Michael Podulke

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Michael Francis Podulke (born October 4, 1922 in Mazeppa , Minnesota , † December 20, 1988 in Norden ) was an American painter and graphic artist who worked in the last years of his life, particularly in East Frisia .

Life path

Michael Podulke grew up in the small American town of Mazeppa, Minnesota. The father was a native Polish, the mother a native Norwegian, both had immigrated to the USA. The father was a blacksmith by trade and died very early in Podulke's childhood. The mother raised him as the only caregiver besides the four siblings. Podulke graduated from high school and was a paratrooper from January 1, 1943 to January 26, 1946 during World War II . He was used in the Pacific as a soldier in the Philippines , among others . Here he was exposed to great hardship, u. a. he survived 47 days alone in the jungle . The American Army released him highly decorated.

Michael Podulke studied from 1946 to 1948 and from 1949 to 1950 at the University of Chicago and the University of Minnesota . He mainly took courses in the fields of art history and art education . At the end of 1950 he went to Europe and settled in Amsterdam . He continued his studies of art history here from August 1952 at the University of Amsterdam. He took lessons from Max Beckmann and Oskar Kokoschka .

In 1963, Michael Podulke was a member of the working committee when the Internationaal Kunsthuis was founded . The Kunsthuis arose from a suggestion by Dr. Louis Gans, the former curator of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. The Kunsthuis should promote contemporary art and open up a larger market for it. On January 1st, 1965 Podulke resigned from the Internationaal Kunsthuis. The association was unable to realize its ideas and later disbanded.

Michael Podulke was looking for new fields of activity and in the mid-sixties took part in the Mokum Gallery in Amsterdam, founded in 1962 and owned by the gallery owner Dieuwke Bakker. Until mid-1969 he was involved in the management of the gallery, which only showed figurative Dutch art. The gallery presented different forms of realism such as New Realism , Naive Realism and Magical Realism . The main artists represented by the Mokum Gallery were Ferdinand Erfmann, Sal Meijer, Teunn and Cornelis Doolaard. Dick Pieters, Wout Muller, Clary Mastenbroek, Jasper van Putten, Kik Zeiler and others followed later. a. The Mokum Gallery wanted to create a conscious counterbalance to the established museums and galleries, which, in line with contemporary tastes, placed their emphasis on abstract art . Michael Podulke later founded his own gallery. The Podulke Gallery organized exhibitions from October 1969 to June 1970. However, she did not represent a solid base of artists.

In 1975 Michael Podulke moved to the north (East Friesland), because he dealt intensively with nature in his work. He lived and worked in his studio there until his death in 1988. In East Friesland he met and fell in love with the painter and graphic artist Hildegard Peters . Both lived together in the north and on the island of Norderney . His work has been presented at numerous exhibitions, particularly in the East Frisian region. In his works he dealt with the landscape of East Friesland, but also with local daily political issues. From 1983, Podulke turned against the installation of a Heinrich Heine sculpture by the National Socialist state sculptor Arno Breker on the East Frisian island of Norderney with a series of collages . A total of around 660 works (179 oil paintings, 15 different rotogravure printing, 13 lithography, 287 woodcuts, including 13 editions) were created. There is now a catalog raisonné of his oeuvre .

Working method

Michael Podulke mainly worked in the woodcut technique . Gravure prints and lithographs were only created at the beginning of his artistic work . In the early woodcuts, he printed sticks into which he either cut a complete representation, or sticks into which he worked parts of a complete representation (mostly divided into graticules and clay plates). In the later woodcuts he used self- colored Japanese paper on which he printed different or the same motifs. Michael Podulke made increasing use of collage techniques in his late work. Sometimes he stuck on small scraps of colored Japanese paper, often in connection with complete, previously printed motifs. What is striking about Podulke is its strong coloring.

Michael Podulke dealt almost exclusively with nature ( still lifes , floral arrangements, depictions of landscapes). His motifs were mainly animals (fantastic-looking lizards, snakes and fish) and flowers. The imagery used was predominantly sea and shore landscapes. These visual worlds were often implemented in a romanticizing way and at times with surrealistic echoes.

Michael Podulke was always figurative, even in the works in which he combined natural elements. Podulke did not join any artist group that shaped a particular style. The one-man show that received the most attention was that in 1962 at the Groninger Museum , in which Prof. Dr. HLC Jaff '(then professor of art history at the University of Amsterdam and well-known interpreter of De Stijl and Piet Mondrian ) and that of Jos de Gruyter (* August 28, 1899, † July 30, 1979) (museum director in Groningen from 1955 until 1963 and art critic) was opened. This exhibition then went to the Gemeente Museum Schiedam and the Cultureel Centrum de Beyerd, Breda.

Working in public collections

literature

  • Catalog raisonné "Michael Francis Podulke" with annexed sources, created by Hilke Hothan, Ostfriesische Landschaft, Aurich. Publication planned for 2018.
  • Hilke Hothan: Michael Francis PODULKE. Online entry in the Biographical Lexicon for Ostfriesland , 1993, on the homepage of the Ostfriesische Landschaft .
  • Illustrations (woodcut): Cecilia Meireles, PoÜmes, trad.M'lot du Dy, ill. Mike Podulke, Erospress La Haye 1953
  • Adrianus Roland Holst, Dekret Zee, illustrator M. Podulke, printer J. Meijer, o.O. 1974
  • Michael Podulke, oOuJ (NV Dijkstra's Drukkerij) (catalog of the solo exhibition in Groningen, Schiedam, Breda, 1962)
  • W. Jos. de Gruyter, Michael Podulke, in: Beeld en Interpretatie, Den Haag 1964, pp. 96-101
  • Henk Romijn Meijer, Lieve Zuster Ursula, Amsterdam 1969 (a novel in which Michael Podulke, along with other people from the Amsterdam art scene, was the inspiration for the artist described)
  • Michael Podulke, Hildegard Peters (arrangement), Heine und die Nordsee, Norden (approx. 1985) (exhibition catalog)
  • Brigitte Kühling-Sandhaus (Ed.), Malerstadt Schwalenberg 1987, Schieder-Schwalenberg
  • Heiko Jörn: Wood prints by Michael Francis Podulke, undated, Leer

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information about Podulke on the villageantiques.ch website
  2. ↑ a b c d Biographical Lexicon for East Friesland (PDF).
  3. ↑ View of the cover and information at interbook-artbooks.com
personal data
SURNAME Podulke, Michael
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Podulke, Michael Francis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 4, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Mazeppa , Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 1988
Place of death north