Karl Lorenz Kunz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article or section needs to be revised. Details should be given on the talk page. Please help to improve it , and then remove this flag.

Karl Lorenz Kunz (born November 23, 1905 in Augsburg , † May 22, 1971 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German painter .

life and work

Kunz was born in Augsburg as the son of the carpenter Lorenz Kunz. The artistic talent showed in childhood. His rich imagination was fueled by a temporary blindness in the second and third year of life. He spent five years of his school days from 1916 to 1921 at the grammar school near St. Stephan in Augsburg. The painter Gustav E. Schmidt from Chemnitz gave him lessons and visited the Munich art collections with him. In 1921 Kunz applied to the Munich Art Academy without success . He continued his autodidactic training, went to the academy to do life drawing as an external worker and was a guest at Hans Hofmann's art school in Schwabing. Kunz dealt with modernity , especially with Paul Cézanne and Kandinsky . In addition to art, his passion is climbing in the nearby Alps; he even trained as a mountain guide. During his years in Munich he hiked through Sicily three times. Alongside Spain, the south of France and of course Paris, Italy will remain the preferred travel destination for life.

In 1927 he went to Berlin, where he took off artistically. The few surviving reproductions of his works from this period already indicate the motifs of his later pictures, in which the set pieces of his surroundings, the big city, the barn district with its crooks and prostitutes in which he lives, the ancient fragments of his trips to Italy and the figures the Commedia dell'arte have their appearance and will accompany him until the end of his life.

Hermann Sandkuhl , painter and organizer of the “Jury-Free Art Show” at Lehrter Bahnhof, brought him over to help him with the organization and construction of the 1928 and 1929 exhibitions. This gave Kunz an insight into the entire spectrum of German modernism. He himself is represented in both exhibitions with several works. The titles of the images shown are u. a. "Harlequins", "Masks with jugs", "Kitchen still life", "Portrait of a lady".

Erwin Hahs , head of the painting class at the Burg Giebichenstein art school in Halle an der Saale, brought Kunz to his home in 1930 as his assistant and master student. Kunz was included in the school operations and took on educational tasks. He got to know the historian Ilse Lack, assistant to the Jewish professor Friedrich Hertz at the University of Halle . They married in autumn 1932. In February 1933, the Gestapo imprisoned them for two months for “favoring the Jews” : they helped Hertz escape. Kunz was dismissed from the art school, classified by the Reich Chamber of Culture in Berlin as "degenerate" and was banned from painting.

National Socialism

War 1942

In the inner emigration in the Augsburg parents' house, to which the couple retired and where they took over the father's wood business, he secretly continued to paint large panels on wood and canvas. Despite the isolation, he never lost the feeling of togetherness with international modernity. With great interest he visited the exhibition " Degenerate Art " in Munich . Images emerged from a synthesis of New Objectivity , Art Deco and surreal elements, often as a mixture of disparate objects and fragments in a constructivist order. Kunz painted cheerful subjects such as “Summer Day” in 1939, “Walk” in 1941 or the amusing “Circe” from 1942, but then also “Germany Awake” and “War”, both in 1942, an anticipation of horror and destruction. In the end, the picture “In the basement”, also called “Augsburg Bomb Night”, was painted in April 1945, depicting the horror of the people in the air raid shelter. On the night of the bombing on February 25th to 26th, 1944, the parents' house went up in flames. Only 30 paintings and five wooden sculptures and wooden reliefs survived the attack. Because of a heart condition, Karl Kunz was not sent to the front, but trained as a paramedic in the local security service. He immediately began to paint again in rooms that were temporarily repaired.

post war period

, Carnival, 1949
The three graces, 1950

After the war, Kunz appeared as a mature artist. This was clearly visible in the exhibition “Extreme Painting” in February 1947. He joined the Munich “Neue Gruppe” and became friends with Willi Baumeister and Franz Roh . Before he was appointed to the newly founded State School for Art and Crafts (Saarbrücken) in 1947, he took part in ten exhibitions, including the General German Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1946. As a teacher, he developed his own style of painting with powerful compositions in strong colors, a style that he was able to implement on murals, for example for the University of Homburg / Saar. He led two master classes in painting and two classes in basic teaching. This resulted in the traveling exhibition “Young people learn to paint, teaching methods for today's image design under the direction of Karl Kunz”.

