Renate Niethammer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Renate Niethammer , b. Kaiser, (born March 13, 1913 in Nordhausen im Harz; † January 17, 2017 in Willich in North Rhine-Westphalia ) was a German graphic artist and painter .

Renate Niethammer from left, exhibition talks (around 1964)

Life

Renate Niethammer is the daughter of a wealthy family from Nordhausen in the Harz region. They were rich, the great-grandfather was a furniture manufacturer, the grandfather was the land registry director, the grandmother painted clay vases, the father ran a commercial gardening business. The parents' marriage ended early in divorce. Niethammer has several siblings. During her school days she was first in Jever / Ostfriesland because her remarried mother often moved . In large school classes with up to 70 children, e.g. Renate Niethammer got to know poverty early on, some of them from peat workers families. She attended a total of fourteen different schools, most recently the Oberlyzeum in Berlin-Friedenau . In the lower class (11th grade) she won first prize from the city of Berlin for a drama about the image of women over time.

Renate Niethammer, 2013

Her interest in painting was aroused early on by her grandmother and her aunt Paula, a deaconess . In Berlin , at the age of 18, she received her first painting lessons in the private art school from Else Marcks-Penzig (1887–1950), a student of Emil Rudolf Weiß , until 1933 professor at the Berlin School of Applied Arts .

In 1932 she passed the entrance examination to the United State Schools for Free and Applied Arts in Berlin-Charlottenburg . A teacher in portrait and life drawing was in particular Erich Wolfsfeld , who had to emigrate to Palestine in 1937 due to his Jewish origins . Then the class got the new teacher, Renate Niethammer, Eichhorst, who was loyal to National Socialism . The students boycotted his classes, which led to the dissolution of the class. Renate Niethammer was then assigned to the studio of Professor Spiegel, another teacher who was committed to the Nazi ideas. She managed to go into hiding in Professor Michel's graphic workshop.

In 1937 she married the engineer for aircraft Friedrich Niethammer. As a result of the daughter's birth in Leipzig in 1938, she suffered from a life-threatening infection ( childbed fever ) which led to almost complete blindness. This was followed by a one-year stay at the Leipzig University Clinic until she recovered . Her husband was working in Prague , where she followed him after the birth of her son in Augsburg in 1942 . Her husband was killed in the wake of the war in 1944. Renate Niethammer managed to escape back to Nordhausen with both children. A few days later she experienced the hail of bombs on Nordhausen. She and the children survived, and other members of her family were killed in it.

In 1946 she founded a private painting school in the still bombed house of her grandparents in Nordhausen. In total, she taught about 30 students. Some of them systematically led them to entrance exams at technical colleges and universities, for example Burg Giebichenstein and the University of Architecture in Weimar . Professor Hermann Henselmann , who teaches there, recognized the skills that students had brought with them from Nordhausen. A student received the first prize of the state of Thuringia from the Kulturbund for her work made in Nordhausen. Niethammer showed her work in several exhibitions. A life-size picture “Young Violinist” was bought by the city of Nordhausen and given to the city orchestra. Further commissioned pictures were taken. In 1948 their painting school was closed by the Soviet headquarters.

From 1948 to 1950 she completed further studies , in particular wall painting , with Professor Kirchberger in Weimar. The result was a commissioned work measuring 8 × 5.5 m for the Weimar City Theater on the subject of "Peace Frontiers". The picture was exhibited in the Weimar Museum for several weeks . In 1953 she worked on behalf of the city of Nordhausen as the director of a painting group for the visual arts . The income from this enabled the family to support themselves.

In 1957 she moved to Berlin with the children. From there she bought a piece of land in Kolberg , near Königs Wusterhausen . Niethammer was commissioned by the Protestant church to paint a triptych for the Selchow village church near Storkow, a total of 4.20 m long with approx. 50 figures. In 1962 she took over the circle for artistic folk creation in heavy engineering in Wildau , two circles of the NVA news regiment in Niederlehme , the painting and drawing circle as artistic director at the Interflug cultural center and the TV electronics center in Berlin. Other commissioned work was a 2 × 3.70 m large panel painting with the portraits of the best workers of the river port in Koenigs Wusterhausen.

