Niko Wöhlk
Nikolaus Wöhlk called Niko (* May 2, 1887 in Schleswig ; † May 23, 1950 in Aabenraa ) was a north German painter and life artist.
Life
Niko Wöhlk grew up as the son of the well-known master baker Josias Wöhlk in Schleswig. After graduating from secondary school in Schleswig, he went to the Hamburg School of Crafts and Applied Arts in 1905 after obtaining the upper secondary level . His teachers included Richard Luksch and Carl Otto Czeschka , who can be assigned to the Viennese Art Nouveau, as well as the book artist Franz Weisse. In 1910/11 he studied in Munich and in 1911/12 in the classroom of the Hamburg painter Arthur Siebelist .
In 1914 he volunteered for military service in World War I , but was dismissed in 1916 because of a heart defect. From 1919 he worked as a drawing teacher in Aabenraa, which was still German at that time. In 1926 he built an artist's house here in Aabenraa, now in Denmark . He shaped the Apenrader Wandervogel movement , which turned back to nature as a reform movement wandering and singing. His physical closeness to nature originated to a large extent from late romantic ideas.
After the end of the Second World War , Niko Wöhlk was arrested and initially taken to the Faarhus internment camp and later, because of his German nationality, to the Skrydstrup camp , where those who were to be expelled from Denmark were collected. In January 1948 his house was expropriated and sold to the city of Aabenraa. However, Wöhlk was then given permission to stay in Denmark. He stayed with friends until he was allowed to return to his former house as a tenant in October 1949. He died of heart failure in this house a little over six months later.
His painting in the 1920s is reminiscent of Emil Nolde's expressionism . In 1937 he was horrified to discover that one of his watercolors had been defamed as Degenerate Art by the National Socialists in the Munich exhibition .
He had a lifelong friendship with his painter colleague Hans Holtorf (1899–1984), who, like Erwin Hinrichs (1904–1962), described himself as a student of Wöhlk.
Works by and about Niko Wöhlk
- Hans Holtorf, Praise God and paint , letters to Hans Holtorf, Schleswig, 1955.
- Ernst Schlee, Niko Wöhlk (1887–1950) on his 100th birthday , exhibition catalog at the Flensburg City Museum / German Central Library Aabenraa, Flensburg / Aabenraa 1987.
- Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer: Niko Wöhlk as a "degenerate artist" . In: Romance and the present. Festschrift for Jens Christian Jensen, Cologne 1988, pp. 213–223.
- Jürgen Ostwald (Ed.): Niko Wöhlk 1887–1950 - A painter in Northern Schleswig in "Nordschleswiger Hefte, Heft 2, Apenrade 1996.
- Æ Smutsten - Rings im Wasser - a documentary film about the life of Niko Wöhlk ( A German-Danish curriculum vitae: Niko Wöhlk ) by Thomas Michael Lampe (* 1949 in Hamburg) and Maiken Dethlefsen (* 1941 in Aabenraa), video (53 min) , 2004.
Web links
- Literature by and about Niko Wöhlk in the catalog of the German National Library
- 46th Nordic Film Days Lübeck: Portrait of a painter who was moved by nature - With self-portrait by Nikolaus Wöhlk (oil on canvas, 1950).
- Pictures by Niko Wöhlk in museums in Schleswig Holstein
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Wöhlk, Niko |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wöhlk, Nikolaus (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German painter and life artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 2, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Schleswig |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 23, 1950 |
| Place of death | Aabenraa |