Max Helas

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Max Friedrich Helas , also Friedrich Max Helas , (born September 29, 1875 in Dresden ; † August 12, 1949 ibid) was a German painter and restorer.

Life

Alt Striesen (1915)
Grave of the Helas family in the cemetery in Dresden-Striesen

Max Helas studied from 1902 to 1907 at the Kunstgewerbeschule and the Kunstakademie in Dresden. His teachers included Carl Bantzer , Richard Müller and Otto Gussmann . His first major artistic assignment was in 1907 when he was commissioned to decorate the parish hall of the Striesen Reconciliation Church . To do this, he resorted to modern styles such as Art Nouveau and Expressionism and implemented them with expressive colors. He was significantly more progressive than, for example, his teacher Otto Gussmann, who was busy almost simultaneously with the artistic design of the reconciliation church area: “The painting [Helas'] not only occupies an outstanding artistic position, it is also remarkable that Max Helas went new ways with regard to the applied color system and used the then still relatively young mineral paints for the work ”, says monument conservator Winfried Werner. Since his work was found to be good, he was then commissioned to design the decoration of the sacristies and associated windows as well as the stairwells. The work was partly carried out by Helas himself, but also partly by court decorator Julius Schulz and his workshop. In all cases Helas supervised the execution of the work.

The painting of the parish hall was painted over with glue paint during the renovation of the entire church from 1956 to 1958 , which Fritz Löffler complained in a 1957 letter as the loss of an "excellent design". From 2004 to 2005 the wall paintings were restored or reconstructed under the direction of Kristine Wischniowski , a granddaughter of Max Helas.

In 1907 Helas designed the "good, modern" painting of the new church in Lichtenberg , which was carried out until 1908. After the end of the First World War , Helas went to Vienna in 1921 , where he worked as an assistant for ornamentation at the Technical University there until 1924 . At that time he created the iron curtain of the Schönbrunn Palace Theater and painted a church in Wiener Neustadt . Back in Dresden, he subsequently devoted himself increasingly to church restoration, which as an amateur photographer he sometimes also accompanied photographically. In 1928, under the direction of Woldemar Kandler , he restored the interior painting of the Meißner Frauenkirche and was later involved in the restoration of the Annenkirche painting under Otto Rometsch .

Helas died in Dresden in 1949 and was buried in the Striesen cemetery . In 1986 and 1988, the Deutsche Fotothek acquired 175 glass negatives from his estate with photographs of restoration plans, but also private photos of family and friends. Other parts of the estate are owned by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Saxony .

family

Helas was married to Ida Krämer, who was a model for him, among other things, for the figurative paintings of the Church of Reconciliation. The marriage had the children Reiner, Johanna and the later artisan Hildegard Helas. In 1914 his son Helmar Helas (1914–1981) was born, who later became known as a glass painter, among other things. Helmar Helas' son Volker Helas is a monument conservator and non-fiction author, his daughter Kristine Wischniowski-Helas is a sculptor, painter and restorer, and their son Christoph Wischniowski is a painter, graphic artist and illustrator.

Works (selection)

Web links

Commons : Max Helas  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Winfried Werner: The Reconciliation Church in Dresden-Striesen. History, importance and preservation of an outstanding work of reform architecture in Saxony . In: Ev.-Luth. Kirchgemeinde Dresden-Blasewitz (Ed.): 100 Years Reconciliation Church Dresden-Striesen. Festschrift . Sandstein, Dresden 2009, p. 27.
  2. ^ Fritz Löffler to Heinz Röcke , letter of July 11, 1957. Quoted from Winfried Werner: The Church of Reconciliation in Dresden-Striesen. History, importance and preservation of an outstanding work of reform architecture in Saxony . In: Ev.-Luth. Kirchgemeinde Dresden-Blasewitz (Ed.): 100 Years Reconciliation Church Dresden-Striesen. Festschrift . Sandstein, Dresden 2009, p. 31.
  3. ↑ Cornelius Gurlitt (edit.): Descriptive representation of the older architectural and art monuments of the Kingdom of Saxony. Volume 35: Amtshauptmannschaft Kamenz (Land) . CC Meinhold & Sons, Dresden 1912, p. 140.
  4. ↑ See slub-dresden.de
personal data
SURNAME Helas, Max
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Helas, Max Friedrich; Helas, Friedrich Max
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and restorer
DATE OF BIRTH September 29, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 1949
Place of death Dresden