Manfred Welzel

Manfred Welzel (born October 18, 1926 in Berlin ; † January 29, 2018 in Stuttgart ) was a German sculptor of the classical European sculpting tradition with Hellenistic characteristics. His work includes sculptures, reliefs and sculptures made of bronze, stone and marble. His preferred art direction was realism and surrealism.

Biographical

Manfred Welzel was born in Berlin. His artistic talent was already noticed as a schoolboy. After his school days, which lasted until 1941, he began training as a sculptor with Arno Breker and became his youngest master student. Breker also recommended him to his artist friend Professor Wilhelm Tank , with whom he completed master classes in drawing at the art academy. In 1943 Welzel was called up for labor service and then for the military. In 1944 he was taken prisoner by the Americans in Normandy. During this time Welzel mainly drew portraits. In 1947 he returned to Berlin and began studying sculpture at the Academy of Arts with Alexander Gonda , which he successfully completed in 1952.

Study trips

Study trips to Italy, Greece and Crete followed. In 1954 Welzel received the Georg Kolbe Prize from the city of Berlin. In the same year he moved to Stuttgart. There he attended the teachers' seminar of the Waldorf Schools. From 1955 to 1969 he worked as a teacher for sculpting, carving and drawing at the Waldorf School in Stuttgart. Manfred Welzel has been working as a freelance sculptor since 1969. Since then his work has been shown in many national and international exhibitions. In addition, the artist worked as a lecturer in seminars at various educational institutions. Manfred Welzel was married and lived with his wife Annemarie Welzel in Stuttgart.

Work and reception

Manfred Welzel's work is based on two polar levels: the representational forms in his human and animal sculptures and the non-representational sculptures. However, both poles are interrelated and complement each other. Because the free forms that arose in his later creative period are already visible in his early representational work. A figure, for example, can germinate an abstract form in its representativeness, while a plant-like form finds its culmination in the human figure.

This polarity can also be found in Welzel's choice of material and thus also in his way of working. Stone, wood and bronze are his design elements. On the one hand, he builds his work as a sculptor out of shapeless materials such as bronze and clay, on the other hand, as a sculptor, he chisels the forms out of the compact block of wood or stone. In this sense, Manfred Welzel understood his work as a lifelong examination of the individual materials, which for him are the starting point for his individual design language.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1954 Berlin
• 1962 Tübingen
• 1978 Cologne
• 1980 Laaren / NL
• 2012 Karlsruhe
• 2016 Gammertingen-Mariaberg

Literature (selection)

• Erich Ruprecht: Manfred Welzel. Sculptures. Stuttgart, undated
• Manfred Welzel. Sculptures, drawings, aphorisms. Free Spiritual Life Publishing House, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-7725-0823-5 .
• Dorothea Rapp: Plastic forms. The sculptor Manfred Welzel. In: style. 3rd year issue 2.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bereavement advertisement in the Stuttgarter Zeitung on February 3, 2018
2. ↑ Siegfried Nöhring: Above All Beauty. 2000/2001, old ISBN 3-935172-02-8 <, exhibition catalog.>, Www.europaeische-kultur-stiftung.org
3. ↑ Edition Strassacker ( Memento of the original from October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Manfred Welzel - sculptures, drawings, aphorisms , Stuttgart, 1984.
5. ↑ Diether Rudloff in: Manfred Welzel. Sculptures, drawings, aphorisms

Web links

• Meaus
• Artnet