Olga Wendt

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Olga "Olly" Wendt , born Olga Sophie Emilia Sommer (born May 27, 1896 in Riga ; † June 13, 1991 in Grünhainichen ) was a German artist and designer of handcrafted wooden figures for the Wendt & Kühn company .

Life

Olga Sommer was born in Riga as the youngest of five children. After finishing school, Olga Sommer first learned the tailoring trade . Since the age of 14 she received drawing lessons from the impressionist painter Susa Walter . With her, Olga Sommer learned how to draw objects, plants, animals and landscapes in great detail. In June 1913, she went to Dresden with her family to begin training at the Cutting Academy from September. From September 1917 she continued her training in the fashion class at the School of Applied Arts . In Dresden she was taught by the designer and arts and crafts teacher Margarete Junge . After completing her studies, on February 15, 1920, on the recommendation of Margarete Junge, she joined the Wendt & Kühn manufactory founded in 1915 by Margarete Wendt and Margarete Kühn as a figure designer. At Wendt & Kühn she was responsible for the figurine design of the manufactory alongside Grete Wendt for 63 years until she left the company at the age of 87. In the early years of the company, she took over the duties of the company founder Margarete Kühn, who left the company in 1920 and was responsible for the painting of the figures and chip boxes .

Lippersdorf angels as external decoration
Margaret angel on the music box in the center of Grünhainichen

In the mid-1920s, Olly Sommer began designing and painting angel figures. Her early works include the richly painted Lippersdorf angels and brocade angels . Together with Grete Wendt, she designed parts of the groups of figures and music boxes. Her best-known designs include the graceful Margaret Angels , which were added to the manufactory's range in 1925. Since 1935 she has also designed a group of six seated Margaret Angels. The moon family , designed by her in 1925, is also still part of the manufactory's classic range today. The figures she designed were also aimed at the international market at this time.

On February 19, 1930, Olly Sommer married Grete Wendt's brother Johannes, who had been in charge of the manufactory's commercial and accounting department since 1919 . The twins Sigrid and Hans were born on October 9, 1930. Johannes Wendt was arrested in September 1945, interned in the Buchenwald subcamp and died on December 7, 1945 in POW camp 437 in Cherepovets .

Olly Wendt designed a group of angels for her husband in 1945, which was awarded a gold medal in 1969 by the trade mark association expertic . For several decades, Olly Wendt and Grete Wendt represented the company at the Leipzig Trade Fair . Her son Hans joined the company in 1954 and managed the manufacture until the end of 2011. Olly Wendt also worked as a designer in the nationalized VEB Werk-Kunst Grünhainichen (1972 to 1990), while Grete Wendt left the manufacture. On April 28, 1983, she stopped working for Wendt & Kühn. Olly Wendt died on June 13, 1991 in Grünhainichen.

Appreciation

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Wendt & Kühn company, the Museum of Saxon Folk Art in Jägerhof (Dresden) presented a comprehensive exhibition with designs by Grete and Olly Wendt from June 20, 2015 to January 10, 2016. In 2015, the special exhibition Insights with watercolors and pencil drawings by the two artists was shown at the company's headquarters in Grünhainichen .

Olly Wendt's designs are exhibited in numerous folklore and arts and crafts museums, including the Manufactory of Dreams in Annaberg-Buchholz , the Museum of Saxon Folk Art in Dresden, the Saxon-Bohemian Ore Mountains Museum in Marienberg , the Ore Mountains Toy Museum Seiffen and the Christmas and toy museum exhibited at Scharfenstein Castle .

Work (selection)

  • Lippersdorfer Engel , from 1923
  • Angel with two light cups , before 1924
  • Margaret Angel , from 1925
  • Lunar family , 1925
  • Twins in a christening gown , 1931
  • Gift angels , 1936
  • Angel with candle holder , 1964
  • Brocade angels in different colors
  • Crown angel

literature

  • Cordula Bischoff, Igor Jenzen: 100 years of Wendt & Kühn. Dresden Modernism from the Ore Mountains . Chemnitzer Verlag, 2016, ISBN 978-3-944509-31-0 .
  • Cordula Bischoff: 100 years of Wendt & Kühn. Dresden Modernism from the Ore Mountains. in: Mitteilungen des Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, issue 2/2015, pp. 13-16
  • Ehrhardt Heinold: Heavenly messengers from the Ore Mountains. The world-famous angels from Wendt & Kühn. 2nd edition, Husum 2008
  • Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes , Plauen 2010

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cordula Bischoff: Insights granted . In: Wendt & Kühn (Ed.): Eleven-point post . tape 2016 , no. 2 . Grünhainichen 2016, p. 18 .
  2. ↑ Olly Wendt. Talent. Fate. Life's work. In: Wendt & Kühn (Ed.): Eleven-point post . Spring / Summer 2020. Grünhainichen 2020, p. 16-19 .
  3. ↑ a b Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes. Plauen 2010, p. 118-122 .
  4. ↑ Cordula Bischoff, Igor Jenzin: 100 Years Wendt & Kühn - Dresden Modernism from the Ore Mountains . Ed .: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Dresden 2016, ISBN 978-3-944509-31-0 , pp. 63 f .
  5. ↑ Ehrhard Heinold: Heavenly messengers from the Ore Mountains - The world-famous angels from Wendt & Kühn . 4th edition. Husum 2016, ISBN 978-3-89876-408-7 , p. 101 .
  6. ↑ Wooden figures: Why Asians are crazy about German angels - WELT. In: THE WORLD. Retrieved January 2, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Sophia Seiderer: angel with eleven points. In: www.morgenpost.de. Retrieved January 2, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 70 ff .
  9. ↑ Wendt & Kühn KG (ed.): Our story - workshops for fine figural woodwork and music boxes . Plauen 2010, p. 77 .
  10. ↑ Website for the exhibition ( Memento of the original from January 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.skd.museum

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wendt, Olga
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wendt, Olly (nickname); Sommer, Olga (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist and designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Riga
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1991
Place of death Grünhainichen