Stefan Wewerka

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Classroom Chair (1970)

Stefan Wewerka (born October 27, 1928 in Magdeburg ; † September 14, 2013 in Berlin ) was a German architect , designer and artist .

Life

Stefan Wewerka was the son of the sculptor Rudolf Wewerka (1889–1954) and came from a traditional family of artists that can be traced back over many generations. After the Second World War he studied architecture at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin, as a student of Max Taut , Eduard Ludwig and Georg Leowald . During his studies in 1946 he was one of the founders of the " Eichkamp dormitory ". He then worked in architectural offices, including with Hans Scharoun .

Painting by Stefan Wewerka at Haus Lempertz in Cologne (2010)

From the end of the 1950s, Wewerka became increasingly active as a freelance artist. The earth architecture emerged (exhibited for the first time in the Viennese gallery next St. Stephan by Otto Mauer and later in Cologne in the Mary Bauermeister studio ), in the 1960s he began cutting up and converting chairs, in particular, but also other everyday objects such as coins , Cutlery, flags, records, etc. In the 1970s, mainly etchings (numerous portfolios and single sheets) were created, at the same time the friendship and collaboration with Dieter Roth fell .

In 1978 he started working with the furniture company Tecta , for which he designed individual furniture and fashion. His main work is the chair sculptures, in which visual art and design combine in an incomparable way. For example, the tripod B1 was created in cooperation with Tecta , which follows the Bauhaus principle of “functionality” ( form follows function ) , but is not looking for a functional reduction or even clarity, but tries to do justice to seven different sitting postures and thus one finds innovative, almost playful form. In the late 1980s, Peter Lassen designed furniture for the Danish company Montana Mobler .

Stefan Wewerka made films and fashion design. He is considered to be one of the most versatile artists who does not fit into any drawer and who worked and taught in all areas of the visual arts and design. In the 1960s he worked at Washington University and later at the Cologne factory schools .

Wewerka pavilion in Münster

He designed a pavilion for Tecta in 1980, which was realized in 1985. A second pavilion was built in the Karlsaue for the documenta 8 in Kassel in 1987 , which was set up a year later as a loan from Tecta by the Art Academy Münster am Aasee . In Fishbellied carrier -Roof of Wewerka pavilions , a light installation was Walter Giers .

In 1987 Lothar Spree shot the film Verrückte Welten - Die Karrieren des Stefan Wewerka for ZDF (16mm 30min, screenplay, direction, production, lsfp / ZDF). In 1998, Susanne Mayer-Hagmann shot a documentary in the Deutsche Designer series for Deutsche Welle .

His son Alexander Wewerka published the book Close-Up Stefan Wewerka together with Wulf Herzogenrath in 2010 and published it in his Alexander Verlag Berlin / Cologne.

"Many a building could be torn down, the materials carefully collected in order to build something new out of it as a demonstration that architecture, if it is to express an artistic conception, is not just a matter of money, but of imagination and reason at the same time"

- Stefan Wewerka
Grave of Stefan Wewerka in the Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin-Westend

Stefan Wewerka died in Berlin in September 2013 at the age of 84. His grave is in the state-owned cemetery Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend .

Wewerka archive

In June 2014 Alexander Wewerka , the Forum Gestaltung e. V. and the city of Magdeburg founded the Wewerka archive in the former Magdeburg School of Applied Arts and Crafts . The estate of Hans Wewerka, Rudolf Wewerka and Stefan Wewerka as well as the estate of Philipp Wewerka thus found its temporary home there. According to the advisory councils Wulf Herzogenrath (director of the visual arts section of the Berlin Academy of the Arts), Stefan Kraus (director of Kolumba Art Museum Cologne) and Peter Tollens (painter and student of Wewerka), the aim is to exhibit some of Wewerka's as yet undeveloped work, some of it archive and present your ideas and thoughts. Since 2020, Dr. Petra Oelschlägel also on the advisory board.

The archive publishes under the name »Sender Wewerka Archive«, the publications are distributed by Alexander Verlag Berlin.

Exhibitions (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Stefan Wewerka  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Wewerka - biography at stefanwewerka.de, accessed on September 18, 2013
  2. ↑ tecta.de: Designer
  3. ↑ Grit Warnat: exhibition on Stefan Wewerka in Quedlinburg . In: Volksstimme . November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
personal data
SURNAME Wewerka, Stefan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German architect, designer and artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 27, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 2013
Place of death Berlin