Surprisingly released from art school in 1949, Kunz returned to Augsburg. The gallery owner Günther Franke is showing his first solo exhibition in the Villa Stuck in Munich, which was taken over by Hanna Bekker vom Rath's “Frankfurter Kunstkabinett” in Frankfurt am Main. In June 1951 Kunz received the 1st Domnick Prize (before Fritz Winter and Ruprecht Geiger), donated by the psychologist Ottomar Domnick in Stuttgart. In 1953 his hometown Augsburg honored him with a large retrospective in the Schaezlerpalais . The city bought six paintings.

Weilburg and Frankfurt am Main

In 1953 the family moved to Weilburg , where Ilse Kunz got a job as a high school teacher. Here he completed the 61 illustrations for Dante's Inferno. Drawing gained more and more importance in his work after Saarbrücken. Kunz was passionate about life drawing. In 1949/50 he created the illustrations for the New Testament, 18 pen drawings (Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt), 1950 “Fantasies and Grotesques”, 12 pen drawings (Art Institute Morat, Freiburg), pencil drawings and watercolors from the MAN factory in Augsburg, 1953 Pen-and-ink drawings for Dante's Inferno, created between 1951 and 1956, published in 1965 by Lübbe-Verlag with an introduction by Max Bense . His love of calligraphy also found its way into his oil paintings. Many of the drawings are converted into brightly colored pictures. The religious, the passion of Jesus, runs like a red thread through his work (“Crucifixion Triptych” and “Marien Triptych”, 1951).

At the Surrealism show in the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1954, compiled by Eberhard Hanfstaengl , Kunz is shown with four paintings, alongside Klee and Schlemmer . Gustav René Hocke dedicates a separate chapter to Kunz in his "Painting of the Present - The Neo-Mannerism" from 1975. Max Bense calls it the Mannerism of Surreality. In addition, there is the symbolic world of psychoanalysis, the key signs of eroticism and sexuality. The panel paintings, executed in powerful colors, are filled to bursting and often seem to blow up the space. They are not easy fare and the observer needs to work together to decipher them. The irony shines through the disturbing, the decrypted ciphers do not give any bold answers, inside and outside mix, fall upon each other, an orderly chaos of his waking dreams.

In 1957 Kunz rented a studio on Merianstrasse in Frankfurt am Main . The Ulm collector Kurt Deschler occasionally bought a painting every month. The result is the Medea triptych, which dominated the large wall in the studio until his death and also the large-format blasphemous black masses, which he presented to a closed audience in the Carmelite Monastery in Frankfurt in 1966 with an introduction by Peter Gorsen. On many trips to Paris and the south of Europe, portfolios full of pencil and pastel drawings emerge, material for his pictures.

In the winter semester of 1959/60 he gave one more lessons at the Saarbrücken art school. The benefits of these months, in addition to many nude drawings, are primarily the studies of found objects from the fashion and sculpture classes, which soon reappear in his paintings. In 1966, ZDF showed a report about him in the series Aspects on the occasion of his 60th birthday. He was a member of the New Darmstadt, the Palatinate and the Frankfurt Secession. Solo exhibitions during his lifetime were shown at the Darmstadt Art Gallery in 1959, the Ulm Art Association and the Palatinate Gallery in Kaiserslautern in 1966 . In 1969 he was invited to a three-month honorary residency at the Villa Massimo in Rome. There he began the erotic cycle “Kammerspiele”, pencil and pastel drawings, sometimes collages. The overflowing abundance gives way to the white surface, the sparse line, about 130 leaves emerge. The cycle remained unfinished. On the night of May 22, 1971, Karl Kunz died in Frankfurt of a heart condition.

Works in museums and collections

, Barcelona, ​​1963
, Nude study, 1962
Inferno, p. 58, 33rd song, 1956

Works by the artist are in the Neue Nationalgalerie (Berlin); the Folkwang Museum (Essen); the Von der Heydt Museum (Wuppertal); the Bavarian State Painting Collection (Munich); the Domnick Foundation (Nürtingen); in museums and art collections (Augsburg); at the Morat Institute for Art and Art History (Freiburg im Breisgau); in the collection of Deutsche Bank and the Städel Museum (Frankfurt am Main); in the Wilhelm Hack Museum (Ludwigshafen); in the Upper Hessian Museum (Giessen); in the collections of Kurt Deschler (Ulm) and Mike Niederauer (Heidelberg); in the Saarland Museum and the Weber Collection (Saarbrücken); in the Hessisches Landesmuseum (Kassel and Darmstadt); the municipal art collections (Darmstadt); in the Pfalzgalerie (Kaiserslautern); in the Moritzburg Foundation Museum and the Art Forum in (Halle / Saale); the Museum of Fine Arts (Leipzig); the Museum der Moderne, MdM (Salzburg) and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Nuremberg).

