Karl Muggly

Karl Muggly (born January 26, 1884 in Munich , † October 14, 1957 in Bottrop ) was a German painter and glass painter .

Life

In 1898 Karl Muggly, son of the glass painter Wendelin Muggly, completed an apprenticeship as a glazier and glass painter. From 1901 he received artistic training in Wiesbaden , in 1905 a scholarship for the Dresden Art Academy , where he had contact with the Brücke artists, with George Grosz and Otto Dix . From 1908 he taught as a part-time teacher for life drawing , decorative painting and glass painting at the craft and applied arts school in Bielefeld . In 1912 he married the textile artist Phia (Sophie Friederike) Graeber (born June 23, 1889 at Stolberg Castle, Singerhausen district; † December 25, 1961 in Bettmeralp, Valais), with whom he had two children. Between 1914 and 1918 he did military service. In 1921 he became a full-time teacher and in 1922 a professor. Eduard Herterich , Wilhelm Heiner , Carl Strüwe , Christel Poll and Victor Tuxhorn were among his students in Bielefeld .

In 1932 he was exposed to attacks because of “ un-German painting ”, in 1933 his works were removed from public spaces and there were no commissions.

After his retirement in 1949 he had a studio in Paderborn , which the entrepreneur Adloff made available to him, and one in Düsseldorf from 1955 until his death .

plant

In addition to glass windows, glass pictures, watercolors and mixed media, his work includes extensive graphics and ceramics, but only a few works in oil. His paintings are characterized by clear shapes, influenced by glass painting, and exciting colors. Muggly not only provided drafts for the Bielefeld silk money, he also created the second series of emergency money notes (six 50 Pfennig motifs) with the Pied Piper legend (Schrock No. 7-12) on behalf of the City of Hameln in September 1921. See: UEG Schrock: History of the Hamelin emergency money 1916 to 1948, Bremen 1987.

For the most part, Muggly's works are not completely abstract , but abstract figurative elements into geometric shapes and colored surfaces with subtly designed structures. Muggly was in artistic interaction with Ernst Barlach , with whom he was a personal friend. At Barlach's suggestion, Muggly designed the windows in Güstrow Cathedral through which the light falls on Barlach's sculpture The Floating Angel . The large stained glass window wall in the cath. Church in Güstrow is ascribed to Muggly. A large part of the works created before the Second World War, especially Muggly's glass work, were destroyed by the effects of the war.

During his lifetime, Karl Muggly took part in numerous exhibitions in Germany with a regional focus on the Westphalian region (Bielefeld) and Düsseldorf. After his death, works were shown in collective exhibitions as well as in solo exhibitions in 1957/8 in the Städtisches Kunsthaus Bielefeld, 1987 in the cultural history museum "Waldhof" of the Bielefelder Kunstverein and in 2015 in the Herford Art Association.

In Bielefeld, the large rose window in the old town's Nicolaikirche (work from 1954) and four windows in the Jakobuskirche (1922/23) are works by Muggly. Other glass paintings and pictures designed by him can be found among others. a. in the stairwell of the regional court (1919), in the old town hall , in the prayer chapel of the Baumheider retirement center and in the grave chapel of the Sennefriedhof (1913), on which Muggly's grave is also located with a wooden cross he designed. In Bünde he designed two windows for the chapel on the Feldmarkfriedhof (1951) as well as two windows for the "New School" (Heideschule, 1952), in Halle (Westphalia) he designed the artistic interior design of the town hall (1925) with twelve stained glass windows in the stairwell of the town hall (also part of the original ceiling painting can still be seen) and for the secondary school (today vocational college) and a. an owl motif as sgraffito, after which the school was popularly called "owl school".

Exhibitions

• 1987: “Karl Muggly (1884–1957). Drawings, watercolors, stained glass ”, cultural history museum“ Waldhof ”, Bielefeld
• 2015: "Karl Muggly - Rediscovery of a Master of Classical Modernism", Herford Art Association in the Daniel-Pöppelmann-Haus
• 2016: “To be a Westphalian means to have a sense of the world”, special exhibition for the 70th birthday of NRW from February 20 to December 6, 2016, Museum Halle for childhood and youth works by important artists, Halle i. Westf.

literature

• Hardo Bruhns (Ed.): Karl Muggly. Watercolors drawings stained glass. With essays by Ursula Blanchebarbe, Hardo Bruhns, Hinnerk Bruhns, Gerhard Renda, David Riedel. 128 p., 136 ill. Verlag Dr. Albert Bartens, Berlin 2015. ISBN 978-3-87040-155-9
• Ursula Blanchebarbe, A. Beaugrand (Ed.): Karl Muggly (1884–1957). Drawings, watercolors, stained glass. (Catalog of the exhibition in the “Waldhof” cultural history museum from May 14th to July 5th 1987) Bielefelder Kunstverein eV, Bielefeld 1987.
• R. Jörn, A. Strobel (Ed.): Art in Bielefeld. Painting and graphics 1900–1933. (Catalog of the exhibition in the Kunsthalle Bielefeld from July 24th to October 9th 1983) Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld 1983.
• Heinrich Becker: Bielefelder artist lexicon. 1st edition, 1965. / 2nd, corrected edition, Bielefeld 1994.