Maria Geroldine Dörpinghaus

Maria Geroldine Dörpinghaus (* December 21, 1937 as Ursula Dörpinghaus in Dillingen / Saar ) is a German religious , art teacher and contemporary painter of classical modernism . At the center of her decades of artistic work is Christian art in the occidental cultural tradition of the Ars Sacra . Sister Maria Geroldine has been a member of the Roman Catholic women's order of the Sisters of Our Lady (SND) since 1952 and is popularly known as the "painting nun".

Origin and family

Maria Gerolinde came on December 21, 1937 as the daughter of the married couple Bruno Dörpinghaus and Maria, geb. Brunsbach, on the world. It was made in the name of St. Ursula baptized. The place of birth is Dillingen / Saar, a place with a settlement history of over 2000 years. Her twin brother Felix Dörpinghaus was born about 30 minutes before Ursula was born. The siblings later decided to serve in the Catholic Church: she as a religious sister, he as a priest .

Family history

Ursula and Felix D Körperingshaus come from a conservative Roman Catholic family. The father Bruno Dörpinghaus was an aerospace engineer. From 1945 onwards, as a personal friend of Konrad Adenauer, he was involved in the organization and development of the CDU in West Germany. After the Second World War he was one of the pioneers in the reconstruction of the democratically conceived Federal Republic of Germany under the first Chancellor Adenauer. From 1947 to 1951, Bruno Dörpinghaus was General Secretary of the “Working Group of the CDU-CSU Germany” and remained in leading positions in this Christian People's Party until the end of his life.

Her father's change of occupation in 1945 meant that Ursula Dörpinghaus changed her place of residence several times . In 1946 she moved from the elementary school Rodheim vor der Höhe to the school in Frankfurt-Niederrad . In 1950 she was accepted into the Liebfrauenschule grammar school in what was then the federal capital of Bonn on the Rhine.

She is related to Rolf Dörpinghaus, leading German aviation journalist, former editor-in-chief of “aerokurier”, and Johannes Pastor, Federal Environment Ministry, former head of the independent environmental expert group at the Cuxhaven accident command.

Art as a profession and fulfillment

Ursula Dörpinghaus's artistic inclination was shaped and significantly promoted by her father, who, like Adenauer, belonged to the “ Deutscher Werkbund ” art association co-founded by Hermann Muthesius , Friedrich Naumann and Henry van de Velde .

With the admission to the aspirant school of the "Sisters of Our Lady" in Mühlhausen from 1952, the congregation supported the talented novice and future nun in her educational career aspiration, especially since the main focus of the order is traditionally in educational and social institutions. For decades she worked in schools and training centers as well as in public institutions in Düsseldorf , Ratingen and Geldern .

Her service in the service of the order was preceded by a multi-subject art course, which she completed at the following institutes , among others : Kölner Werkkunstschulen (1958), Technical School for Social Pedagogy (1960–1962), “Seminar for Working Education in Düsseldorf” (1967), at the Gottfried Wiegand taught drawing and clay work .

Free artistic creation

The completion of the educational work enabled the sister in the religious community to devote more time to free artistic creation from 1990 onwards. At the same time, she continued to serve sporadically in art education. The nun Maria Geroldine dedicates herself as a freelance artist to the central theme of sacred art. In addition, there were the areas of creation such as flora and fauna . At that time, she says: “I tried to realize my ideas in free art. Among other things, this resulted in the creation of a cycle of the Stations of the Cross with reference to current events. Furthermore, I created new variations of the rosary cycles to deepen the mysteries of salvation in the New Testament . "

Images and graphics

The paintings and graphics by Sister M. Geroldine Ursula Dörpinghaus have been accessible to the public in all of her places of work since the 1960s. The exhibition activity increased with the beginning of her teaching activity at school facilities and educational institutions. Her art was always "close to people" who recognized the value of the Christian cultural tradition in Europe.

In addition to classic painting techniques, the religious also uses contemporary ways of realizing her visions and ideas. Among other things, she developed a mixed technique that combines collage , painting and drawing. In this way she consciously achieves portraits with a three-dimensional effect.

Further works were created as batiks . These include topics such as “The Birth of Christ in Bethlehem” and “Batik of St. Adelheid”, which are shown at various exhibitions in churches, institutions and museums. The "painting nun" achieved a high quality in her sacred designs for church windows . A collection of these masterpieces is in the Museum of European Art in Nörvenich Castle near Cologne (state of North Rhine-Westphalia). They are kept ready for implementation in glass and suitable materials for new churches.

Further works by the religious can be found in the collection European Culture Foundation Germany (Bonn-Berlin-Paris).

Exhibitions

The sacred work of MG Ursula Dörpinghaus was shown in galleries and public collections. This includes:

• 1979: Way of the Cross - 14 stations. Permanent exhibition in the Church of St. Adelheid Geldern.
• 2013: “New Pictures and Collages”, Knights Hall at Nörvenich Castle
• 2014: "Pictures for Adoration of Mary ", Galerie Marco Edition, Bonn
• 2015: "Color and Shape of Church Windows", Museum Europäische Kunst (NRW).
• 2017: "Ars Sacra" - a retrospective of sacred art, annual exhibition May 1 to September 30, 2017, Museum Europäische Kunst , Nörvenich Castle , Düren district . On May 9, 2017, Federal Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière visited the anniversary exhibition for the 80th birthday of the nun in Nörvenich Castle and praised the tradition of the nun and the museum management.

literature

• 2007: “Way of the Cross for St. Adelheid in Geldern”, edited by Kaplan H. Overkämping, Pelka-Verlag Weeze.
• 2017 "Ars Sacra" by Sister M. Geroldine Dörpinghaus, Ed. Konrad Adenauer III./John G. Bodenstein, Verlag Marco-VG, Bonn-Paris-New York. ISBN 978-3-921754-52-8

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Art Archive EKS
2. ↑ Prometheus 2016, "The painting nun from Germany."
3. ^ Exhibition directory, Dörpinghaus archive, Marco / VG. 2016