Klaus Werner (art historian)

Klaus Werner (born September 22, 1940 in Holzhau , Erzgebirge ; † January 8, 2010 in Leipzig ) was a German art historian, gallery owner, museum founder and university rector.

Life

From 1954 to 1958, Klaus Werner studied at the Humboldt University in Berlin first pedagogy in the subjects of German and geography, then switched to art history, which he graduated with a diploma. In 1961 he founded Uni-Grafik , a sales exhibition of original graphics in the foyer of the Humboldt University, which took place annually. From 1963 to 1964 he was a consultant in the Ministry of Culture of the GDR, but was dismissed because of his commitment to artists who did not conform to the system and was also thrown out of the SED . He then did military service in the National People's Army . Between 1965 and 1968 he worked as a freelance art scholar. The Ministry of Culture of the GDR sent him to Neubrandenburg for a "probationary stay" , where Werner worked as a consultant for fine arts at the district council and in this role founded the VEB Center for Fine Arts .

From 1970 Werner did his doctorate at the Humboldt University on problems of art psychology and the personality of the artist in the visual arts and in 1973 he was appointed head of the printing workshop at the University of Fine and Applied Arts Berlin-Weißensee , which he lost again in the same year his criticism of the State Council decree on questions of art and culture . From 1974 Werner headed the gallery Arkade des Staatlichen Kunsthandel at Strausberger Platz 3 in East Berlin, which developed into one of the most important public places for experimental art, which in 1981 led to the resignation of the director and closure of the gallery.

Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, he worked freelance with artists such as Carlfriedrich Claus , Michael Morgner and Horst Bartnig . Since 1984 he lived in Leipzig. In 1989 Werner met Arend Oetker , with whom he founded a sponsorship group on November 10, 1991 to set up a gallery for contemporary art, which opened in 1998. After two years as the director of the gallery for contemporary art , Werner surprisingly became rector of the college for graphics and book art in 2000 . As of 2003, dementia forced him to withdraw from the public.

During his lifetime, the Gallery for Contemporary Art dedicated the exhibition KW - Hommage à Klaus Werner to its founder . In his honor, the Berlin gallery Parterre showed him the exhibition The Green Door in 2009 .

Klaus Werner recognized and promoted numerous artists early on, the most famous of whom was the painter Neo Rauch . The curatorial course introduced in 2009 at the College of Graphics and Book Art also goes back to an initiative by Werner.

literature

• Gabriele Muschter (ed.): Klaus Werner. For art . Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-86560-599-3 .
• Anke Scharnhorst:  Werner, Klaus . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Werner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Obituary of the College of Graphics and Book Art
• Klaus Werner Archive in the Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin