Roger Loewig
Roger Loewig (born September 5, 1930 in Striegau , Lower Silesia Province , † November 4, 1997 in Berlin ) was a German draftsman, painter and writer.
Life
Raised in Oels , Silesia , and from 1939 in Jarotschin in what was then Reichsgau Wartheland , Roger Loewig fled with his mother to Obercunewalde in Lusatia in 1945 . He was expelled from high school and worked in agriculture and forestry. From 1951 to 1953 he trained as a new teacher and was then a teacher for Russian, German and history in Berlin-Köpenick .
As an artist, Roger Loewig was self-taught . In addition to his teaching activities, he wrote poetry and created watercolors and gouaches . In his early painterly work he orientated himself on the art of Expressionism and Fauvism , which had been defamed as "degenerate" by the National Socialists . He found works by the artists he admired mainly in museums and exhibitions in West Berlin. He distanced himself from the prevailing doctrine of socialist realism in the GDR . From around 1960 onwards, he increasingly devoted himself to drawing and writing stories. He received support from Marga Böhmer , Ernst Barlach's former partner .
In 1961/1962 he responded to the construction of the Wall with a series of ink drawings “From the German Past and Present”, in which he denounced the violence of contemporary German history. He made friends with like-minded people who had connections with West Berlin students. An officially unauthorized exhibition in an East Berlin parsonage, plans to found a cross-border magazine and, last but not least, the possession of forbidden literature led to arrest for "state-endangering agitation and propaganda in a serious case". A ransom by the Evangelical Church resulted in the dismissal of Roger Loewig and his friends in the summer of 1964.
Roger Loewig was accepted into the Association of German Artists (VBKD) in 1965 . He worked in the apartment of friends in Belzig and now almost exclusively created drawings and lithographs as well as poems and introductory texts to graphic series. Image and word are related to each other in his work. He reflected on the Shoah by accusing the victims of their sufferings. From the late 1960s, the division of Germany was also a recurring theme in his work. Roger Loewig found recognition within the GDR primarily in the circle of the unofficial "Erfurt studio community" around Rudolf Franke and Waldo Dörsch , in whose private rooms he exhibited in 1966, 1968 and 1973. In contrast, he was unable to anchor himself in the GDR's state art establishment. In the Federal Republic of Germany his work became known through the mediation of friends. Here he was considered a representative of fantastic realism .
After an application to leave the country was submitted in 1967, he and his partner Creszentia Troike moved to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1972 . Both moved into a studio apartment on the roof of a high-rise building in West Berlin's Märkisches Viertel with a view over the wall. In the following years Roger Loewig had numerous exhibitions and published his literary work. After meeting Aldona Gustas in 1972, he joined the artist group Berliner Malerpoeten . Despite his entry ban, he remained close to his friends in the GDR. From 1990 he returned to work in Belzig temporarily; In a last series of works he drew the field stone churches and decaying mills of Fläming . In October 1997 Roger Loewig was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany for his life's work. He died on November 4, 1997.
museum
There has been a museum in Bad Belzig since 2008, which is managed by the Roger Loewig House Foundation and looked after by the Roger Loewig Museum Friends' Association. Roger Loewig spent a lot of time in this house and also produced some works.
Publications (selection)
- 1972: Roger Loewig: The lithographic work, Bonn, Society of Friends of Roger Loewig
- 1972: Roger Loewig: And in love with my country - poems 1970 and 1971, Hanover / Bonn, Society of Friends of Roger Loewig
- 1977: Roger Loewig: Be gracious my late harvest, Berlin, self-published
- 1979: Roger Loewig: Eternally smoking cold time - poems: Berlin, Oberbaum Verlag
- 1980: Roger Loewig: I am a bird without wings - poems and drawings, Hamburg, Hoffmann & Campe
- 1981: Roger Loewig: Face thinning - hand drawings 1954-1980, ed. by Werner Timm, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Vienna, Propylaen Verlag
- 1981: A legacy - stories of cages and migrating birds, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Vienna, Ullstein publishing house
- 1982: Until a piece of heaven bears the breast - poems from three decades, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Vienna, Ullstein publishing house
- 1988: Roger Loewig: Somewhat uncanny drawings or changed vocabulary - twenty double-titled pencil drawings together with indispensable comments 1983 and 1984, Hofgeismar, Evangelische Akademie Hofgeismar
- 1993: Roger Loewig: Portrait of a landscape in words and pictures. As a contribution to a German view of history from 1988 to 1993, published by Roger Loewig and Creszentia Troike, Berlin, self-published
- 1997: Roger Loewig: Like ships in the vast Rye Sea - old Flämingkirchen and their country. Drawings, poems, texts and comments 1969-1997, Berlin, self-published
- 2002: Roger Loewig: My head flies like a moon over this land: Poems, ed. from the Roger Loewig Gesellschaft e. V., Berlin
- 2004: Roger Loewig: Under the Skins of the City: Stories, ed. from the Roger Loewig Gesellschaft e. V., Berlin
Catalogs for solo exhibitions (selection)
- 1966: Roger Loewig: Rysunki (drawings), Warsaw, Society of Friends of Fine Arts Warsaw
- 1972: Roger Loewig: Dunkelland - Drawings 1965-1972, Hanover, Galerie Brusberg, Hanover
- 1975: Electricity between beginning and end - Roger Loewig: oil paintings, gouaches, hand drawings, lithographs, Cologne, Baukunst-Galerie
- 1976: Roger Loewig Berlin (West), Galerie Pels-Leusden
- 1978: Fluchtgedanken - drawings and texts by Roger Loewig, Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle
- 1979: Roger Loewig: Pictures-Drawings-Graphics, Regensburg, Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg
- 1984: Roger Loewig - pictures and drawings in St. Matthew's Church. Berlin (West), New Berlin Art Association
- 1986: Roger Loewig: hand drawings and graphics. Exhibition of the donation to the National Museum, Warsaw, National Museum Warsaw
- 1989 Roger Loewig: Drawings and Lithographs, Berlin (West), Berlinische Galerie
- 1992: Roger Loewig: Reminiscences. Pictures - drawings - books, Berlin, House of Hungary
- 1992: Roger Loewig: Epitafia. Auschwitz State Museum
- 2000: Roger Loewig: In Search of Human Land, Berlin, Museum Nicolaihaus, ed. by Günter and Ursula Feist
- 2012: I come from the past - Roger Loewig: painter, draftsman, poet, catalog for the exhibition Bad Belzig, Marienkirche, ed. from the Roger Loewig Gesellschaft e. V.
