Theo Champion

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Theo Champion (1932)

Theodor Champion (born February 5, 1887 in Oberkassel , today a district of Düsseldorf , † 1952 in Zell an der Mosel ) was a German painter .

Life

Villa Flora

The painter Theo Champion, born in Oberkassel , son of the businessman Karl August Champion, first studied from 1906 at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf , among others with Eduard von Gebhardt , then after only one year switched to the art school in Weimar , where he learned a neo-impressionist style of painting . On the advice of his teacher in Weimar , Theodor Hagen , Champion made study trips to France , Italy and the Netherlands from 1910 to 1913 . Up until the First World War , Champions painting was mainly influenced by Vincent van Gogh .

Champion did not paint his pictures in the studio, but directly in nature. For this he had prepared his painting ground. He did not portray landscapes, but composed his pictures from different motifs in nature. He also liked to be guided by chance, so that he spontaneously brought people or animals onto the canvas with him.

Theo Champion was a soldier in the First World War from 1914 to 1916. In Battle of Verdun , he was wounded in 1916 in a military hospital housed.

In 1919 Champion was one of the founding members of the artists' association Das Junge Rheinland . Around 1920, Champion increasingly changed his style towards New Objectivity . Clear outlines, smooth surfaces and strong red-brown tones characterize his pictures. At that time he was mainly concerned with the urban landscape . In 1921 he had a solo exhibition in the Alfred Flechtheim gallery in Düsseldorf.

Inge Zacher wrote about his painting at this time: “Up close, from his living and working environment in Oberkassel, he observed how the fields and meadows disappeared, houses grew and industrial plants settled. Deserted streets and averted figures - typical stylistic devices of the New Objectivity - testify to the difficulty people have to find their way in the changed environment. "

In 1924 he became a member of the "Rheingruppe" and in 1928 he was a member of the "Rheinische Sezession". The red-brown tones typical of Champion were replaced by a blue-green color scheme, which now determined his pictures in various nuances. It was precisely this poetically naive point of view that brought him close to the work of Henri Rousseau , whose work Champion had seen in the Alfred Flechtheim gallery in Düsseldorf in 1913.

In the course of the 1920s , Champions' painting style became finer and finer and the image formats became smaller. A painting technique reminiscent of the old masters, which he pursued until his later work, has determined his work ever since. From the end of the 1920s he dealt with the German Romanticism of the early 19th century , in particular with motifs of longing, as can be found in the painting of Caspar David Friedrich . The confrontation with German Romanticism arose out of the backlash against the New Objectivity and was received as the “New Romanticism” by the artist group Die Sieben , which Champion had co-founded in 1932. With Theo Champion, the group Die Sieben included the artists Adolf Dietrich , Hasso von Hugo , Alexander Kanoldt , Franz Lenk , Franz Radziwill and Georg Schrimpf . In 1932, with the support of the Kunstverein in Barmen, they organized their only collective exhibition, which could be seen in Bochum, Wuppertal-Barmen, Krefeld, Cologne and Düsseldorf.

During the Second World War , from 1942 to 1945, Champion retired to the rural area of ​​Xanten. A group of artists, to which Carl and Emil Barth also belonged, came together there. Champion painted bright green pictures of the Lower Rhine with the cathedral silhouette on the deep horizon and jumping horses in the pasture.

Although Champion witnessed two world wars, he abstained from making political statements with his painting. Instead, he felt obliged to a poetically naive point of view. The world was already staring at guns then. Theo Champion, however, once asked about his art, wrote: “I am peaceful and I paint peace.” |

In 1947, after the Second World War, at the age of 60, Champion was appointed professor at the State Art Academy in Düsseldorf , which was being rebuilt. In 1951 Champion was awarded honorary membership by the University of Madrid .

The Champion family lived in the "Villa Flora" at Oberkasseler Strasse 26 in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel. The father had made fortunes with his Düsseldorf steam latrine cleaning entrepreneur. There Theo Champion mainly dealt with the “urban landscape” that he observed from his living and working environment.

Theo Champion died in 1952 during a spa stay in Zell an der Mosel on a sepsis . He was buried in the Heerdt cemetery. In 2011 the Theo-Champion-Strasse in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel was named in his honor.

plant

According to the local poet Carl Vossen, Theo Champion was "a Rhenish painter-poet". As a painter he was “outside of time”. In terms of art history it was and can hardly be dealt with. Theo Champion was as modern as it was old-fashioned, as artistic as it was naive, as realist as dreamer and poet. When he sent his pictures to the exhibitions, the "hanging commissions" never really knew where to put him. He was usually held in a small special cabinet with Julius Bretz and Herbert Böttger , and he felt very comfortable in this group.

literature

  • Hans Paffrath (Ed.): Lexicon of the Düsseldorf School of Painting 1819–1918. Volume 1: Abbema – Gurlitt. Published by the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf in the Ehrenhof and by the Paffrath Gallery. Bruckmann, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-7654-3009-9 .
  • Theo Champion 1887–1952. Paintings and graphics . Exhibition catalog Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf and Städtisches Museum Haus Koekkoek Kleve (ed.), Boss-Druck u. Kleve Publishing House, 1987
  • 2000 years Düsseldorf on the left bank of the Rhine . Transport and Beautification Association Düsseldorf-Oberkassel 1977, 1984
  • Emil Barth : Greetings to Theo Champion . Düsseldorf 1947
  • Alfons Friderichs (Ed.): Champion, Theo , In: Personalities of the Cochem-Zell district. Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 69.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Inge Zacher: Theo Champion 1887–1952 , ed. from Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf 1987, p. 10
  2. ^ Anna Klapheck , Rheinische Post, March 15, 1961
  3. ↑ 1906 in front of the Villa Flora, 2nd v. right: Theo Champion
  4. ^ Advertisement Düsseldorfer Dampf-Latrinen -reinigunganstalt, CA Champion , in Düsseldorfer Volksblatt, No. 145, dated May 30, 1892
  5. ^ CA Champion (Carl August Champion in Oberkassel), Düsseldorfer Dampf-Latrinen -reinigunganstalt, Büro Hafenstr. 2 , in the address book of the city of Düsseldorf for the year 1894, p. 54
  6. ^ Champion, Karl August, Rentner, Oberkasseler Straße 26 , in address book for the city of Düsseldorf 1915, p. 169
  7. ^ Heide-Ines Willner: Honor for two artists . Article from October 3, 2011 in the portal rp-online.de , accessed on February 19, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Champion, Theo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Champion, Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Oberkassel
DATE OF DEATH 1952
Place of death Zell on the Moselle