Tell dude

Tell Geck (born September 6, 1895 in Offenburg , † October 3, 1986 in Stuttgart ) was a German painter and musician.

Life

He was the second of five children to the printing house owner and social democratic politician Adolf Geck . He owed his first name to his parents' enthusiasm for the freedom hero Wilhelm Tell . According to his own statements, he was not a good student, but always got top marks in elementary school in the subjects of drawing, gymnastics and singing. From 1910 to 1912 Geck trained as a glass, enamel and decorative painter in Offenburg at the Eugen Börner company. He then studied at the arts and crafts schools in Strasbourg and Karlsruhe with Hermann Göhler and August Groh . He enjoyed further training in Munich, where he also worked as a decorative painter. 1914-1918 he did military service. From 1919 to 1926 he studied at the Stuttgart Art Academy with Robert Poetzelberger , Robert Breyer and Heinrich Altherr , whose master class he was. Geck lived in Offenburg again from 1927 to 1936 and worked in his father's publishing house. In the following years he made study trips to Italy, Corsica, southern France and the Netherlands. He was one of the founding members of the Stuttgart Secession . From 1919 he lived in Stuttgart with a few interruptions until his death. In addition to landscape paintings, still lifes and portraits, he made a name for himself above all with Black Forest and evening landscapes.

In 1933 he was banned from exhibiting and practicing his profession by Baden's Minister of Culture, Otto Wacker ; his works were removed from public collections and destroyed by the Reich Chamber of Culture .

Coming from a musically interested family, Geck had cello lessons from an early age. Cut off from painting due to the professional ban, he began studying cello at the Basel Conservatory in 1934 , which he completed in 1936. He then worked as a cello teacher all his life and referred to himself as a 'painter & cellist'. In 1943 he was taken into custody, drafted and transferred to the medical service on the Western Front. In a bomb attack on Stuttgart in 1944 he lost a large part of his works. However, the caricatures from the early 1920s, which he had made as a trial observer in the Offenburg courtroom, have been preserved. In addition to 70 other exhibits, they were shown in the presence of the 90-year-old artist at the Geck retrospective in the Offenburger Stadthalle.

With the death of Tell Geck, the namesake of the Adolf Geck family died out.

literature

• Dude, Tell . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 2 : E-J . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1955, p. 214 .
• Wolfgang Wipprecht: The painter Tell Geck. Laudation on the occasion of an exhibition in Offenburg on the occasion of his 75th birthday . In: Ekkhart yearbook. 1970, pp. 101-107.
• Tell dude; Paintings, watercolors, drawings. (Tell Geck on his 90th birthday) . Gallery d. City of Stuttgart, December 13, 1984 - January 27, 1985. Ed .: Galerie d. City of Stuttgart. Exhibition u. Catalog: Eugen Keuerleber u. Brigitte Reinhardt. City Gallery, Stuttgart 1984.
• Gerd K. Nagel: Swabian artist lexicon: From the baroque to the present . Art u. Antiques, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-921811-36-8 .
• Antje Michaela Lechleitner: The “Badische Secession” group of artists: the history, life and work of their painters and sculptors . Lang, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin [a. a.] 1994, ISBN 3-631-47034-7
• Brigitte Reinhardt: Geck, Tell . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 50, Saur, Munich a. a. 2006, ISBN 3-598-22790-6 , p. 495.

Web links

• Literature by and about Tell Geck in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Erwin Dittler: Rothraud Weckerle-Geck 1968/82. Issue 12, Kehl / Goldscheuer: Eigenverlag, December 1995, p. 24
2. ↑ ^{a b} Erwin Dittler: Rothraud Weckerle-Geck 1968/82. Issue 12, Kehl / Goldscheuer: Eigenverlag, December 1995, p. 26