Karl Undaunted

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Karl Unverzagt (born November 2, 1915 in Grünstadt ; † December 19, 2007 there ) was a German painter and sculptor . He lived and worked in his native Palatinate until his death .

Life

In 1934 Unverzagt graduated from high school . By 1936 he completed the master's school for craftsmen - painting department - in Kaiserslautern and by 1937 the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe . As a soldier in World War II, he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich on home leave . In 1943 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets . There he occupied himself with art, where he was forced to get used to the left hand because of a severe wound to his right arm. When he was released in 1947, he brought home 30 drawings , hidden in the bandage of his injured arm  , in which he had captured terminally ill comrades, ordinary Russian farmers or random passers-by along the way.

plant

Originally based on figurative drawing, Unverzagt shifted more and more to color structures and random artistic results . In such different techniques such as watercolor or - acrylic picture, wood - or metal section, tapestry and many others he created always surprising and haunting works. As a book illustrator , he also proved to be sensitive and full of ideas. Another focus was the design of large-format natural stone slabs as glaze carriers using the engraving , etching and oxidation processes he developed. He succeeded in reproducing gloomy moods as well as emphasizing the cheerfulness of the Vorderpfalz with the help of his bright colors .

Unverzagt was present with the abundance of around 11,000 works, especially in his closer homeland and in southwest Germany . But he also made a name for himself internationally, initially by examining the art of southern Europe and Africa . In the last two decades of his life he was particularly interested in China , the art of which he studied on several long trips. With the resulting landscape paintings in particular, he succeeded in developing his own style, which admittedly adopted the principles of Chinese painting - the lack of shadows and perspective  - but did not look like a copy.

Meaning and honors

Unverzagt, who set up his own workshop as an artist in 1969, was a consultant for the development of the graphic collection of the Pfalzgalerie , member of the board of the Palatinate Artists Working Group , lecturer at the Palatinate Engineering School for Civil Engineering and at the University of Education in Kaiserslautern .

With his war and anti-war images, he is considered one of the most important artistic chroniclers of the time of the Second World War. For his early works he received the then first awarded in 1953 Palatinate Prize for Visual Arts of the district branch Palatinate and was in 1961 with the graphic price of the Protestant Kirchentag German excellent. In 1985 he was given honorary citizenship by his hometown . He was allowed to exhibit several times at the historic Hambach Castle , which is considered the cradle of German democracy because of the Hambach Festival of 1832 , most recently in 2005 on the occasion of his 90th birthday with works that were partly created in the anniversary year, including large multicolored woodcuts.

Publications

  • Karl Undaunted . Publishing house Palatinate Landesgewerbeanstalt, 1957.
  • With Hans-Günther Hausen (photography), Susanne Faschon (text): Karl Unverzagt: picture wall and painting . Palatinate Publishing House , Landau / Pfalz 1985, ISBN 3-87629-097-X .
  • Manfred Letzelter, Peter J. Russek, Bad Dürkheim district, district administration (ed.): Karl Unverzagt: Catalog for the exhibition on the occasion of the completion of the 70th year of life . Garamond-Verlag, Grünstadt (Pfalz) 1985, ISBN 3-922579-13-2 .
  • With Gerhart Faber, Jeanne Holly: I am being: A meditative contemplation of life . MF Verlag, 1987.
  • With Susanne Faschon, Sigrid Feeser, Manfred Letzelter: Russia 1941–1947 drawn . Artcolor / Eggenkamp, ​​Hamm Verlag, 1990.
  • With Manfred Letzelter, Karlheinz Schmeckenbecher: The Bad Dürkheim district - living tradition . Hans H. Englram Verlag, Haßloch 1994.
  • Drawn and flowing: brush drawings . P. Petry Verlag, Viernheim 1994.
  • With Susanne Faschon: the end of summer . Brandes & Apsel Verlag, Frankfurt 1998.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Undaunted, Karl. kuenstlerlexikonsaar.de, accessed on November 27, 2013 .
  2. ↑ a b school >>> History - About Karl Unverzagt. dekan-ernst-schule.de, accessed on November 27, 2013 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e author page Karl Unverzagt at buechertipps24.de ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
personal data
SURNAME Undaunted, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH November 2, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünstadt
DATE OF DEATH December 19, 2007
Place of death Grünstadt