Richard Gessner

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Gessner (born July 29, 1894 in Augsburg , † February 13, 1989 in Düsseldorf ) was a German painter and co-founder of the avant-garde artists' association Das Junge Rheinland (1919).

Life

Art Academy Düsseldorf, 2006
House of the artists' association Malkasten in Düsseldorf, around 1900

The son of the banker Richard Gessner (senior) was born in Augsburg in 1894. In 1896 the family moved to Cologne and in 1904 to Düsseldorf, where the father was appointed director of the Barmer Bankenverein. After attending the Rethel-Gymnasium in Düsseldorf and the Free School Community in Wickersdorf ( Thuringia ), Richard Gessner entered the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 1913 . He had to interrupt the studies he had started there with Willy Spatz and Eduard von Gebhardt in 1914 due to his entry into the military. Before that, he spent two months with the painter Otto Pankok in Dötlingen, where the oil paintings Storm Day (catalog raisonné (WV) 5) and Heidelandschaft (WV 6) were created. In 1917 he was stationed in Macedonia as a war painter . After the war he resumed art studies, now in Max Clarenbach's master class . Gessner joined the long-established Düsseldorf artists 'association Malkasten in 1919 , was one of the founding members of the avant-garde artists' association Das Junge Rheinland in the same year and was in contact with Johanna Ey's circle . In 1920 he founded the three-man workshop with Fritz Burmann and Werner Peiner , in which large-format carpet-like murals were created on fabric. The workshop lasted until 1923. The group of three artists is called the Dreimann-Bund . In 1922 he received the Holland Prize for the picture Places of Work (WV 68). Following his studies, numerous trips took the artist through Germany and numerous other countries. He toured Scandinavia, stayed in Finland for a year and in 1923 for five months in Italy and North Africa. His travels also took him to Bulgaria, Greece, Malta, Capri and Libya. In 1924 he rented a studio in Paris. Until 1928 he stayed regularly in the French capital, where he made the acquaintance of Marc Chagall and Jules Pascin through the painter Marie Laurencin . He had a long friendship with the latter.

In 1926, in addition to Paris, he also worked in Düsseldorf, on the occasion of the large GeSoLei hygiene exhibition in the local sculpture department. Two years later he completed his work Paris by Night (WV 118), now in the Düsseldorf Art Museum . He expressed his already early inclination towards industrial motifs through a large number of sketches and paintings, the subject of which from 1928 to the mid-1960s was in particular the facilities of the Huckinger Hüttenwerk, today's Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM).

In 1929 Gessner stayed longer in Berlin. One of the paintings created there, Shellhaus under construction (WV 143), can be seen today in the Stadtmuseum Berlin. During these years Gessner also created numerous designs for festive and carnival decorations. From 1938 to 1945 he rented an apartment in Kalkum Castle near Düsseldorf. This is where the painting Niederrheinische Parklandschaft (WV 214) was created, for which he received the Cornelius Prize of the City of Düsseldorf in 1941.

In 1936, Paris at night in the Düsseldorf Art Museum was criticized by the Nazi Art Commission as being unsustainable and returned to the artist. The industrial and technical motifs, on the other hand, also found recognition in the Third Reich. Richard Gessner was represented several times at the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich. On behalf of the construction company Holzmann AG in Steyr in Niederdonau, he documented the creation of the Enns power plant in a series of pictures in 1942/43. Most of these works were lost in bombing during World War II. In 1944 he was removed from the list of proposals for a professorship at the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf because he was not a party member.

After the war, Gessner built a studio apartment in Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth . Industry and technology were initially his most frequent motifs. From 1954 he went to Italy or, even more often, Spain, almost every year, always looking for motifs.

Richard Gessner died in Düsseldorf in 1989 at the age of 94. In 1923 he married the artist Lore Lessing (1901–1980), the marriage was divorced a short time later. In 1930 he married the graphic artist Inge Klatte, with whom he stayed together until her death in 1970. He had a third marriage in 1972 with Sigrun Haas, b. von Franqué, one he had known since the 1930s.

He had been a member of the German Association of Artists and the Rhenish Secession since 1929, and of the West German Association of Artists since 1947 .

Awards

Exhibitions

In the course of his extremely long active life as an artist, Richard Gessner has had numerous solo exhibitions and was involved in many group exhibitions. According to the monograph from 1994 (see below) there were 83 group and 5 solo exhibitions by 1945, and 15 group and 32 solo exhibitions from 1945 to 1989. After his death up to and including 2009, he was represented in at least 20 solo and 8 group exhibitions; here is a selection of the most interesting:

  • Collective exhibition, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf , three oil paintings (1914)
  • Collective exhibition, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Das Junge Rheinland , four pastels (1919)
  • Collective exhibition of works from Africa, Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf (1924, not listed in the monograph)
  • Solo exhibition, Galerie Flechtheim, Düsseldorf (1928)
  • Collective exhibition of 10 German painters by Carl Georg Heise in Lübeck, including Jankel Adler, Julius Bissier, Xaver Fuhr, Bernhard Kretschmar, Mahlau and EW Nay. (1929, not listed in the monograph)
  • Collective exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, a. a. with Barlach, Baumeister, Campendonk, Dix, Grosz, Heckel, Hofer, Kolbe, Mataré, Nolde, Purrmann, Schmidt-Rottluff, Sintenis, two pastels (1932)
  • Solo exhibition, Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1932)
  • Collective exhibition with 50 pictures, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (not listed in the monograph, 1935, possibly identical to the exhibition from 1935)
  • Solo exhibition, Galerie Nierendorf, Berlin (1935)
  • Collective exhibition, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, L'Arte Contemporanea di Düsseldorf , three oil paintings (1943)
  • Solo exhibition on the occasion of the 50th birthday, Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf (1944)
  • Regular participation in the exhibitions of the West German Artists Association (from 1947)
  • Collective exhibition, Mining Museum Bochum , art and mining, a. a. six oil paintings (1951)
  • Regular participation in the annual winter exhibitions in the Kunstpalast im Ehrenhof, Düsseldorf (1951)
  • Solo exhibition, Ruhrsiedlungsverband Essen , A painter sees the Ruhr area (1953)
  • Solo exhibition with 93 paintings in the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen , Düsseldorf, Otto-Richter-Halle Würzburg and Museum Schloss Oberhausen on the occasion of the 60th birthday (1954)
  • Collective exhibition Exposition Internationale, Les Mines, les Forges et les Arts , with five paintings involved, Musée des Travaux Publics, Paris (1955)
  • Solo exhibition of Spanish watercolors in the Vömel Gallery, Düsseldorf (1958)
  • Collective exhibition, Musée Rath, Geneva, Artistes Contemporains de Düsseldorf , three oil paintings (1962)
  • Collective exhibition Avantgarde yesterday , Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1970, not listed in the monograph)
  • Solo exhibition, Niederrheinisches Museum Duisburg, From image to symbol (1973)
  • Solo exhibition retrospective, paintings and watercolors 1927 to 1974 , Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (1975)
  • Solo exhibition, Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, retrospective, works from 70 years (1982)
  • Collective exhibition, Central House of Artists, Moscow, 41 artists from North Rhine-Westphalia , three oil paintings (1983)
  • Solo exhibition, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, 70 works, selection from museum holdings (1984)
  • Solo exhibition, Museum for Early Industrialization, Wuppertal (1988)

posthumously:

  • Solo exhibition, Galerie Mühlenbusch, Düsseldorf, Blue Pictures - Spanish Gouaches (1989)
  • Solo exhibition, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, in honor of Richard Gessner , special exhibition in the exhibition Das Junge Rheinland (1989)
  • Collective exhibition, Federal Chancellery, Bonn, collector's pleasure , two oil paintings (1989)
  • Solo exhibition at CG Boerner, Düsseldorf, early prints (1990)
  • Solo exhibition, Remmert and Barth Gallery, Düsseldorf, Auf der Kirmes (1990)
  • Solo exhibition, Bergbau- und Stadtmuseum Weilburg, Richard Gessner, painting (1992)
  • Solo exhibition at Metec 94 , Düsseldorf, Richard Gessner, A painter sees the Ruhr area (1994)
  • Solo exhibition, Remmert and Barth Gallery, Düsseldorf, Traveling (1994)
  • Solo exhibition on the occasion of his 100th birthday, Galerie Winkelmann, Düsseldorf, Richard Gessner (1994)
  • Solo exhibition, Museum in the Alte Post, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Industry and Abstraction (1997)
  • Solo exhibition, Städtisches Museum Wasserburg am Inn, special exhibition Wasserburg painters of the past - Richard Gessner - a painter of summer holidays (2001)
  • Solo exhibition, Association Les Colchiques, Ribes, France (2004)
  • Solo exhibition, German Alpine Museum, Munich, sketches by Watzmann (2004)
  • Collective exhibition , administration building Krupp Mannesmann GmbH, Duisburg, huts and steel motifs (2005)
  • Solo exhibition, Bürgerhaus Angermund, Düsseldorf, Richard Gessner on the 20th year of death: Kirmes - Spanien - Felsen (2009)

plant

Many of Richard Gessner's works were bought by museums, such as the Düsseldorf Art Museum, which bought seven pictures, the House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany in Bonn, and the Märkisches Museum in Berlin. The largest collection of Gessner works is now owned by the Rheinisches Industriemuseum in Oberhausen . Others can be found in the Volmer Collection Foundation and in the Mannesmannröhren Archive, which also houses numerous documents from the estate. In addition to the stock of pictures in museums, many of the works are also privately owned. Richard Gessner was interested in motifs from the industrial world around him from an early age, but he is by no means exclusively seen as an industrial painter. Still lifes, natural landscapes and scenes from city life are also part of his work. He found inspiration on his numerous travels, but above all in his immediate vicinity. The Ruhr area, which he saw as his home throughout his life, is a focus of his work. Not only the industrial images, but also Lower Rhine landscapes and Düsseldorf or Duisburg cityscapes are part of it. And the hustle and bustle of Rhenish shooting festivals and fairgrounds also fascinated him. Most of the fairground pictures and drawings were made in the 1930s.