Works

  • "The Prophet" 1931, WV 11 / "Wood Relief" 1932, WV 18 / "The Floating" 1934, WV 38 / "Fun Fair Parade" 1938, WV 58 / "Germany awake" 1942, WV 69 / "War" 1942, WV 74 .
  • "Dancers" 1946, WV 86 / "Familienbild" 1948, WV 115 / "Carnival" 1949, WV 127 / "The Three Graces" 1950, WV 140 / "Crucifixion Triptych" 1951, WV 147 / "In the summer freshness" 1953 , WV 159.
  • "Aufbruch zum Fest" 1954, WV 190 / "Die Heimgesuchten" 1958, WV 278 / "Kartenspiel" 1962, WV 381 / "Barcelona" 1963, WV 425 / "Can-Can" 1964, WV 458 / "Unrest in the Salon" 1966, WV 511 / "Black Mass" 1967, WV 544.
  • Nude drawings until 1969, 18 illustrations for the "New Testament" 1949/50, "Fantasies and Grotesque" 1950, folder "Bärenfleckhütte" 1951,
  • Folder "MAN" 1953, 61 illustrations for "Dante's Inferno" 1951 - 1956,
  • "Kammerspiele" 1968-1971.

Solo exhibitions

  • 1950: Günther Franke Gallery, Villa Stuck, Munich
  • 1950: Gallery Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1953: Schaezlerpalais , Augsburg
  • 1959: Kunstverein Darmstadt, Kunsthalle
  • 1963: Hessischer Rundfunk, Frankfurt
  • 1966: Kunstverein Ulm, Ulm Town Hall
  • 1966: Carmelite Monastery, Frankfurt
  • 1966: Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern
  • 1967: Wolfgang Ketterer Gallery, Villa Stuck, Munich
  • 1967: Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne
  • 1970: Galleria Stendhal, Milan
  • 1970: Villa Massimo, Rome
  • 1971: Appel and Fertsch Gallery, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1971: Kunstverein Augsburg, Holbeinhaus
  • 1972: Klingspor Museum , Offenbach am Main
  • 1973: Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern
  • 1974: Kunsthalle Darmstadt
  • 1975: Frankfurter Kunstverein, Steinernes Haus
  • 1975: Rödel Gallery, Mannheim
  • 1983: Zeughaus, Augsburg
  • 1994: Galerie Ketterer Kunst, Munich
  • 1995: Schaezler-Palais, Augsburg
  • 1997: Hallescher Kunstverein, Halle / Saale
  • 2005: Armory and Theater Augsburg, Augsburg
  • 2006: Kunstverein Dillingen, Dillingen / Saarland
  • 2007: Saarländische Galerie, Palais am Festungsgraben, Berlin
  • 2008: Kunstforum Halle, Halle / Saale
  • 2009: Saar College of Fine Arts , Saarbrücken
  • 2009: Otto Gallery, Munich
  • 2011: art-imaginary, Herrenhaus-Mußbach, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
  • 2013: Kongress am Park, Augsburg
  • 2014: From the Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
  • 2014: Galerie Deschler, Berlin
  • 2017: Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Kaufbeuren