Harbor picture Königs Wusterhausen, oil, ca.1962

Renate Niethammer has been a member of GEDOK - Brandenburg in Rangsdorf since 1995 .

Rehabilitation, Oil, 1978, four parts
Triptych Come to me in Ev. Selchow village church, oil, 1965

Until 2011 her residence was in Kolberg in Brandenburg. In particular, paintings in oil, watercolor, charcoal and chalk were created here . Motifs are always recurring people; Portraits of men, women and children, workers, politicians, artists, but also brightly colored flower still lifes . A triptych on women in world history has so far remained unfinished.

Country postman in Kolberg, Öl, 1974

In 2011, she moved to North Rhine-Westphalia near her son's place of residence, where she died on January 17, 2017.

Works

  • Started in 2002: “Women”, triptych, unfinished, owned by the family
  • 1988: “Selling the Children”, oil
  • 1985: "Jan Koplowitz and woman", 1985, oil on masonite, 90 x 86 cm ( Art Archive Beeskow in Beeskow Castle )
  • 1985: "Hedda Zinner", 1985, oil on hardboard, 91 × 73 cm (Beeskow Art Archive)
  • 1981: "Geiger (Farewell to the Moldau)", oil
  • 1975–1977: “Rehabilitation of paraplegics”, oil, commissioned work as a mural for the Buch Clinic; (Beeskow Art Archive)
  • 1974: "Landbriefträger", 1974, oil on hardboard, 90 × 70 cm (Beeskow Art Archive)
  • 1965: "Come here to me ..." Altar triptych, oil, Evangelical village church in Selchow / Mark (Storkow)
  • 1971: "Arbeiterveteranin Helene G.", 1971, oil on hardboard, 90 × 70 cm (Beeskow Art Archive)
  • 1971: " Socialist Brigade of the LPG Großziethen", Oil, VII. Art Exhibition of the GDR 1972
  • 1962: “Hafen-Bild”, oil, approx. 200 × 400 cm, inland port Königs Wusterhausen

Exhibitions

  • 2011: Berlin, House of Representatives January 26, 2011 - March 11, 2011: “Portraits from the Beeskow Art Archive” represented by “Landbriefträger” from 1974
  • 2009: Beeskow Castle, October 19, 2009 - June 20, 2010: “Temporary Heroes. Portraits from the Beeskow Art Archive "(" Landbriefträger "1974)
  • 2008: Dahme-Spreewald district, Lübben, Vertical Gallery, February 12, 2008 to April 16, 2008 “Portraits”, life's work exhibition for the 95th birthday
  • 2007: Landgalerie Mark Brandenburg e. V., Jacobsdorf-Petersdorf: June 30, 2007 to August 20, 2007: "Renate Niethammer"
  • 2005: Beeskow Castle, October 23, 2005 - January 29, 2006: “A wide field. Agriculture in the Painting of the GDR "(" Landbriefträger "from 1974)
  • 2004: Beeskow Castle, December 14, 2003 - May 16, 2004: “Open depot, part 2. Artists from East Brandenburg between yesterday and today "(" Landbriefträger "from 1974)
  • 1996: GEDOK Brandenburg, Klubhaus Rangsdorf: January 28, 1996 - February 26, 1996: "Painting and Drawings"
  • 1978: Bucharest, art exhibition of the GDR.
  • 1972: VII. Art Exhibition of the GDR 1972 in Dresden: represented by “Socialist Brigade of the LPG Großziethen”, oil, 1971

literature

  • "A wide field". Agriculture in painting in the GDR, catalog for the exhibition, Beeskow / Simone Tippach-Schneider art archive (ed.), Beeskow 2005
  • "Temporary Heroes". Portraits from the Beeskow Art Archive, exhibition catalog, Beeskow Art Archive / Simone-Tippach-Schneider (ed.), Beeskow 2009

Web links

Commons : Renate Niethammer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary notice with obvious typographical error
  2. ^ Exhibition in GEDOK 1996
personal data
SURNAME Riveter, Renate
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kaiser, Renate (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist and painter
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordhausen
DATE OF DEATH 17th January 2017
Place of death I want to