Siegfried Berndt

Siegfried Berndt (born April 19, 1880 in Görlitz , † June 30, 1946 in Dresden ) was a German graphic artist and painter . In terms of art history, he is assigned to the "Lost Generation".

Life

Berndt studied from 1899 to 1906 at the Dresden Art Academy , where he became a master student of Eugen Bracht . In 1901/02 he studied for two semesters in Leipzig. Early on he distinguished himself with excellent performance. In 1904 he received the Silver Medal and, at the end of his studies, the Grand Prize of the Dresden Academy, which was linked to an extensive travel grant that took him to Paris, Brussels, Antwerp, London and Scotland. From 1908 he worked as an assistant in Eugen Bracht's studio. In 1909 he was a founding member of the Dresden Artists' Association . During the First World War , Berndt worked primarily as a war painter; from 1918 he worked as a lecturer in the architecture class of the art academy. From 1932 to 1941 he worked as an art and craft teacher at the Free Waldorf School in Dresden. The school was closed in 1941 and Berndt was dismissed. After the end of the war, Berndt lived and worked in Dresden again.

plant

In the roadstead (ca.1925)

Berndt's artistic path led from Impressionism , which he got to know in Paris, through Expressionism to New Objectivity. His Impressionist works already attracted national attention, as shown by several exhibition participations in Berlin. His intensive preoccupation with the technique of colored woodblock prints began as early as 1903. Through it he finally came to expressionism. In doing so, he constantly expanded and refined the possibilities of printing technology and at times even gave woodcut courses for the professors of the Dresden Art Academy. His works can now be found in exhibitions almost every year. A stylistic change towards the New Objectivity can be observed in Berndt from the 1930s.

Reception from 1933

Siegfried Berndt was one of those artists whose work was not officially ostracized during the Nazi dictatorship. Even though one of his watercolors was removed from the Dresden City Museum as part of the Degenerate Art campaign in 1937 , individual participation in exhibitions was still possible. But Berndt personally suffered from the mindlessness of fascism. Towards the end of his life he resignedly destroyed many of his pictures. The official rediscovery of an anthroposophical painter was out of the question in the GDR. It was only after the fall of the Wall that Berndt's now almost forgotten works became the focus of interest again. In 2013, Andreas Albert published a first catalog of works with a special focus on woodcuts.

Illustrations (selection)

• The Gesundbrunnen calendar of the Dürerbund es 1931.  Sieben-Stänke-Verlag, Berlin, 1931 (including 2 original lithographs)

Works in museums and public collections (selection)

• Altenburg (Thuringia), Lindenau Museum (including: Church in Dresden-Blasewitz; graphic print in three colors, 1907)
• Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister (including Torbole on Lake Garda ; panel, 1913)
• Gera, Gera Art Collection, Otto-Dix-Haus ( river bank with bridge; color woodcut, 1912)

Literature (selection)

• Artists' Association Dresden. Summer exhibition 1923. Dresden, Verlag Alfred Waldheim., 1923
• 1. Exhibition, painting, sculpture of the working group Lausitzer Bildender Künstler. G. Benzig, Bautzen, approx. 1935
• Andreas Albert: Siegfried Berndt. A Dresden master of color woodcut. Husum Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft, Husum 2013, ISBN 978-3-89876-681-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Lothar Lang: Painting and Graphics in the GDR. Publishing house Philipp Reclam jun. Leipzig, 1983; P. 204
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Image index of art & architecture