Theodor Zeller (artist)

Theodor Zeller (born May 9, 1900 in Donzdorf near Göppingen , † December 3, 1986 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German painter and graphic artist .

Theodor Zeller (approx. 1986)

life and work

Theodor Zeller grew up in a family with five siblings. The role model of his religious mother shaped his later life as an artist. After attending primary school in Donzdorf, Zeller first went to the Progymnasium in Rottenburg am Neckar and from there to the Gymnasium in Ehingen (Danube) . It was the mother's wish that her son should become a priest .

In 1918, half a year before graduating from high school, Zeller volunteered and fought in the trenches of Flanders . After the First World War he made up his Abitur in Ehingen and began in 1922 to study theology and philosophy at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen . In 1923 he heard lectures by Husserl and Heidegger at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . This was followed by two semesters of theology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , but then he finally turned to painting .

His first teacher of art was the painter and draftsman Hans Lembke at the Freiburg University . In 1927 a patron enabled him to study for a year in Rome and Florence . It was there that Zeller saw works by his role models Cimabue , Giotto , Botticelli and Michelangelo for the first time . After Zeller's meeting in Rome with the Freiburg publisher Theophil Herder-Dorneich , the latter commissioned him to design a missal and to illustrate Dante's “ Divine Comedy ”, which began a more than forty year collaboration. Back in Freiburg in 1928, Zeller married Eva Gurschner from Vienna , whom he had met in Florence. Together they had a son in 1929 and a daughter in 1931. In 1929 the family built a small house on Mauracher Berg in Denzlingen . Due to the Nuremberg Laws , Eva Zeller was asked in 1935 to submit to forced sterilization as a “ half-Jewish woman ” . She then fled to Rome with the two children. In 1937 Theodor Zeller was banned from working and followed his family into exile in Rome. From there the family moved to a Capuchin monastery in the mountain town of Palestrina near Rome. In 1941 she had to vacate her apartment there for an Italian officer. They found accommodation in a room in the neighboring community of Gallicano nel Lazio .

After the Second World War , the family returned to Germany and lived in Munich from 1947 on . In 1950 Theodor Zeller moved back to Denzlingen alone. His wife and children stayed in Munich. He worked on the "Divina Commedia". In 1968 a painting circle began to form around Zeller. His students met with him to draw, paint and erase together. He himself created etchings , tempera pictures and watercolors . From 1969 onwards, an artist regulars' table gathered around him in the Denzlinger Café Dick. In 1970 the illustrated book Adamas: Man and the Eternal Landscape with etchings by Zeller was published. Exhibitions in Freiburg and Denzlingen followed. In 1978 Zeller's Berliner Kreuzweg was created in 15 pictures for the St. Laurentius Church in Berlin-Moabit. They were acquired by the community of Denzlingen in 2007 and are now hanging in the Denzlinger Storchenturm, the preserved part of the former Romanesque Michaelskirche, which Zeller had painted from 1979.

In the sacristy chapel there is his mural Gethsemane , which shows Jesus collapsing on the Mount of Olives, supported by Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther . From 1979 to 1995 permanent changing exhibitions took place in the Dick Café, which Zeller had meanwhile chosen to be his “living room”. In 1986 he painted his largest mural in the St. Jakobus Church in Denzling, which he called the fight for love . Theodor Zeller died on December 3, 1986 at the age of 86 and was buried on December 6 in Denzlingen.

Exhibitions

• 1962: Stadthalle (Freiburg im Breisgau) : painting, graphics, sculpture : Max Böhlen , Hans Reif, Alfred Sachs, Theodor Zeller. Catalog published by Freundeskreis Bildender Künstler "Palette" with illustrations by Max Böhlen
• 1974 Municipal Gallery "Black Monastery", Freiburg
• 1979 Brückleackerschule, Denzlingen
• from 1979 to 1995 Café Dick, Denzlingen: changing exhibitions
• from 1979 St. Michaelskirche (stork tower), Denzlingen: painting and from 2007 "Berliner Kreuzweg"
• 1981 Deutsche Bank Freiburg
• 1982 Brückleackerschule, Denzlingen
• 1985 Volksbank Denzlingen
• 1990 Municipal Gallery Emmendingen
• 2000 retrospective for the 100th birthday in the gallery in Denzling's old town hall, in the stork tower and in the parish hall of St. Jakobus Church
• 2006 retrospective on the 20th anniversary of Zeller's death in the gallery in Denzling's old town hall
• 2011 retrospective (works from 1929 to 1938) on the 25th anniversary of death in the gallery in Denzling's old town hall

Fonts

• Adamas, the man in the eternal landscape. The first person on the morning of creation. Etchings by Theodor Zeller. Texts by Johannes Amadeus Lambert. Verlag Der Mensch, Freiburg / Basel 1970

literature

• Manfred Schill: Theodor Zeller. 1900-1985. Painter and visionary . Community of Denzlingen 2000

Web links

• Literature by and about Theodor Zeller in the catalog of the German National Library
• Theodor Zeller Portrait of a Painter
• Theodor Zeller - painter from Denzlingen (1900-1986)
• Retrospective for Zeller in the municipal gallery in Denzlingen
• Zeller's works in the Denzlinger Storchenturm
• Zeller's interpretations of the 15 panels of his Berlin Way of the Cross . There are also the boards as a PDF file and a short biography of Manfred Schill.
• Zeller's 100th birthday on May 9, 2000