Moissey Kogan

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Moissey Kogan ( Russian Моисей Герцевич Коган Moissej Gerzewitsch Kogan , French Moïse Kogan ; born May 24, 1879 in Orgeev in Bessarabia ; † March 3, 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a Russian Jewish medalist , sculptor and graphic artist . He commuted his whole life between the Russian Empire, Germany, Paris, Ticino and the Netherlands. This way of life has meant that he is not assigned to any national art history, as a result of which his influential work has been forgotten.

Life

Little is known about Moissey (also Moise or Moshe) Kogan's parents' house (his father was a businessman) and about his schooling. He was very talented with his craft and had acquired his artistic skills autodidactically. In 1889 he was taught by Simon Hollósy in the Hungarian artists ' colony Nagybánya . From 1903 Kogan lived in Munich. He was a student of the teaching and experimental studio for applied and free art and continued his education for a time with Wilhelm von Rümann at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich .

The collector and patron Karl Ernst Osthaus (picture: painting by Ida Gerhardi ) was one of Kogan's most important sponsors

In 1908 he exhibited for the first time in Paris at the Salon d'Automne . He joined the expressionist artist group Neue Künstlervereinigung München in 1909, the year it was founded. The art collector and patron Karl Ernst Osthaus , who also sought after Kogan in later years, brought him to the school of the Folkwang Museum in Hagen as a teacher ; Kogan did not stay long, moved back to Munich and then to Paris. At the invitation of Henry van de Velde , he briefly taught at the Weimar School of Applied Arts . He led an unsteady life and changed his place of residence very often, living in Switzerland and Berlin, among other places, where Max Sauerlandt noticed him and supported the artist who lived in the most modest of circumstances. In the 1920s, Kogan's works could be seen in exhibitions by the Berliner Secession artist group .

Kogan was on friendly terms with numerous artists, for example Kandinsky , Jawlensky and Maillol . He was a member of the Paris Salon d'Automne , served on the jury and was elected Vice President of the Sculpture Department in 1925. From 1925 until his death, he moved several times between Paris and the Netherlands, where he was friends with several collectors and art dealers. Since 1933 Kogan was ostracized as a Jewish artist in Germany. In 1938, some of his works were exhibited in the Berlin exhibition “Degenerate Art” . Kogan withdrew more and more from the public. He was deported from Paris on February 22, 1943 and died some time later in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

Kogan was a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund , the Deutscher Werkbund and the Sonderbund Düsseldorf . He is mentioned as Moses Kogan in the factual novel The Well-intentioned by Jonathan Littell .

plant

Illustration for the book Jizo . Flechtheim Gallery , Berlin 1922

Kogan began his artistic activity with gems, medals, plaques, vases, embroidery and drawings. When he got in touch with the sculptors Maillol, Rodin and Lehmbruck in Paris , he turned to pure sculpture. He was primarily interested in the female nude and its natural grace. He mainly created small sculptures and reliefs in the neoclassical style. At first terracotta was his preferred material, later plaster was added. Many bronze casts were not made because his financial resources were insufficient. His sculptures were not dated and the year of their creation can often no longer be determined today. Kogan wanted to create large sculptures, but had no clients to finance such works; he drew his sculptures on paper, which he kept rolled up. “The fragile grace of his figures, their sensual and at the same time spiritual body language are of a Hellenistic-looking cheerfulness. The inner restlessness that drove Kogan around throughout his life came to rest in his art. The silent world of his nudes is timeless and nonetheless asserts itself alongside the major trends in contemporary sculpture. "

In the 1920s he made numerous woodcuts, linocuts and etchings. “Kogan's graphic works are also exclusively dedicated to the female figure. The imagery is the same as in the sculptural works. The soft contours and body lines determine the composition of the picture, not infrequently at the expense of anatomical correctness. Even expressive forms of expression avoid anything angular and angular. ”He worked with chalk, charcoal and red chalk pencils in his drawings.

There was “hardly a sculptor who took care of his work so little […].” Kogan “worked somewhere, but then packed his suitcase and left everything behind. We only know some of the works because a later user of a studio happened to be a sculptor, found Kogan's negative molds and cast them. Other objects ended up in private collections in a roundabout way. Kogan had sold them on the street, for example in Amsterdam. ”According to the Franco-German gallery owner and art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , Kogan worked very slowly. “He seldom finished what a buyer wanted. And then there are problems for the art dealer. "

Kogan's works can be found in numerous museums, for example in the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, in the Duisburg Lehmbruck Museum , in the Kunsthalle Bremen , in the art collection of the Folkwang Museum in Essen , in the State Gallery Moritzburg in Halle, in the Hamburg Museum for Art and Commerce , in the Haubrich Collection in the Museum Ludwig in Cologne and in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich.

