Siegfried Schreiber

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Siegfried Schreiber (born January 1, 1928 in Bertsdorf , † September 22, 1988 ibid) was a German sculptor , painter and draftsman .

Life

youth

Siegfried Schreiber, son of a carpenter and grandson of the Bertsdorf master painter Paul Schreiber, grew up in a family home that influenced his artistic career at an early stage. The grandfather's workshop later became a writer's studio, who began an apprenticeship as a decorative painter in Zittau in 1942, following his example , and continued his practical training at the Zittau vocational school under Adolf Schorisch (1881–1966). In addition to Schorisch, the Bertsdorf artist Richard Israel (1904–1963) also had a decisive influence on both the development of craftsmanship and Schreiber's knowledge of art theory. In 1944 Schreiber received further training at the arts and crafts school in Breslau , where he received his diploma as a decorative painter in March 1945. When drafted into the Volkssturm towards the end of the war , he deserted and returned to his home village.

academic education

Encouraged by Richard Israel in his endeavors to embark on an academic career, Schreiber was referred to other artists by him. Admission to the Dresden Art College failed, however, and Schreiber decided to study painting at the College of Architecture and Fine Arts in Weimar with Fritz Dähn , Hans van Breek and Hermann Kirchberger . The formalism dispute and the restructuring of the higher education system in the newly founded GDR , which also led to fundamental differences within the student body at the Weimar Art Academy , moved many of the students to move to other institutions.

When Schreiber switched to the art college in Dresden in 1951 , his artistic interest had already largely specialized in sculpture , so he no longer continued his studies as a painter, but immediately in the sculpture class and the like. a. continued with Eugen Hoffmann . But instead of completing his studies, he traveled to Munich and spent four years in the Bavarian Alps in Reit im Winkl , where he developed an intensive painting activity and worked as a forest worker.

Freelance artist in Bertsdorf

In 1955 he married Rosemarie Meyer, whose marriage resulted in three children. In addition to practicing his artistic profession, Schreiber also worked as a drawing teacher and ski trainer in the Zittau Mountains . From 1956 he finally settled down as a freelance artist in his home town of Bertsdorf. It was here that his artistic activity began to develop fully and painting, apart from a few watercolors that testify to the deep connection to his Lusatian homeland, was completely pushed back. The establishment of a studio in the house where he was born and his parents, and the construction of his own cast furnace enabled him artistic freedom and independence far from all academic constraints that he once knew how to evade after his four-year retreat to the Alpine landscape. Schreiber's strongly traditional orientation towards artistic forerunners such as Wilhelm Lehmbruck , Georg Kolbe or Auguste Rodin (whom he also counted among his models) can be found in his work in a form-bound, natural design of the bronzes , which allows little innovation and the search for new forms of expression. This down-to-earth attitude and the direct connection to artistic traditions, which is conscious of the creative process, is nevertheless characterized by a certain independence, which has been able to develop its own visual language across all current style inventions. Despite his strong ties to his homeland, Siegfried Schreiber not only remained known regionally, but was also one of the most sought-after sculptors in the GDR. In addition to participation in large exhibition projects such as the National Gallery in Berlin or art exhibitions in Dresden, Schreiber's works were also on view in Budapest, Bonn and Munich. In 1985 Siegfried Schreiber received the GDR Art Prize .

plant

Siegfried Schreiber's work is mainly represented by his large sculptural works, many of which were set up in public spaces (e.g. Swinging Children in Görlitz, Wrestling Boys formerly in Dresden). Schreiber's works in the large sculptural area are determined by a consistent anthropocentricity . Again and again it is the people whose inner and outer movement tries to express Schreiber's creative power. The strict formal ties are only loosened up by the fine grain and the occasional recess in lifelike details. One looks in vain in Schreiber's work for rough or even torn surfaces with rough warps. His individual figures in particular are filled with a selfless frugality and self-contained power that lies in the unity of the whole.

Many of the small sculptures, which were often varied around a theme and were often stimulated by sport and the movement of the human body, were often the starting point for Schreiber's large-scale sculptures. In addition to the well-known sculptures of women's bodies and the smaller bronzes, which are more static and self-contained works by Schreiber, it was above all the dynamic and the movement moment of sport that increasingly encouraged him to depict groups of figures. In addition to football players celebrating goals ( goal! (Football player) ) and racing cyclists in the final spurt ( spurt (two racing drivers) ), Schreiber has often resorted to the design of groups that show snapshots from everyday life, but are also filled with a dynamic that is his due to precise observation of sporty motivated movements. In addition to small bronzes such as the runners , the ball players and Baumgartel's fall, there are also motifs such as Der Wasserscheue , Ins Wasser (bathers) and air mattresses , whose pictorial means Schreiber did not always want to limit to the representation of small groups of people, but rather worked through variations with several figures Has.

In spite of the works in painting that were only created in his early work and occasionally in the course of his later sculptural specialization, Siegfried Schreiber achieved remarkable results in this area too, most of which were executed as watercolor, but also in oil. In an emphatically expressive manner, they process impressions from the mountains of the Alps in the 1950s or the local surroundings of the Zittau Mountains in sober watercolors. In addition, Schreiber also worked in the field of medal art , the design of which, in addition to the usual commemorative and anniversary occasions, related to events that gave him the opportunity to illustrate his connection with sport.

Heiner Protzmann has compiled a catalog raisonné ( WV 1991 ) for all of Siegfried Schreiber's known works . With partial inclusion of the estate, a new, revised catalog raisonné was created in collaboration with Ophelia Rehor, Marius Winzeler and Jürgen Matschie, which completely catalogs Schreiber's oeuvre.

In addition to his artistic work, his achievements as a climber should also be emphasized, including a. the first ascent of the Kelchstein , the most difficult peak in the Zittau Mountains.

Works (selection)

  • Rocking children , bronze, 100 × 131 × 45 cm, 1970 ( Görlitz Municipal Hospital )
  • Wrestling boys , bronze, 74 × 150 × 75 cm, 1971/72 (Museum Bautzen, Art Collection; Eisenhüttenstadt, Diehloer Straße)
  • Baumgartels Fall , bronze, 19.4 × 22 × 8 cm, 1977 (Kulturhistorisches Museum Görlitz)
  • Spurt (two racing drivers) , bronze, 30.2 × 43 × 23.3 cm, 1977
  • Standing (Rosel I) , bronze, 155 × 49 × 45 cm, before 1980 ( Reichenbach / OL , in front of the Hotel Reichenbacher Hof)
  • Torso of Girls with Bowed Head (Reni) , bronze, 151 × 42 × 32 cm, 1981/82 (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Skulpturensammlung; Kunsthalle Rostock) image
  • At the finish (group of runners) , bronze, 50.4 × 49.5 × 30 cm (Sports Museum Berlin)
  • Ballplayer , bronze, 23.5 × 22 × 17 cm, 1971 (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Skulpturensammlung) image
  • Standing, bent to the right with folded arms , bronze, 60 × 14 × 13 cm, 1981 (Städtische Museen Zittau)
  • Standing girl (Steffi) , bronze, 155 × 42.5 × 37 cm, 1984 (Eisenhüttenstadt, Diehloer Straße)

Honors

Public collections

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1973: Small gallery, Zittau
  • 1986: Galerie Kunst der Zeit , Dresden
  • 1991: Galerie Rähnitzgasse , Dresden
  • 2001: Galerie am Wasserturm, Berlin
  • 2008: Zittau City Museums, Bautzen Museum, Görlitz Museum of Cultural History, Dittelsdorf Museum

literature

  • Siegfried Schreiber - sculptures, drawings, watercolors . Exhibition cat. Galerie Rähnitzgasse, Dresden 1991.
  • Ophelia Rehor, Marius Winzeler (Eds.): Siegfried Schreiber 1928–1988. Sculptor and painter . Exhibition cat., Bautzen 2008, ISBN 978-3-9812476-0-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Siegfried Schreiber - sculptures, drawings, watercolors . Exhibition cat. Dresden, Galerie Rähnitzgasse, Dresden 1991, pp. 69–71
  2. ↑ Ophelia Rehor, Marius Winzeler (Ed.): Siegfried Schreiber 1928–1988. Sculptor and painter . Exhibition cat., Bautzen 2008, pp. 97–112
  3. ^ The art award winners 1986 , In: Neues Deutschland , May 23, 1986, p. 6
personal data
SURNAME Clerk, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor, painter and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Bertsdorf
DATE OF DEATH September 22, 1988
Place of death Bertsdorf