Karl Lorenz (painter)

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Karl Lorenz 1914

Karl Lorenz ; actually Carl Johann Martin Lorenz (born November 25, 1888 in Wandsbek ; †  February 28, 1961 in Hamburg-Rahlstedt ) was a German painter and poet of Expressionism .

In the 1920s he edited several expressionist magazines and worked on publications with representatives of the Hamburg Secession. As an artist, however, he was self-taught .

Life

Karl Lorenz was born as the oldest of 6 children in a working-class family. His education began in elementary school, which he left at the age of 14. Then he lived off odd jobs as a cowherd or carter, later he worked as a brewer and construction worker. He became a member of the SPD at the age of 17, but left it again in 1913 because the theory and practice of the party were too far apart for him.

From 1913 he wrote poetry, and in 1914 his first poems appeared in book form. During the First World War he was a reinforcement soldier , but he continued to write and got in touch with the art historian and writer Wilhelm Niemeyer from the Hamburg School of Applied Arts . After the war in 1919 he became a member of the Hamburger Sezession artist group . In the same year he and Rosa Schapire became the editor of the magazine “ Die Rote Erde - monthly for art and culture ”. The following are named as employees of the first edition: Kurt Bock, Georg Britting , Alfred Brust , Albert Ehrenstein , Paul W. Eisold, Lyonel Feininger , Rudolf Friedmann, Erna Gerlach, Werner Gothein , OM Graf, Walter Gramatté , Adolf de Haer , Sylvia von Harden , WG Hartmann, Erich Henkel , Kurt Haynicke , Hans Jauquemar, Edlef Köppen , Karl Kriete , Albert Rudolf Leinert, Carl Mense, Rudolf Mense, Emil Maetzel , Paulfried Martens , Conrad Felixmüller , Otto Müller , Wilhelm Niemeyer , Walter Petrey, Max Pechstein , Walter Rheiner , Willi Reindel, René Schickele , Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Anton Schnack , Hermann Schütte, Martin Schwemer, Wilhelm Tegtmeier , Alfred Wolfenstein , Friedrich Wolf , Otto Zarek .

In 1921 he was also responsible for publications by the Adolf Harms Verlag, where he published “Die Drucke der Tafelrunde”, in which Georg Britting also published. In 1922 he and Paulfried Martens founded the “Hamburg Artists Community Publishing House” and printed expressionist poems and prose. In 1923 the economic crisis put an end to all of this.

He moved to Malente-Gremsmühlen and founded the "Turmpresse" there in 1924. A one-man company that produced high quality books in short runs.

In it he published a large number of Expressionist hand prints, of which he rarely made more than 25 copies per print. Karl Lorenz referred to his prints as "color works".

The picture and text panels of the “Tower Press” are large-format cut into wood based on the example of medieval block books. Lorenz used two methods for coloring: Either he first printed the color sections and then the black print over them, like Edvard Munch , or he colored the black prints by hand at the end. Lorenz's goal was simple, folk prints with intensely bright colors. The picture panels have no direct relation to the text; their motifs complement the scriptures.

The more than 150 texts that Lorenz selected for his books were extracts from the works of great writers such as Goethe, Nietzsche and Heine, but also his own poetry. The prospectus for his 1922 edition of his work reads: “The poet Karl Lorenz is one of the strongest, most peculiar and deepest language creators on German soil in our time. His language is lively and rich, colorful and glowing. ”Thanks to the“ tower press ”, the expressionist idea survived the actual end of the movement by several years.

In 1933 Karl Lorenz was temporarily taken into “protective custody”. The National Socialists attacked his magazine and he had to provide expert opinions on its artistic value. After the end of the Second World War, Lorenz returned from Malente-Gremsmühlen to Hamburg, where he died in February 1961.

wife

In 1924 he married Bertha Wrage , the daughter of the painter Hinrich Wrage, in Malente-Gremsmühlen .

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lorenz, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lorenz, Carl Johann Martin (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and poet of Expressionism
DATE OF BIRTH November 25, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Wandsbek
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1961
Place of death Hamburg-Rahlstedt