From the late 1940s, Richard Gessner devoted himself again intensively to industrial motifs. In addition to large-format oil paintings and gouaches, he also gave an extensive series of sketches for the book A painter sees the Ruhr area reconstruction and everyday life in the area. Gessner painted a great many watercolors and gouaches on his frequent trips to Italy and Spain from around 1954. They depict landscapes and scenes both on the coast and in the interior of the country. He was always particularly inspired by bizarre rock formations. These rock sketches and watercolors were later to become the starting point for his abstract oil paintings in the studio.

His artistic implementation of the naturalistic object shows - not only in the industrial pictures - different degrees of abstraction from constructive elements. In the 1950s, Gessner further developed the constructive view in various directions. Strongly stylized works that were still related to the subject, as well as the largely abstract rock paintings, including the series of “blue” oil paintings, were created.

After all, murals, for example in the Düsseldorf City Hall or the Volkswagen works, and numerous etchings and lithographs from different eras are part of his work.

Selection of works

  • Industrial City of Bergisches Land (1921), on canvas, 52 × 40.5 cm, Volmer Collection Foundation [1]
  • In the streets of Tripoli (1921), watercolor over pencil, 30.3 × 37.6 cm, Volmer Collection Foundation [2]
  • Bochumer Verein (1922), oil on canvas, 95 × 120.5 cm, Krefeld, private collection (WV 58)
  • Grönenbach / Allgäu (1923), on canvas, 98 × 92 cm, Volmer Collection Foundation [3] (WV 80)
  • Das Bergwerk (1924), oil on canvas, 80 × 100 cm, Düsseldorf, Rheinische Bahngesellschaft AG (WV93)
  • Kirmesplatz bei Nacht (1925/26), oil on canvas, 83.5 × 63.5 cm [4]
  • Paris at Night (1927/28), oil on canvas, 185 × 200 cm, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf in the courtyard of honor
  • Hüttenwerk Mannesmann (1928), oil painting, (WV 128), until the mid-1960s at least 35 other paintings from the Huckinger Hüttenwerk
  • Shell house under construction (1930), oil on wood, 80.5 × 11.5 cm, Stadtmuseum Berlin (WV 143) [5]
  • Kalkum Castle (1939), oil on cardboard, 46.5 × 60 cm, Düsseldorf, Stadtmuseum (WV 221)
  • Huckingen blast furnace plant (1940/41), oil on canvas, 104 × 231 cm, foyer of administration building 1, Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann, Huckingen (WV 238)
  • Trees on the Lower Rhine (1947), oil on canvas, 60 × 80 cm, Düsseldorf, Stadtmuseum (WV 268)
  • Industrie am Niederrhein (1953), oil on canvas, 60 × 80 cm, Berlin, private collection (WV 318)
  • Alcoelche (1957, Spain), gouache on paper, 49 × 64 cm, estate (WV 50G)
  • Kirmes (1965), oil on canvas, 55 × 98 cm, Düsseldorf, Deutsche Bank AG (WV 399)
  • Rising Blue (1968), oil on canvas, 150 × 100 cm, Berlin, private collection (WV 417)
  • Felswand II (1975, Spain / Zahara), oil on canvas, 80 × 100 cm, estate (WV444)
  • Self-portrait in the studio (1975), oil on canvas, 51.5 × 76 cm, Mannesmannröhren-Archiv (WV 451)
  • The last picture (1987), oil on canvas, 50.5 × 70 cm, Mannesmannröhren-Archiv (WV 494)

literature

  • Richard Gessner: A painter sees the Ruhr area. With 80 color reproductions of industrial watercolors. August Bagel Verlag , Düsseldorf 1953, 10,000 copies. With a foreword by Otto Brües .
  • Friedrich W. Heckmanns and Karl Ruhrberg (eds.), Britta Hueck-Ehmer (catalog raisonné): Richard Gessner: monograph and catalog raisonné, Wienand, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-87909-323-7 .
  • Otto Brües: On the 70th birthday of the Düsseldorf painter Richard Gessner, Art Association for the Rhineland and Westphalia, catalog for the exhibition (November 30, 1964 - January 24, 1965)
  • At the fair, Galerie Remmert and Barth, Düsseldorf, catalog for the exhibition of the same name (July 17 to August 18, 1990).
  • Anna Klapheck : From Makeshift to Art of Prosperity. Art in the Rhineland in the post-war period, DuMont, 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1165-6
  • Ulrich Krempel : In the beginning: the young Rhineland, on the art and contemporary history of a region; 1918-1945. Exhibition catalog Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Claassen, Düsseldorf 1985, ISBN 3-546-47771-5 .
  • Gerhard Wietek : 200 years of painting in the Oldenburger Land, ISBN 3-9801191-0-6

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HKM Kurier, newspaper for the employees of the Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann, issue 2/02

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gessner, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and co-founder of the artist group Das Junge Rheinland
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1989
Place of death Dusseldorf