Raphael Seitz

Raphael Seitz (born July 29, 1957 in Heilbronn ; † February 26, 2015 in Bad Friedrichshall ) was a German glass artist and painter .

Life

He attended the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium Heilbronn and studied painting and glass design from 1979 to 1988 with Rudolf Haegele , Hans Gottfried von Stockhausen and Ludwig Schaffrath at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and from 1980 to 1984 art history with Werner Sumowski at the University of Stuttgart .

His first solo exhibitions of his works took place while he was still a student. Since 1991 he has been working as a freelance artist in Heilbronn. In 1996 he ran in the state election campaign as a non-party candidate for Alliance 90 / The Greens , of which he later belonged for a short time. In 2011 he took up an honorary professorship at Liverpool Hope University .

He died in 2015 after a brief serious illness, leaving behind a partner and a 15-year-old daughter.

plant

Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool with glass sails by Raphael Seitz

Raphael Seitz has created glass windows , stations of the cross and paintings for churches and institutions all over Europe. For him, the play of light, color and atmosphere was the focus, which he also found in the room installations he called “light room” and the like. a. at Stuttgart Airport , Ulm Minster and Cologne Cathedral .

As a sacred glass artist, Seitz not only made traditional work pieces such as church windows, but also the glass altar for the Protestant Martinskirche in Langenau , the artistic design of the solar collector surfaces on the church in Horb-Mühlen or the glass Resurrection Cross for the Cistercian Abbey Rein near Graz. Among his most important works are the glass sails created in 2009/10 for the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool .

Pope Benedict XVI appointed him papal glass painter in 2010. His last work was the ecumenical cross for the Argentine base church, which he presented to Pope Francis during a private audience in February 2015 and had it blessed a few days before his death .

His hometown Heilbronn occupied a special place in Seitz 'work, where he a. a. created a glass front for the Kreissparkasse Heilbronn . His picture cycle Totentanz Heilbronn was also created in Heilbronn . Starting with enlargements of photographs from the 1920s, which he found in 1999 in the Heilbronn cigar factory , which had previously been used as a warehouse for the municipal building yard and then as a cultural center , Seitz overpainted and alienated additional large-format historical photos from Heilbronn with acrylic paints for the cycle within five years , he commemorates the destruction of the city in the air raid on December 4, 1944 . The seven-part cycle was acquired by the Heilbronn Municipal Museums over several years and was shown in full for the first time from December 2014 to April 2015 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the city.

Exhibitions

In addition to numerous participations in group exhibitions, works by Raphael Seitz were also shown at the following solo exhibitions:

• Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, Collegium Ambrosianum (1981)
• Ehingen an der Donau, Studienheim (1985)
• Mauloff, Protestant conference center (1986)
• Bonn, Cusanuswerk (1990)
• Bielefeld, Building Department of the Evangelical Church of Westphalia (1991)
• Rot an der Rot, Bildungshaus (1992)
• Allmersbach im Tal, Town Hall (1992)
• Karlsruhe, "Lichtraum" in the palace garden (1992)
• Bayreuth, Town Hall (1992)
• Schöntal, education center (1993)
• Dresden, "Lichtraum" in the castle (1994)
• Stuttgart-Hohenheim, art space of the academy (1995)
• Heilbronn, Dietz / Benesch Gallery (1996)
• Cologne, "Lichtraum" in Niehler Dömchen (1996)
• Heilbronn, "Lichtraum" in the town hall and the Church of Reconciliation (1998)
• Bad Boll, Evangelical Academy Bad Boll (2000)
• Heilbronn, Gallery Weingut Drautz (2001)
• Beilstein, Kreissparkasse (2002)
• Bad Honnef, Catholic Social Institute (2002)
• Bad Mergentheim, "Lichtraum" in the Capuchin Monastery (2003)
• Paderborn, Gallery Peters (2003)
• Brussels, "Lichtraum" at the European Convention of the Dominicans (2003)
• Frankenthal, Hieronymus Hofer House (2006)
• Cologne, "Lichtraum" in the Domforum (2007)
• Bad Rappenau, moated castle Bad Rappenau (2009)
• Aachen, August Piper House and Cathedral Treasury (2009)
• Linnich, German Glass Painting Museum (2009)
• Stuttgart, House of the Catholic Church (2011)
• Taunusstein, Derix Gallery (2012)
• Cologne, Domplatz (2013)
• Bühl, community center (2013)

literature

• Andreas Sommer: What remains are art and hope . In: Heilbronner Voice of February 27, 2015, p. 7

Web links

• raphael-seitz.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ as: Glass artist Raphael Seitz is dead. In: Heilbronner Voice of February 27, 2015, p. 1
2. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 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.