Catalogs for exhibition participation (selection)
- 1966: Labyrinths - Fantastic Art from the 16th Century to the Present, Berlin (West), Akademie der Künste
- 1967: 2nd International of Drawing, Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe
- 1967: Ars phantastica: German art of magical realism, fantastic realism and surrealism since 1945, Stein Castle near Nuremberg, Albrecht Dürer Society
- 1968: Fantastic Art in Germany, Hanover, Kunstverein
- 1971: German drawings and watercolors from the 19th and 20th centuries. Acquisition of the collection of drawings 1945-1970, Berlin (East), Kupferstichkabinett and collection of drawings
- 1977: The drawn world. Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle
- 1978: European master drawings and watercolors, Berlin (West), Galerie Pels-Leusden
- 1985/86: From there here - exhibition of former GDR artists, Landau / Pfalz, Kunstverein Villa Streccius
- 1987: horror and hope. Artists see peace and war, Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle
- 1992: 20 years of Berlin painter-poets, Berlin, gallery in the Tempelhof town hall
- 1997: Pictures of Germany. Art from a divided country: Eberhard Roters in honor, ed. by Eckhart Gillen, Berlin (West), 47th Berliner Festwochen in the Martin-Gropius-Bau
- 1998: Art in the headwind - The Erfurt studio community 1963-1974, Erfurt, Mühlhäuser Museen und Graphik Art e. V.
- 2004: East-West Icarus: A Myth in Divided Germany, Stendal, Winkelmann Society
- 2017: highlights. Collection history (s), Cottbus, Dieselkraftwerk art museum
- 2019: Wars and crises in the 20th century. Graphic cycles and sculptures from the BLMK collection, Cottbus, Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art
Literature (selection)
- 1996: Ursula Feist: Suffering Experience, in: Günter Feist, Eckhart Gillen, Beatrice Vierneisel (Eds.): Art Documentation SBZ / GDR 1945-1990. Essays-Reports-Materials, Cologne
- 1998: Helmut Börsch-Supan: Landscape and Humanity, in: Roger Loewig Society (publication on the foundation)
- 1998: Günter Feist: Symbol Frankfurt, in: Roger Loewig Gesellschaft (writing on the foundation)
- 2005: Helmut Börsch-Supan: Roger Loewig: His face - his faces, cat. Berlin, Hohenschönhausen Memorial
- 2005: Günter Feist: clearing on a "long way shadowy". Roger Loewig finds Rudolf Franke, in: A feast for the eye: The gift of Rudolf and Ilse Franke, cat. Erfurt, pp. 269-276
- 2010: Short biography: Loewig, Roger, in: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition, Volume 1. Berlin, Ch. Links Verlag
- 2011: Felice Fey: Roger Loewig: Eine Biographie, Berlin, Lukas Verlag
- 2018: Anna Schädlich: O Icarus, I envy you for your flight. Roger Loewig - painter, draftsman, poet and friend. Halle (Saale), Mitteldeutscher Verlag
- 2018 Wolfgang Rothe: Roger Loewig. Tragic view of the world - human impetus, attempted interpretation and memories. Private print on the 20th anniversary of his death, November 4, 2017. Frankfurt / Main, self-published
Catalog raisonnés
- 2000: Kuschel, Ulrike, b. Abel: Roger Loewig: Directory of hand drawings and paintings from the artist's estate and from accessible collections: Roger Loewig Gesellschaft e. V.
- 2000: Kuschel, Ulrike, b. Abel: Roger Loewig: Directory of prints from the artist's estate: Roger Loewig Gesellschaft e. V.
- 2000: Fey, Felice: Finding aid for the inventory of Roger Loewig: Roger Loewig Gesellschaft e. V. / Academy of Arts, Archive of Fine Arts
Web links
- Literature by and about Roger Loewig in the catalog of the German National Library
- Roger Loewig Society
- Roger Loewig Archive in the Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
- Johannes Vesper: Roger Loewig on the 10th anniversary of his death. A portrait of the painter and writer .
Individual evidence
- ↑ roger-loewig.de : Roger Loewig Museum
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Loewig, Roger |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German draftsman, painter and writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th September 1930 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Striegau , Lower Silesia Province |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 4th 1997 |
| Place of death | Berlin |