Richard Haizmann

Richard Haizmann (born October 18, 1895 in Villingen , Baden , † April 30, 1963 in Niebüll , North Frisia, Schleswig-Holstein ) was a German painter, sculptor, ceramist and wood cutter.

Life

His family origins were deeply religious, which also shaped him artistically. He spent his childhood in Rottweil and, after attending grammar school in 1914, volunteered to take part in the First World War, which ended with his imprisonment in 1917. In the Fort Barraux officers' camp, he met the collector and art dealer Herbert v. Know Garvens-Garvensburg . He broke off an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk in Rottweil. Instead, he went to his father's friend Herbert v. Garvens moved to Hanover-Herrenhausen to become an art dealer. At the end of 1922 he set up a small art gallery, the Graphisches Kabinett, in Hamburg , and exhibited first Van Gogh and later Emil Nolde (watercolors and prints) and Gustav H. Wolff . He had exhibitions that were not only noticed in Hamburg.

An encounter with Max Sauerlandt , director of the Hamburg Museum for Art and Commerce , who visited his first exhibition and later became his mentor and patron, was a turning point for him. On his advice and that of the anthroposophically oriented painter and writer Karl Ballmers , he began to look for his own artistic path. A thought that has haunted him for some time. First he started as a painter, later he devoted himself more to sculpture and ceramics. Richard Haizmann had no classical artistic training. He drew from intuition, his Christian understanding and his natural talent. His aim was to create art - in connection with body and mind in the anthroposophical sense as well as according to Catholic teaching and tradition. In the autumn of 1924 he sought and found his very own form in his oil paintings, watercolors and drawings and even in his sculptural work. He gave up his art trade in 1924 in order to live entirely for his own art and he sold his art gallery that same year.

The Museum of Arts and Crafts in Hamburg bought works in autumn 1924 and the art dealer Lüders exhibited them. He had his first major exhibitions in Hamburg and Berlin in 1925. The “jury free” in Hamburg also accepted some of his works. The criticism was rather negative. But the Hamburger Fremdblatt wrote: "There are strange phenomena, these designs, in which every material, be it graphics or plastic, has been treated with the utmost sensitivity ... one can be curious to see where this artist's path will lead ..." Landeskunstschule Hamburg rejected it at least partially.

In May 1926 the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe showed his early works in an exhibition. His large animal sculpture cat, which was shown at the European exhibition in the Hamburger Kunsthalle , also attracted a lot of attention . Richard Haizmann began to establish himself as an artist. In the winter of 1927 he worked for Hamburg on large copper plates for fountains in the vestibules of Hamburg schools, on the design of the bridge railing on the Isebek Canal on Eppendorfer Baum and on the major order for a fountain figure for the children's playground on Humboldtstrasse. An Edvard Munch exhibition at the Commeter Gallery in 1930, in which he was able to present his ceramic work, brought him the final breakthrough.

Until 1933 he took part in national and international exhibitions and was bought by museums. Private art collectors remained loyal to him afterwards, such as the collector couple Walter and Maria Bamberger, with whom he had a lifelong friendship.

After the death of his mentor Max Sauerlandt in 1934, who lost his position as director of the Museum of Art and Industry after the Nazis seized power in 1933, Richard Haizmann retired from the city of Hamburg to emigrate to North Frisia . Fanatics had destroyed part of his works and his workshop. In autumn 1934 he was looking for a new artistic home in Niebüll, in the neighborhood of Emil Nolde, who had his studio in Seebüll . Just like him, he was harassed by the National Socialists and was banned from exhibiting, but not banned from painting like his painter friend. His works have been removed from museums. The abstract fountain sculpture “Gargoyle” on the children's playground in Humboldtstrasse was removed in 1937, denounced in the Degenerate Art exhibition and later melted down.

Nevertheless, in Dagebüll he had another small but successful sales exhibition of landscape watercolors “Our Land”, which had already been sold on the opening day - shortly before the exhibition was supposed to be closed by the district management.

Richard Haizmann returned to the abstract world of forms of his early creative phase in 1950–1961, but discovered new techniques for himself: the monograph and the large-format woodcut. In terms of content, he shed light on the ancient sacred topics in a deeper, timeless perspective. This resulted in 11 woodcut cycles such as “People and Gods”, “Archangels” or “Christ”.