There are two catalog raisonnés of Kogan's oeuvre that can be supplemented by recent research. In addition to academic and museum research on Kogan, the Das Moissey Kogan Archive of the European Cultural Foundation in Bonn collects on the artist. It endeavors to scientifically review its work and to record its written legacy.

Exhibitions

Illustrated books and catalogs

  • Sebastian Giesen: Friendly - Gangolf - Kogan. Three artists' fates. Ernst-Barlach-Haus, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-9807916-9-6 .
  • Katharina Henkel: Moissey Kogan (1879–1943). His life and his plastic work. Ed. GS, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-921342-65-1 .
  • Arie Hartog, Kai Fischer, Ingo Mourning: Moissey Kogan: Moissey Kogan (1879–1943). Restless Mind and Designed Grace. Association of friends and supporters of the Clemens-Sels-Museum, Neuss 2002, ISBN 3-936542-02-3 .
  • John Rewald (preface): Exhibition catalog “Moissey Kogan”. Zak Gallery, Paris 1955.
  • Wulf Schadendorf: Museum Behnhaus . The house and its rooms. Painting, sculpture, handicrafts. (= Lübeck museum catalogs 3). 2nd expanded and changed edition. Museum for Art a. Cultural history d. Hansestadt, Lübeck 1976, p. 138/139, no.277 ( portrait of Elisabeth Stolterfoht (1892-1965) , around 1928) and no.278 ( female torso , around 1928).
  • Gerhart Söhn: Moissey Kogan. Building blocks for a monograph. Edition GS, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-921342-33-3 .
  • Karl Witt: Jizo. Bibliophile book edition with woodcuts by Moissey Kogan. Flechtheim Gallery, Goslar 1922.

literature

  • Jan Engelman: The sculptor Moissey Kogan. (Essay with an afterword on Moissey Kogan in the Netherlands). Aldus-Presse, Reicheneck 1997.
  • Werner Haftmann : Painting in the 20th Century. A story of development. Prestel, Munich 1979.
  • Helen Shiner: Artistic Radicalism and Radical Conservatism. Moïssy Kogan and his German Patrons. 1903-1928. Dissertation. Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England, 1997 ( ub.uni-heidelberg.de PDF).
  • Gerhart Söhn: Moissey Kogan. Building blocks for a monograph. Edition GS, Düsseldorf 1980, ISBN 3-921342-33-3 .
  • Kogan, Moissej . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 21 : Knip – Kruger . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 197-198 .
  • Kogan, Moissej . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 3 : K-P . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1956, p. 83-84 .
  • Kogan, Moissej . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 6 , supplements H-Z . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1962, p. 156 .

Web links

Commons : Moissey Kogan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Today: Orhei in Orhei Rajon , Republic of Moldova
  2. ↑ Moissey Kogan. Artist. German Society for Medal Art, accessed on November 24, 2015 .
  3. ↑ For example, German-language research has hardly noticed the artist's influence on Dutch art history.
    Ype Koopmans, Moissey Kogan 1879-1943. Beeldhouwer zonder thuisland. In: Jong Holland. 19, 2003, pp. 16-23.
  4. ↑ a b 02613 Moses Kogan. In: Matriculation Book 1884–1920. Retrieved June 4, 2009.
  5. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Kogan, Moissej ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on September 17, 2015) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de
  6. ↑ Restless mind and shaped grace. For the exhibition in the Clemens Sels Museum. Press archive City of Neuss from September 4, 2002.
  7. ↑ Gerhart Söhn: Moissey Kogan . Düsseldorf 1980, page 37
  8. ^ Arie Hartog: Docking as a Whole. In: The daily newspaper . November 2, 2002.
  9. ^ B. John Zavrel: The portrait of Moissey Kogan. Memories of a Jewish sculptor in Paris. In: Prometheus. Internet Bulletin for Art, Politics and Science. No. 82, 2002.
  10. ↑ Katharina Henkel: Moissey Kogan. His life and his plastic work. Düsseldorf 2002.
    Helen Shiner: Artistic Radicalism and Radical Conservatism: Moïssy Kogan and his German Patrons, 1903-1928. MA diss, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, University of Central England 1997 ( ub.uni-heidelberg.de PDF).
personal data
SURNAME Kogan, Moissey
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kogan, Moissej
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian sculptor and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 24, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Orgjejeff
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1943
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp