Matthias Wegehaupt

Matthias Wegehaupt (* 1938 in Berlin ) is a German painter and writer.

biography

Wegehaupt studied in Greifswald from 1956 to 1958 and from 1962 to 1964 at the University of Fine and Applied Arts Berlin-Weißensee, but broke off. Nevertheless, he was accepted into the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR in 1965. 1976 working grant in Hungary, after 1989 exhibitions in France, Poland and Germany. 1999 Guest of Honor at Villa Massimo in Rome. He lives with his wife in Ückeritz on the island of Usedom . Matthias Wegehaupt is the son of the artist Herbert Wegehaupt and the grandson of the legal scholar Alfred Manigk .

The novel "The Island"

In his novel “Die Insel”, published in 2005 (to be continued from October 2005 in “Nordkurier”), Wegehaupt describes life on a fictional Baltic island over a period of 40 years - from the construction of the Wall (1961) to the collapse of the GDR (1989), Flashbacks go back to the end of the war and the time of the Soviet occupation. The focus is on Unsmoler, a painter who returns to the island after graduation so that he can work undisturbed. This does not succeed: he remains a stranger to the islanders, the powerful SED island chief and his "employee" from the state security see the loner as a security risk. With Deifine, the waiting medical student, he finds a brief happiness, but Unsmoler is not determined enough for her and so she leaves him with their son. Unsmoler works on the one hand with compromises that seem necessary with the state power (for which he has to paint slogans on banners), on the other hand he does not make any concessions to official taste in his pictures, but seeks his own visual language. He maintains loose contacts with the opposition scene in the capital. a. zu Adamski, a barely encrypted portrait of the songwriter Wolf Biermann . Almost nightmarish and much less realistic than the rest of the book is the description of Unsmoler's (unwanted?) Trip to the west and his equally fabulous return to the island. Unsmoler, it becomes clear, wants to live in peace on his island. That is his answer to the question many GDR citizens asked: "Leave or stay".

The interesting thing about the book (originally planned title: “Dear People”) is not only the clear autobiographical features but also the history of its genesis. Wegehaupt kept a secret diary from 1970 until 1989, in which he described life on Usedom. He hid the manuscript under the floorboards in his studio and in a barrel in the garden. The finally 3000 pages became the novel, which leads to some leaps in time, especially at the end.

Works

Narrative work

The island . Roman, Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 2005. ISBN 978-3-550-08626-7
Black reeds. Novel of a trip. Roman, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-351-03384-2

Awards

1976: Prize and work grant in Hungary
1999: Guest of Honor German Academy Rome Villa Massimo
2010: Rostock Art Prize

Solo exhibitions (selection)

1992: EUR Palais ( Palais de l'Europe ), Strasbourg, France
1993: Helferhaus Museum, Backnang
1994: Gallery of Modern Art in the National Museum of Szczecin ( Muzeum Narodowe w Szczecinie ), Poland
1997: Kunsthalle Rostock
1997: Reinbek Castle near Hamburg
1999: Galerie Mitte, Berlin
1999: Deutsche Industriebank, Berlin
2001: Galerie Paul Veron, Greifswald
2001: Heringsdorf Art Pavilion
2004: Katzow Sculpture Park
2006: Kulturwerk West, Hamburg
2006: Galerie Forum Amalienpark, Berlin
2012: Libnow Manor

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Wegehaupt, Matthias
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German painter and writer
DATE OF BIRTH	1938
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin