Kurt Römhild

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Kurt Römhild, 1963

Kurt Philipp Römhild (born July 27, 1925 in Heinrichs ; † July 13, 1996 in Leipzig ) was a German graphic artist and illustrator .

Live and act

Kurt Römhild was born in Heinrichs in 1925 as the son of a locksmith. From 1932 to 1940 he attended elementary school . He then completed an apprenticeship as a technical draftsman at the Gustloff works in Suhl . In 1943 he was called up for recruitment and trained as a radio operator. During operations on the Western Front at the end of 1944 he was taken prisoner by the Americans . In May 1946 he managed to escape from a Belgian labor camp to Thuringia . He kept a diary of his experiences , made drawings and wrote poems.

From June 1946 Römhild worked again in his former training company as a technical draftsman, designer and in the advertising department. At the same time, he took courses in figurative drawing at the adult education center . In 1949 he became a member of the SED . From 1953 to 1954 he studied free graphics and illustration at the University of Graphic and Book Art in Leipzig . Bernhard Heisig and Emil Koch were among his teachers . He broke off his studies after only three semesters for political reasons. He then worked until 1956 as a commercial and commercial graphic artist at DEWAG in Suhl and Leipzig.

In 1956 Römhild became a member of the Association of German Visual Artists (VBKD) and from then on worked as a freelance graphic artist in Suhl, from 1958 in Weimar and from 1966 in Leipzig. In Weimar he was close friends with Arno Fehringer , who printed with him and supported him. Study visits took him to Paris in 1957 and to Prague and Budapest in 1961 . Impressions that he collected in the zeitgeist of the Bitterfelder Weg through stays in companies ( Maxhütte Unterwellenborn , Glashütte Lauscha , shipyard ), on large construction sites ( Rostock overseas port , Black Pump Combine ) and in agriculture ( LPG ), he processed using different techniques ( pen drawing , Gouache , etching , screen printing , linocut , mixed media ) to graphics, graphic cycles and book illustrations. Two drafts of large-format wall designs for public buildings in Suhl and Heiligenstadt were rejected as too abstract ( formalism dispute ). A lack of support from the association and disillusionment led him to withdraw from the public art business.

In 1962 Römhild married the kindergarten teacher and later artist Helga Schmidt (1938–2009). In 1963 their daughter Carmen was born. In Leipzig, where he ran a studio workshop with his wife, he now created decorative graphics and city views, which were sold in smaller editions through the Leipziger Kommissions- und Großbuchhandel (LKG). In 1990 he joined the Association of Visual Artists Leipzig e. V. at. Despite health restrictions following a stroke he suffered in 1981, he experimented and printed (e.g. Cliché verre ) in his new apartment in Leipzig-Grünau until his death in 1996, perfecting his artistic handwriting on recurring themes.

Works

Graphic work

  • 1957: Opium of Time cycle (gouache); critical examination of imperialism and political despotism .
  • 1958: Rostocker Hafen cycle (screen printing), Volkswerft (screen printing).
  • 1959: Black on White cycle (linocut); on the development of Germany in the last decades to the present.
  • 1963: Cycle impressions from the Maxhütte (etching).
  • Two series Paris in 1957 (screen print).
  • City series (screen printing) u. a. from Berlin , Potsdam , Leipzig, Erfurt , Dresden , Magdeburg , Schwerin and Halle .
  • Drawings and prints (pen drawing, watercolor, chalk, mixed media, hand screen printing, cliché verre) mainly on the subjects of portraits, the artist in the studio , Don Quixote , rider , ships and port .

Book illustrations

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions:

Exhibition participation:

  • 1956–1958: District art exhibition of the Suhl district
  • 1958: Annual exhibition 1958. Sculpture and graphics , German Academy of the Arts (DAK), Berlin
  • 1958: IV. German Art Exhibition, Dresden
  • 1959–1965: District art exhibition of the Erfurt district
  • 1959: Connected to our lives , exhibition by the German Academy of the Arts, Berlin
  • 1959: The Baltic Sea in Graphic Art , Sopot
  • 1959: Exhibition on the occasion of the Workers' Festival , Halle
  • 1960: DAK exhibitions abroad (Amsterdam, Brussels)
  • 1960: Young artists from Thuringia , Jena City Museum
  • 1961: Art exhibition, Universa House Nuremberg
  • 1962: Art exhibition, iga Erfurt
  • 1962: The world of the present , Kunsthalle Wuppertal-Barmen
  • 1976: Exhibition in honor of the IX. Party congress of the SED, Leipzig
  • 2018: summer slump. Melancholy in Leipzig. , Galerie Koenitz, Leipzig

literature

  • Hans Vollmer : General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century . Supplements H – Z. tape 6 . VEB  E. A. Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 1962, p. 380 .
  • Artist calendar 1960 (Kurt Römhild, Volkswerft) . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1960.
  • Anne Maurer: Kurt Römhild (1925–1996). Masterfulness in secret . Ed .: Martin Koenitz, Graphikantiquariat Koenitz. Leipzig 2017.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Graphikantiquariat Koenitz: Estate of the graphic artist Kurt Römhild. Leipzig 2017.
  2. ^ Arno Fehringer, Harry Scheibe: The work of the artist Kurt Römhild . Arno Fehringer estate, Weimar 1959.
  3. ↑ City Archives Suhl, Zk 1.18: Which designs are carried out? Free Word, Suhl February 24, 1962, p. 10 .
  4. ↑ Stadtarchiv Suhl, Zk 13a / 2: Known and unknown contemporary works of art from the Suhl district . Free Word, Suhl November 9, 1957, p. 8 .
  5. ↑ DB: With sketch pad and pen at Rostock port construction . New Germany , Berlin April 11, 1959, p. 10 .
  6. ^ A b Ministry of Culture and VBK (ed.): Exhibition catalog for the IV. German Art Exhibition in Dresden 1958 . Dresden 1958.
  7. ↑ a b Stadtarchiv Suhl, Zk 14/2: Dresden awaits us . Free Word, September 27, 1958, p. 6 .
  8. ↑ G. Menchén: from the studio and the workshop. Guest of Kurt Römhild . Thuringian State Newspaper , Weimar 1962.
  9. ↑ Thuringia State Archives - Rudolstadt State Archives: Greifenverlag Rudolstadt (1913–1993). Production documents and correspondence with graphic designers and printers on various titles. 5-94-8010 / 0206, 1959-1960.
  10. ↑ Stadtarchiv Suhl, Zk 14/1: A young artist takes sides . Free Word, Suhl January 11, 1958, p. 4 .
  11. ↑ HW: Graphics of expressive simplicity. The Weimar graphic artist Kurt Römhild exhibits in the Apolda Bell Museum . Thuringian State Newspaper, Weimar 1962.
personal data
SURNAME Römhild, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Römhild, Kurt Philipp (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH July 27, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Heinrichs
DATE OF DEATH July 13, 1996
Place of death Leipzig