Kurt Edzard

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Kurt Conrad Karl Edzard (born May 26, 1890 in Bremen , † October 22, 1972 in Braunschweig ) was a German sculptor .

biography

Kurt Edzard was the son of the Bremen lawyer Conrad Edzard (1858–1930). He was the brother of the painter Dietz Edzard (1893–1963) and the long-haul aviator Cornelius Edzard (1898–1962), who became famous with world records in endurance flying and since 1933 was director of Bremen Airport . Andreas Edzard is the sculptor's son.

education and profession

He studied sculpture at the Karlsruhe Art Academy . He worked in Berlin until 1911 and then went to Paris until 1914 . In the First World War he became a pilot and he trained his brother Cornelius. After the war he lived in Berlin and shared Touaillon's former studio with Ernesto de Fiori . From 1925 to 1928 he was a professor of the sculpture class in Karlsruhe , worked as a freelance portraitist in Paris and London until 1938 and waited in Berlin for the war to end. In 1946 he became a professor in the architectural department at the Technical University of Braunschweig . There he held the chair for modeling and life drawing.

Edzard was married three times: 1) Ellen ("Ellenka") Retemeyer-Ketschendorf (1899–1989), who married the tournament and racing rider Wilhelm Graf von Hohenau in 1932 , 2) Lena Gildemeister (1905-?), With he had two children (Christoph 1926–1934 and Sylvia 1928–2007) and 3) Franziska ("Franzis") Albrecht (1903–1982), with whom he had a son (Andreas * 1941).

He was born in the Riensberg cemetery in Bremen in the family grave of Gustav Cornelius Melcher - his maternal grandfather; his mother was Magda Edzard , née Melchers (* 1864, † 1947) - buried (grid square AA 036a).

His work

Edzard was initially interested in Auguste Rodin and Aristide Maillol in Paris , but then found his guide primarily in Charles Despiau . Attracted by the pure lines of Egyptian sculpture, he created existential figures: the human body, fine and thin, upright, sitting or lying, still and static, constructive. Its theme is grace and silence. Hardly noticeably archaic and also allowing deformations , Edzard formed narrow, stylized bodies that inevitably appear very youthful. The female figures, which Edzard thematizes three times more often than male ones, are almost always girlish: of “delicate vitality” and sometimes “vulnerability” - rarely erotic. His figures are mainly small, the largest smaller than life.

"The dead of the war, the tyranny, the expulsion" from 1962 at the main cemetery in Braunschweig .

Two of his figures made of shell limestone, which had stood in the park of Sigmund Gildemeister's house in Hamburg-Hochkamp since 1925, were moved in 1956 to the entrance of Schröder's Elbpark below the Elbchaussee / confluence with Schlagbaumtwiete.

Edzard's works stood for “young sculpture”, such as those by Haller , Fiori or Giacometti among the international artists of the Café du Dôme in Paris. He got success in the 1920s and 1930s. Commissions for portraits remained a focus during the following stays in Paris and London, each of which lasted a few years, and also during the time he spent in Berlin again during the Second World War. His models are aristocrats, boxers, actors or singers. He exhibits in the important galleries and salons.

The Bremen Kunsthalle owns the following works by Kurt Edzard:

  1. Female semi-nude, painting - undated
  2. Portrait of the artist's wife, around 1918
  3. Portrait of Hermann Strohm, around 1918
  4. Large standing woman, 1919
  5. Bust of a boy, around 1920
  6. Standing woman, 1920
  7. Lovers, 1921
  8. Portrait MH (woman's head), 1923
  9. "Nuna" tall standing woman, 1923
  10. Reclining nude, 1925
  11. Amphitrite, 1929
  12. Woman with propped up arm (half-length portrait), 1949
  13. Cretan girl, 1959
  14. Woman lying down, undated
  15. Male portrait, undated

Edzard's conception of figures is said not to have corresponded to the usual National Socialist image of man, nor was it in danger of being considered degenerate . However, his name was on the leader list of the God-favored and thus most important artists of the Nazi state. He had been close friends with Arno Breker since the first years in Paris . When Breker rose to be Adolf Hitler's favorite , Edzard was said to have been concerned that Breker might try to drag him into his cooperation with fascism . In 1934 Arno Breker designed a bronze bust of Edzard.

In the 1940s his somewhat impressionistic style became simpler and heavily reductive. The static form - meditative, earthy and balanced - remained the essence of his work, which can be found in various German museums and private collections.

literature

  • Peter Lufft : Kurt Edzard, sculptures; Drawings; Probaris, a story. Cross section edition, Braunschweig 1973.
  • Peter Lufft: Kurt Edzard. In: Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (Hrsg.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Supplementary volume. Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1996, ISBN 3-926701-30-7 , p. 64 .
  • Regina Gramse: For the opening of the exhibition Zarte Lebendigkeit sculptures and drawings by Kurt Edzard. Galerie Focke, 2007.
  • Ewald Bender : The sculpture at the winter exhibition of the Berlin Secession, German art and decoration. Darmstadt 1912.
  • Emil Waldmann: The portrait in the 19th century. Berlin 1921.
  • Hugo Bieber: Kurt Edzard. In: ART FOR ALL. Munich 1923.
  • RH Heygrodt: Kurt Edzard. ; In: CICERONE. Leipzig 1924.
  • Peter Lufft: Portrait bust of Prince von Hohenlohe. Braunschweiger Zeitung, 2.1949.
  • Die WELT: He always immortalized the youth. May 1955.
  • Braunschweiger Blätter: Greetings from Kurt Edzard, for art and culture. June 1955.
  • Bremer Nachrichten: A sculptor from Bremen. May 1960.
  • World art: Homage to Kurt Edzard. December 1970.
  • Heinz Ohff : Kurt Edzard's image of man. In: Bremer Nachrichten. March 1959.
  • Harro Siegel: The sculptor Kurt Edzard. In: Reports from cultural life. Braunschweig, 2/1960.
  • Heinrich Meersmann: Edzard's years. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung. May 1965.
  • Ursula Bode: Slim, slim, full of grace. In: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. May 1965.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Camerer, Garzmann, Schuegraf (ed.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon. 4th edition, Braunschweig 1996, p. 64.
  2. ↑ grabsteine.genealogy.net
  3. ↑ grabsteine.genealogy.net
  4. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt, August 25, 1956
  5. ↑ Schröders Elbpark (sculptures) on bildarchiv-hamburg.de
  6. ↑ kunsthalle-bremen.de
  7. ^ Ernst Klee : The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 .
  8. ^ Artist Archive Museum European Art , October 14, 2014

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Edzard, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Edzard, Kurt Conrad Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 1972
Place of death Braunschweig