information - Karl-Heinz Knoedler Foundation ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2009 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.