Paul Werth

Paul Werth (born April 1, 1912 in Soest , Westphalia; † October 6, 1977 there ) was a German painter and graphic artist of informal art .

Life

Paul Werth discovered his passion for drawing in his early childhood, for which he had an extraordinary talent.

After an apprenticeship as a painter and varnisher and the subsequent activity in this profession, he was drafted into military service in 1940. At the end of the Second World War he was an American prisoner of war for two years, where he met Ernst-Wilhelm Haverland from Soest, with whom he then had a lifelong friendship.

In 1946 he returned to Soest and found a place to stay in the house of his friend Haverland on the market. The encounter with other artists who introduced him to the technique of oil painting awakened his passion for painting. He embarked on a difficult self-taught path, far removed from an academic education.

The Haverland family supported him at all times and made it possible for him to work as a freelance artist.

A scholarship enabled him to spend several stays in Italy, which significantly shaped his subsequent artistic work.

In the early 1950s he began to devote himself to informal art . During the same period he joined the Münster artists' association “Die Schanze” , with which he then presented some of his works in a special exhibition.

Paul Werth died in 1977 at the age of 65 and so did not experience the exhibition of his work in the Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus in Soester that was planned before his death in the winter of the same year, which was then designed as a memorial exhibition.

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The first painted works by Paul Werth can be classified as moderate realism , mostly in dark tones and conveying a muted mood. The landscapes that were created in memory of his war stay in Italy are also shaped by this dark mood. The later stays in Italy after his scholarship brought the decisive turning point: The pictures became brighter and friendlier and the representation changed from the representational to the abstract. In the 1950s it was then able to penetrate into pure color.

Painting was his main medium; Paul Werth paid little attention to the drawings. He gave away many of his drawings and sketchbooks, so that many of them are considered lost.

His work is estimated at a total of 2,500–3,000 pieces.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Press release on the exhibition "Paul Werth in Italy" in the Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus in Soester (September 17 - October 31, 2006) from September 18, 2006