Rüdiger Berlit

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Self-Portrait (1935)

Rüdiger Berlit (born May 27, 1883 in Leipzig ; † August 27, 1939 there ) was a German expressionist painter, watercolorist and graphic artist. He is considered to be the main representative of Expressionism in Leipzig.

Life

Rüdiger Berlit was the second son of the German language professor and later director of the Nikolaigymnasium Georg Berlit. When he was around 15 years old, he developed rheumatoid arthritis , as a result of which a weak heart forced him to exercise a certain restraint.

After graduating from high school, he studied at the Royal Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Trade in Leipzig. In 1909 he went one semester at the for about Munich Academy to Henry Knirr (1862-1944) and Johann Brockhoff (1871 to 1942) and stayed for a short time in the artists' colony of Dachau .

In 1911 he married Helene Mehlhorn, who was the same age in the Evangelical Reformed Church on Tröndlinring, and the daughter of the pastor at this church Paul Mehlhorn (1851-1919). The couple moved into an apartment with a studio in the attic of the fairytale house on what will later be Nikischplatz . The painter Eduard Einschlag (1878–1945), with whom Berlit was friends, was a neighbor here for 25 years .

In 1910 Berlit took part in the first annual exhibition of the Leipzig Secession with four works, which was directed against the Art Nouveau represented in particular by Max Klinger (1857-1920) and his followers . After the exhibition in 1911, the activities of the Leipzig Secession came to an end, because in 1912, under the chairmanship of Klinger, the Leipzig Annual Exhibition (LIA) was formed, which organized the Leipzig Annual Exhibition until 1927. Berlit exhibited here too. In addition to portraits, still lifes and religious subjects, his subjects were landscapes in which his deep love for nature was expressed. As early as 1911 he received a solo exhibition together with the impressionist Theodor Hagen (1842-1919) from Weimar in the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig.

The woodcut removed from Long Live the War

Around 1915, Berlit's transition to expressionism and social engagement took place. During the First World War he came into contact with socialist ideas. From 1919 to 1928 he contributed images to the left-wing journal Die Aktion , founded by Franz Pfemfert (1879–1954) . In 1919 a special issue with nine woodcuts was dedicated to him.

An example of Berlit's prints in the book city of Leipzig is Bruno Vogel's (1898–1987) anti-war book Es lebe der Krieg , published in 1924 , to which Berlit contributed five woodcuts. The author, publisher and illustrator were charged with disseminating lewd writings and blasphemy and sentenced to imprisonment and fines, but were acquitted in the second instance. However, two episodes and a woodcut had to be removed from the book. Berlit then, badly hit, withdrew from the exhibition world for years.

Rüdiger Berlit was a member of the German Association of Artists . His name can be found in the list of exhibiting artists at the last DKB annual exhibition in 1936 in the Hamburger Kunstverein , which was forcibly closed by the Reichskunstkammer after ten days. His works were classified as degenerate art , removed from collections and often destroyed. Eleven publicly owned works were confiscated as "degenerate".

After Berlit's death in 1939, his widow kept the apartment until the house burned down in the bombing of Leipzig on December 4, 1943, during which part of his work fell victim to the flames.

A first commemorative exhibition took place in 1946 in the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts . He was remembered in 2010 with the exhibition “Rüdiger Berlit and Expressionism in Leipzig”.

Works (selection)

  • Alpine winter landscape at sunrise , oil on plywood
  • Farmhouse with clothesline , pen drawing, 1925
  • Praying at the wayside cross , watercolor, around 1918
  • Wooded landscape , watercolor
  • The three women
  • Dark heights , carpenter's pencil on vellum paper,
  • Entry of Christ into Jerusalem Palm Sunday , oil on canvas, 1920
  • Long live the war , linocut, 1924
  • Sagel bookplate , etching, 1906
  • Entombment , oil on canvas, 1918
  • Hilly landscape with houses , watercolor,
  • Helene Berlit in profile , colored chalk, around 1916,
  • Young woman at the toilet , watercolor
  • Landscape with cows , gouache
  • Man with child , drypoint, 1930s
  • Men in a pub , oil on canvas
  • Mothers , linocut, 1925
  • Red Church , gouache, 1920,
  • Self-portrait , red chalk drawing, 1935
  • Dinner party , oil on canvas
  • Forest path , oil on canvas
  • Female nude , woodcut, 1918

Image examples

  • Bookplate Gertrud Sagel etching

  • Helene Berlit colored
    chalk

  • Hilly landscape watercolor

  • Female nude , woodcut

  • Red church
    gouache

  • Men in a pub
    Oil on canvas

literature

  • Richard Hüttel: Rüdiger Berlit and Expressionism in Leipzig . Seemann, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-86502-240-0
  • Berlit, Rüdiger , in: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. First volume (AD) , EA Seemann, Leipzig 1999 (study edition). ISBN 3-363-00730-2 (p. 185)
  • Renate Hartleb : Rüdiger Berlit . In: Leipziger Blätter , Heft 13 (1988), pp. 34-38
  • Renate Hartleb: Rüdiger Berlit - On the early work of the Leipzig artist . In: Leipziger Blätter, Heft 35 (1999), pp. 46/47
  • Horst Riedel, Thomas Nabert (ed.): Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . 1st edition. Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , pp. 46 .

Web links

Commons : Rüdiger Berlit  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Action, IX. Year No. 21/22. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .
  2. ^ Full members of the German Association of Artists. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Painting and sculpture in Germany 1936. The story of a prohibited exhibition. Retrieved June 17, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Rüdiger Berlit. In: Entartete Kunst confiscation inventory. Retrieved June 14, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Berlit, Rudiger
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German expressionist painter, watercolorist and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1939
Place of death Leipzig