In Niebüll, the Richard Haizmann Museum in the old town hall is presenting a selection of works by Richard Haizmann, while exhibitions on both classic modern and contemporary art are shown. One focus here is on North German and Scandinavian artists as well as concrete and constructive positions.

Works

The preferred motifs of his early sculptures were cats, horses, birds and elephants.

Catalog of works

The catalog raisonné of the early work up to 1934, which was compiled by Erwin Heizmann, includes (as of 1988, page 109) “three hundred and ten works on paper, five oil paintings, one hundred and two, sixty-eight utility ceramics and fifteen pieces of jewelry”. His works are listed in auctions.

Works withdrawn as "degenerate"

28 graphics and 10 sculptures were confiscated in the Museum of Art and Industry and 2 sculptures by Haizmann in the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Access to 15 handicrafts by Haizmann in the Museum of Art and Industry was revoked. A total of 65 works by Haizmann were confiscated in the “Third Reich”. Four of these Haizmann's sculptures were shown in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition, including the gargoyle , which was also depicted in the exhibition guide and was maliciously commented on as a “mythical animal”.

Works of art in public space

Information on the original location of the gargoyle in Humboldtstrasse in Hamburg-Barmbek

Replica of the gargoyle in the Hamburg city park

The gargoyle : It was created on the basis of a Hamburg state order from 1928. From the model to its creation, the work was repeatedly questioned by expert reports and commissions. And it wasn't until February 7, 1930, that the Senate Commission approved the final funding.

“One order that later made a name for itself was a large bronze gargoyle for the children's playground on Humboldtstrasse . The bold design aroused the minds of some city fathers, because it wasn't a lion, frog or fish that ran out of mouth, but a fabulous beast. "

The gargoyle was built in 1930 in the playground at Humboldtstrasse 91-99, where there is now a bunker. Adults viewed this work more from a distance; according to contemporary witnesses, the children immediately made friends with it and gave it fantasy names such as "rhinoceros" or "horse with holes". This work was dismantled during the Nazi era between August and October 1937, shown in the “Degenerate Art” exhibition and then presumably melted down. The reconstruction was suggested in 1988 by Erwin H e izmann in his catalog raisonné, requested by the SPD parliamentary group and approved by the Barmbek-Uhlenhorst local committee on August 24, 1987, followed up by Gabriele Franke and created by Ursula Ritter from the Hamburg University of Fine Arts and installed in 1994 in the Hamburg city park on the edge of the children's paddling pool.

Fish railing from around 1927. Boundary railing made of wrought iron (with floating fish between wavy lines as a motif) for the Eppendorfer Bridge built by Fritz Schumacher over the Isebek Canal in Hamburg, Eppendorfer Baum.

Sculptures in museums

Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg

In the “Modern 1914-1945” section of the Museum of Art and Crafts in Hamburg there are several small sculptures with the typical curves such as sculptures by Karl Hartung and Henry Moore .

• 1928: Bird soaring. Abstract sculpture in brass.
• 1931: Portrait of Max Sauerlandt - 1931 - cast iron . The director of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Sauerlandt, stood up for the penniless artist Haizmann and his work. As a thank you, Haizmann created the cast portrait of a head that looks like a figurehead on a Viking ship and which he emphasized that he captured the Roman profile, the thinker forehead and the essence of Sauerlandt. It has already been exhibited in Bielefeld.

Bielefeld art gallery

The Kunsthalle Bielefeld has an extensive collection of his works.

• Summer 1931: The Eagle's I - German Silver Summer 1931 . This sculpture is supposed to represent the spirit of all eagles in flowing forms like in a cover. Haizmann wrote in a letter of March 17, 1957 to the Federal President Theodor Heuss: "I thought of him as the sublime spirit of the group of animals eagles". It was Haizmann's draft for a war memorial for the dead of the First World War, which was awarded to Ernst Barlach (stele on the Kleine Alster in Hamburg). The eagle attracts special attention from young visitors and has already been exhibited in Antwerp, Berlin, Bremen and Hamburg.

Richard Haizmann Museum

• Dawn red elevation (bronze, 1961–1962, new cast from 2017 based on the original plaster), location: Richard Haizmann Museum, Rathausstrasse, Niebüll. Further works can be found in the Gottorf Castle Museum in Schleswig.

• Silver cat - 1929 - in nickel silver . It has already been exhibited in Hamburg.

Sculptures in private

Kneeling horse - 1927 - brass / solid cast . This sculpture is privately owned in Caracas (Venezuela). A second cast was stolen in August 1937 as "degenerate art" from the Museum of Art and Industry in Hamburg.

Drawings / pictures in collections

• 1924: mother and child. Pastel on paper. Hamburger Sparkasse collection .
• 1925: tall female figure. Gouache on paper. Hamburger Sparkasse collection.
• 1930: Richard Haizmann. Self-portrait 1930s. Charcoal drawing. Maike Bruhns Collection .
• 1952: Irmin. Woodcut on paper. Hamburger Sparkasse collection.

Exhibitions

• October 16 to November 13, 1955 at the Städtisches Kunsthaus Bielefeld
• March 16 to April 15, 1957 at the Kunstverein Hamburg
• October 18 to November 15, 1970 in the Bielefeld Cultural History Museum
• 2013: "Ostracized, persecuted - forgotten? Art and Artists under National Socialism. “Works from the Gerhard Schneider Collection. Ephraim-Palais / City Museum Berlin

literature

• Richard Haizmann: Change and Transformation. In memory of Max Sauerlandt. In celebration of the seventy-five existence. Published by the Kunstgewerbe-Verein Hamburg for its members. Hamburg June 23, 1961.
• Richard Haizmann: Changes of Mind. Woodcuts 1950-1962 . Hans Christians publishing house, Hamburg 1962
• Richard Haizmann: Change of Days. Memories 1919-1961 . Hans Christians publishing house, Hamburg 1968
• Neuengamme Concentration Camp Memorial (Ed.): Memorials in Hamburg . Hamburg, March 2003, ISBN 3-929728-71-0 , p. 67: Sculpture "Gargoyles"
• Erwin Heizmann: Richard Haizmann 1895-1963. Descriptive catalog raisonné of the early work up to 1934 . Associated with this is a separate volume of illustrations for the text . Dissertation to obtain a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Hamburg in 1988 (with images of his early works).
• Gabriele Franke: mythical animal or "Jewish creature". Chronicle of a research . Ed .: Barmbek history workshop on behalf of the Hamburg-Nord district assembly. Hamburg, December 1990. (Description of the gargoyle, the main works before 1933 and the later work after 1945).
• Uwe Hauptenthal: Richard Haizmann. Plastic, graphics. Painting. Verlag der Kunst, Husum, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86530-116-1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source: Gabriele Franke: Fabeltier ..., Hamburg 1990, p. 136
2. ^ Richard Haizmann Museum, accessed March 23, 2014
3. ^ Erwin Heizmann: Richard Haizmann 1895-1963. Descriptive catalog raisonné of the early work up to 1934 . This includes a separate volume of illustrations for the text . Dissertation to obtain a doctorate in philosophy from the University of Hamburg in 1988 (with images of his early works).
4. ↑ List of auctioned pictures of Richard Haizmann
5. ↑ Source: Richard Haizmann: Wandlung und Metamorphosis, Hamburg 1961, p. 22
6. ^ Gabriele Franke: Fabeltier ..., Hamburg, 1990, p. 39
7. ↑ Source: Gabriele Franke, pp. 123–124
8. ↑ Website: Kunst @ SH - Kunst in Schleswig-Holstein , accessed on September 27, 2017
9. ^ Exhibition: Nachtmahre and Ruinengel. Hamburg Art from 1920 to 1950. In the art house Hamburg from January 15 to April 1, 2013.
10. ↑ Source: Gabriele Franke: Fabeltier oder Judengeschöpf, Hamburg 1990, p. 148.
11. ↑ ostracized, persecuted - forgotten? Art and Artists in National Socialism. Retrieved April 16, 2016 . 

Web links

Commons : Richard Haizmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• resume
• Website of the Richard Haizmann Museum