Max Christoph

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Max Christoph (born February 22, 1918 in Pockau , † January 22, 2013 in Sayda ) was a German painter .

Live and act

Christoph was born the son of a worker in a nearby paper factory and a home worker in Pockau. He started painting as a child.

After elementary and secondary school, he completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Chemnitz from 1932 to 1936 . During this time, he also continued his artistic self-study. After his apprenticeship in Dörnthal, he settled down in search of work .

In 1938 he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service , followed by military training in the Air Force . As a soldier in World War II , he was deployed in various theaters of war, for example in southern, northern and eastern Europe. In 1942 he married his wife Dorle.

In 1947, after being released from French captivity, he returned to her in Dörnthal, where he lived until the end of his life. At the end of 1947 Christoph was recognized as a freelance artist in the Freiberg Artists 'Association, in 1948 he was co-founder of the Freiberg artists' group "Die Kaue", which still exists today.

In 1957 he passed the master's examination in the profession of decorative painter, and since 1960 he has been active in folk art. From 1964 to 1967 he completed a distance learning course in painting and graphics in Karl-Marx-Stadt , at the Dresden University of Fine Arts and in Annaberg-Buchholz .

Between 1967 and 1985 Christoph u. a. as head of various folk art and sponsorship circles in Olbernhau , Neuhausen and Annaberg-Buchholz.

In the first years of his artistic work, the difficult living conditions of the post-war period, for example of farmers and factory workers, were the model for his paintings, which were strongly influenced by Expressionism. Above all, however, there are also children in his works in diverse situations such as learning, playing and tobogganing. All of his landscape paintings reflect his love for his home in the Ore Mountains.

Except for the pictures that got abroad and remained there, his entire oeuvre of approx. 390 paintings in chalk, oil and other painting techniques is combined in a permanent exhibition in the “Kulturzentrum Böttcherfabrik” in Pobershau in the Ore Mountains . This collection is looked after by the Art Association Max Christoph und Gottfried Reichel e. V.

Awards (selection)

literature

  • Art Association Max Christoph and Gottfried Reichel eV (ed.): Max Christoph the painter , printing and publishing company Marienberg mbH, 2009. DNB 102385709X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Free Press, local edition Marienberg from January 23, 2013: Art: painter Max Christoph is dead.
personal data
SURNAME Christoph, Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Pockau
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 2013
Place of death Sayda