Ulfert Wilke

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ulfert Wilke (born July 14, 1907 in Bad Tölz ; † December 7 or 8, 1987 in Anahola , Kauai , Hawaii ) was a German-born painter and calligrapher who came from the Brunswick family of artists and who emigrated to the United States in 1938 .

Life

Wilke was born in 1907 in Bavaria as the son of Rudolf Wilke and his wife Amalie (née Brandes) . He first attended a grammar school in Braunschweig and the Odenwald school . Like his sister Charlotte , he first learned in 1923 from Willy Jaeckel in Berlin. In 1927 and 1928 he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and the Académie Ranson (founded by Paul Ranson ) in Paris . He was awarded the Albrecht Dürer Prize at the age of twenty . In 1938 he was visiting friends in the United States and was unable to return to his homeland in 1939 because of the outbreak of World War II . Therefore, he emigrated to the United States. A Carnegie scholarship enabled him to begin studying at Harvard University , which he continued, interrupted by his military service, at the University of Iowa . After graduation, he worked as an art education teacher in the 1940s and 1950s and was employed as a director at several universities and museums. With two Guggenheim scholarships he was able to continue his studies in Munich and Rome as well as in Japan. There he learned the Japanese art of calligraphy. Wilke applied for American citizenship and was officially naturalized in 1943. He also became a soldier and after the end of the war worked at several art faculties as a lecturer and professor .

Wilke went to New York in the 1960s , where he met artists from the New York School , including Max Beckmann , Lyonel Feininger , Robert Motherwell , Ad Reinhardt and Mark Rothko . Here he created the Interstices series , which also earned him international recognition. As director (1968 to 1975) of the Museum of Art at the University of Iowa, he also published exhibition catalogs, for example on the Elliott Collection.

Private

Wilke was married to Dorothy (nee Kehl) with whom he had three children. Christopher, Nicholas and Karen.

Artistic work

His painting was initially influenced by the design of Willy Jaeckel, which brought him success in particular with his portraits. As early as the 1930s, some of Wilke's works were shown at solo exhibitions in Germany. In the 1950s his work was shown in numerous exhibitions. He was particularly interested in calligraphy and the written word, which is reflected in his works. Much of his later works are characterized by abstract shapes, bold colors and calligraphic elements. Wilke was also a collector of tribal art. His works can be found in the Guggenheim Museum , Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and in some private collections. Both through his friendship with Mark Tobey and Julius Bissier and the Far Eastern influences, his works became increasingly abstract.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • Paintings. In the University of Louisville Library from November 3 to 25, 1948.
  • Recent works. From November 2nd to December 4th 1970 at the Des Moines Art Center in Des Moines.
  • An artist collects. Ulfert Wilke, selections from five continents. From March 23 to May 3, 1975 at the Museum of Art, Iowa City.
  • The Ulfert Wilke collection. African, Pre-Columbian, American Indian, Ocenanic. From January 14th to February 11th 1978 at the Pace Gallery in New York.
  • A retrospective. From April 9 to June 12, 1983 at the Museum of Art, Iowa City and from September 25 to November 27, 1983 at the Museum of Fine Arts in Salt Lake City, and from April 2 to 29, 1984 at the JB Speed ​​Art Museum in Louisville.
  • Master of the line. From March 3rd to April 21st 2007 at the Gallery at 6th & 6th in Tucson.
  • The Wilkes: a family of modern artists from Braunschweig. From November 14, 2008 to February 15, 2009 in the Braunschweig Municipal Museum.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Painter Professor Ulfert Wilke on braunschweig.de
  2. ↑ Peter Lufft: Wilke, Ulfert. In: Luitgard Camerer , Manfred Garzmann , Wolf-Dieter Schuegraf (eds.): Braunschweiger Stadtlexikon . Joh. Heinr. Meyer Verlag, Braunschweig 1992, ISBN 3-926701-14-5 , p. 248 .
  3. ↑ Peter Lufft: Wilke, Ulfert. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 657 .
  4. ↑ a b Ulfert Wilke Painter, 80. In: The New York Times . December 16, 1987.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Peter Lufft: Wilke, Ulfert. In: Horst-Rüdiger Jarck , Günter Scheel (ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon - 19th and 20th centuries . Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1996, ISBN 3-7752-5838-8 , p. 657-658 .
  6. ↑ Ulfert Wilke (1907–1987). on artrine
  7. ↑ Ulfert Wilke (American / German, 1907–1987) on artnet.de
  8. ↑ a b c Ulfert Wilke (1907–1987) ( Memento from July 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (detailed description of the property → continue reading).
  9. ↑ a b Ulfert Wilke on Janet Gwendolyn Smith Art
  10. ↑ Ulfert Wilke: The Owen and Leone Elliott Collection. Inaugurating the opening of the University of Iowa Museum of Art in Iowa City on May 5, 1969 and continuing until August 31, 1969. Museum of Art, Iowa City, Iowa 1969.
personal data
SURNAME Wilke, Ulfert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-born painter and calligrapher
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Bad Tölz
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1987
Place of death Anahola , Kauaʻi ( Hawaii )