Theodor Werner (painter)

Theodor Werner (born February 14, 1886 in Jettenburg , Württemberg , † January 15, 1969 in Munich ) was a German painter .

Life

Theodor Werner received his first training at the teacher training institute in Nagold , then Nürtingen . Parallel to his work as a teacher, Werner studied from 1908 to 1909 at the Stuttgart Academy with Robert Poetzelberger . Werner then went on study trips abroad until 1914, visiting Paris several times , where he received private training in Charles Guérin's atelier .

Theodor Werner began painting with still lifes and landscape motifs. The paintings from the years 1919 to 1929 are strongly influenced by the Impressionist style of Paul Cézanne , for example . After military service in World War I , Theodor Werner lived and worked as a freelance painter in Großsachsenheim near Stuttgart until 1929 . In 1930 he moved to Paris, where he lived until 1935. In Paris he became a member of the artist group Abstraction-Création founded by Naum Gabo , Antoine Pevsner , Auguste Herbin , Theo van Doesburg and Georges Vantongerloo .

In 1931 Werner married the painter Anneliese Rütgers (" Woty "). Four years later he returned to Germany. There the National Socialist regime imposed a painting and exhibition ban on him. From then on, his works were considered degenerate art . In the Second World War he was drafted into the service of the Wehrmacht as a draftsman. In 1945 a large part of his pictures were destroyed in a bomb attack.

Theodor Werner's most important creative period began in 1947 when he became an important exponent of abstract painting . From 1946 to 1959 he lived and worked in Berlin . In 1950 Werner became a member of the German Association of Artists , which was re-established after the Second World War , and in whose first annual exhibition he took part in 1951 at the Berlin University of the Arts with four works. From 1950 to 1955 he was active there as a member of the artist group ZEN 49 . From 1955 to 1969 he was also a member of the Academy of the Arts , Berlin (West), Fine Arts Section. And from 1956 to 1962 deputy director of the visual arts section of the Academy of Arts, Berlin (West). In 1956 Theodor Werner was appointed honorary senator to the University of Fine Arts, today the University of the Arts .

Theodor Werner participated in documenta 1 in 1955 and - like his wife Woty - was represented at documenta II in Kassel in 1959 . In 1959 he moved to Munich, where he lived and worked until his death. He died in 1969 a month before his 83rd birthday and was buried in the Munich forest cemetery.

His pictures are represented in the collections of the New York Museum of Modern Art and the Stuttgart State Gallery .

Theodor Werner bequeathed his artistic estate to the Bavarian State Painting Collection in Munich.

Works (selection)

• 1951: Somewhere , mixed media, 81 × 100 cm
• 1951: modifications , mixed media, 81 × 100 cm
• 1951: Day of Creation , mixed media, 81 × 100 cm
• 1951: Sprouting , mixed media, 100 × 81 cm (picture in the DKB exhibition catalog 1951)

Awards

• 1951: Berlin Art Prize
• 1953: International Lissone Prize in Milan and Critics' Prize of the City of Berlin
• 1954: Critics' Prize of the City of Berlin.
• 1962: Upper Swabian Art Prize

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Artists exhibiting at the 1st annual DKB exhibition in 1951: Werner, Theodor ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on March 30, 2017) 
2. ↑ s. Catalog of the Deutscher Künstlerbund 1950. First exhibition in Berlin 1951, in the rooms of the Bild University. Arts, Hardenbergstr. 33 , complete production: Brüder Hartmann, Berlin 1951. Cat.No. 217-220: Theodor Werner (without page numbers)
3. ^ Membership in the Academy of Arts
4. ↑ Erich Schreibmayr: Last home. Personalities in Munich cemeteries 1784–1984. Self-published, Munich 1985, p. 164.

literature

• Herbert Read: History of Modern Painting. Munich / Zurich 1959, pp. 268, 315 u. 362.
• Brigitte Lohkamp: Theodor Werner. A contribution to the history of German abstract painting and artist aesthetics. Phil. Diss. Munich 1975.
• Erich Steingräber, Brigitte Lohkamp, ​​Ernst Stuhlinger: Theodor Werner. State Gallery of Modern Art, Munich / Middle Rhine State Museum, Mainz (exhibition cat.), Munich 1979.
• Günther Wirth: In the vicinity of the visible. Theodor Werner's early work at the Kunsthaus Schaller in Stuttgart. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung. October 12, 1979, p. 35.
• Tim Heilbronner: On Theodor Werner's early work: Three previously unpublished works from the estate of Hans Schwenkel. In: Swabian homeland. 2, 2010, pp. 202-211.

Web links

• Literature by and about Theodor Werner in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials by and about Theodor Werner (painter) in the documenta archive