Catalogs

Selection of participation in group exhibitions

  • 1928 Jury-free art show, Berlin
  • 1929 Jury-free art show, Berlin
  • 1945 contemporary painter, Schaezlerpalais, Augsburg
  • 1946 Augsburg painter - first overview, Augsburg
  • 1946 General German Art Exhibition, Dresden
  • 1947 Extreme Painting, Augsburg / Stuttgart / Karlsruhe
  • 1947 Bavarian Art of Today, Bavarian National Museum, Munich
  • 1948 Artists' Association Neue Gruppe II, Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
  • 1949 2nd German Art Exhibition, Dresden
  • 1950 The image of man in our time, New Darmstadt Secession, Darmstadt
  • 1951 Domnick Prize, Württemberg State Gallery, Stuttgart
  • 1951 Palatine Secession, Speyer / Karlsruhe
  • 1954 La Biennale di Venezia, Venice
  • 1957 New Darmstadt Secession, Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
  • 1961 Modern Gallery, Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken
  • 1963 Saarland Artist Association, Saarbrücken
  • 1963 Spring Salon, Golden Hall, Augsburg
  • 1963 Frankfurt Secession, Steinernes Haus am Römer, Frankfurt / Main
  • 1964 German Association of Artists, Berlin
  • 1964 1st International of Drawing, Mathildenhöhe, Darmstadt
  • 1965 Frankfurter Salon, Steinernes Haus am Römer, Frankfurt / Main
  • 1967 Ars Phantastica, Stein Castle, Nuremberg
  • 1968 Images of People, Kunsthalle Darmstadt
  • 1969 35 artists in Frankfurt, Frankfurter Kunstverein
  • 1969 German Association of Artists, Herrenhausen, Hanover
  • 1975 Neomanierism, Westend Gallery, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1977 Three decades of the New Group, Haus der Kunst, Munich
  • 1980 Between War and Peace, Steinernes Haus, Frankfurt am Main
  • 1988 stations of modernity, Walter-Gropius-Bau, Berlin
  • 1993 Giebichenstein Castle, Moritzburg State Gallery, Halle / Saale
  • 2005 Facette Figure, Kunsthalle Darmstadt
  • 2015 The Black Years, History of a Collection 1933-1945, Neue National-Galerie, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin
  • 2016 Liberated Modern Art in Germany 1945-1949, Märkisches Museum, Witten

literature

  • KF Ertel, "Karl Kunz as a draftsman", in: The art and the beautiful home , special edition, 1956
  • Ulrich Gertz, "On the work of Karl Kunz", exhibition catalog Darmstädter Kunsthalle, 1959
  • Max Bense , Foreword to Sixty-One Illustrations to the Inferno of the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, drawn by Karl Kunz, Gustav Lübbe Verlag, 1965
  • Josef Adolf Schmoll called Eisenwerth , "Words for the opening of the exhibition", Karl Kunz, paintings and drawings, exhibition catalog Pfalzgalerie , Kaiserslautern 1966
  • Ulrich Gertz, "On the work of Karl Kunz", Karl Kunz, pictures and drawings, exhibition catalog Ulmer Kunstverein, 1966, and exhibition catalog Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern 1966
  • Ferrucio Ulivi, "Le Tavole Dantesche di Karl Kunz", exhibition catalog Società Dante Alighieri, Villa Massimo, Rome 1970
  • Dieter Hoffmann , “Last Drawings by Karl Kunz”, exhibition catalog at Galerie Margot Ostheimer, No. 10, Frankfurt 1971
  • Robert D'Hooghe “The great metaphor of the world. The work of the painter Karl Kunz ”, exhibition catalog Kunsthalle Darmstadt, 1974
  • Peter Gorsen , "On the hedonistic and satanistic tradition of the Kunz",
  • Karl Kunz, Blasphemous and Erotic, exhibition catalog Frankfurter Kunstverein , Frankfurt am Main 1975
  • Ilse Kunz, "Sketch of an artist's life", Karl Kunz, blasphemous and erotic, exhibition catalog Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt / Main 1975
  • Gustav René Hocke , "Karl Kunz - Evocative Line", contemporary painting. Neomanierism. From Surrealism to Meditation, Limes Verlag, Munich 1975
  • Ulrike Schmidt, "The painter and graphic artist Karl Kunz - life, work and their meaning", dissertation, Saarbrücken 1982
  • Juliane Roh , “Karl Kunz (1905-1971). Armory Augsburg “, The Work of Art, 1983
  • Hans-Georg Sehrt, "... made by the triad of ingenuity, skillful hand and sober head", Karl Kunz, painting and drawings, exhibition catalog Hallescher Kunstverein, Halle (Saale) 1997
  • Staged colors. The painter Karl Kunz in the foyer of the HBK. In: Saarbrücker Zeitung (Saarland) v. September 10, 2009
  • Reinhard Müller-Mehlis in "und - Das Münchner Kunstjournal", issue 40, 2009, on the occasion of the exhibition "Bonjour Messieurs, Works by Karl Kunz" in the Otto Gallery in Munich
  • Karin Thomas "Karl Kunz - newly discovered", exhibition catalog Von der Heydt-Museum Wuppertal, retrospective "Karl Kunz" 2014
  • Karin Thomas "Karl Kunz - loner of modernity", catalog raisonné "Karl Kunz - painting 1921-1970", Saarbrücken 2015

Web links

CATALOGS

Commons : Karl Lorenz Kunz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Kunz, Karl Lorenz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH May 22, 1971
Place of death Frankfurt am Main