Ursula Wendorff-Weidt

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Ursula Wendorff-Weidt (born August 26, 1919 in Berlin-Moabit ; † September 23, 2000 in Berlin-Spandau ) was a German painter, graphic artist and illustrator.

Life

Ursula Wendorff-Weidt became known for her watercolors, graphics, woodcuts, pen drawings and book illustrations. From 1952 she created around 2,000 book illustrations for around 250 works. She is one of the modern German painters of the 20th century. Wendorff-Weidt began her artistic work as a graphic designer. She studied from 1937 to 1943 at the master school for graphics, Berlin, and at the same time took evening classes with Otto Nagel . Another study followed from 1946 to 1951 at the University of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin-Weißensee with Werner Klemke , Ernst Rudolf Vogenauer .

In 1950, three days before the Berlin City Palace was blown up, she created the cycle of castle vandalism and thus became known overnight and suspected the GDR government.

Wendorff-Weidt worked as a freelancer from 1951. From 1952 to 1988 she created the well-known movement studies of the dancer Jean Weidt , who also became her husband. This connection resulted in further studies on ballet and dance theater and the chief choreographer of the Komische Oper Berlin , Tom Schilling .

Wendorff-Weidt illustrated around 250 books, primarily for the publishers Neues Leben and Rütten & Loening, Berlin, and managed to get by with such illustration orders. She remained a sought-after illustrator until 1989. Etchings, woodcuts, pen drawings as well as the design of stage designs for the Komische Oper Berlin under the direction of Walter Felsenstein rounded off the artist's extensive work.

Until 1990 Wendorff-Weidt was a member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR and from 1991 a member of the Brandenburg Association of Visual Artists. Exhibitions and study trips took her to Hungary, the USSR, Poland, Sweden, Portugal, Austria, Spain, Syria, Yugoslavia, Mongolia, India, Denmark and Egypt.

Ursula Wendorff-Weidt worked closely with the painters Otto Nagel , Ronald Paris , Paul Kuhfuss , Otto Dix and Michael Radloff , as well as with the writers and authors Friedrich Wolf , Louis Fürnberg and Peter Hacks . Wendorff-Weidt earned a place in the German painting of the 20th century, documented by 142 exhibitions that show the extensive work of the artist. In the last creative phase, Wendorff-Weidt devoted herself to watercolor painting and was a curator.

In 2008, on the initiative of a private consortium, the artist's work was honored with the most extensive exhibition "Image and Movement" to date in Fredersdorf-Vogelsdorf near Berlin. Under the patronage of the Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit , the curators Nina Rücker and Michael Wiedemann have put together a collection of works and original props by Ursula Wendorff-Weidt and the dancer Jean Weidt. The exhibition is very popular and will be shown in Germany and France .

Ursula Wendorff-Weidt lived in Rangsdorf near Berlin. Son Andreas comes from his marriage to Jean Weidt.

Working in public collections

  • Kupferstichkabinett, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin
  • Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig
  • State museums in Schwerin
  • Chemnitz art collection
  • Collection Villany zu Brandenburg
  • Collection Dr. Gerd Gruber, Lutherstadt Wittenberg
  • Neuruppin Museum
  • State Library Potsdam
  • German Photo Library, Dresden
  • as well as private collections at home and abroad

Awards (selection)

Works

  • German ballads from Bürger to Brecht, New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1956
  • Before the face of life, New Life Berlin publishing house, 1959
  • Spreelore by Edmund Graeser, New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1990
  • Watercolors and graphics for the 80th birthday, Gerlinde Förster, GEDOK Brandenburg 1999
  • Bel Ami, GEDOK Brandenburg 1990
  • Kaman, the African, Rütten & Loening, 1966
  • John Ball, New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1955
  • Queen Phantasia fairy tale of romanticism, Horst Zander, Verlag Neues Leben Berlin, 1957
  • Effi Briest, Theodor Fontane, Verlag Neues Leben Berlin, 1964
  • Die unromantische Annerose, Verlag Neues Leben, 1966
  • Ten Latvian short stories by R. Blaumanis , Verlag Hinstorff Rostock 1953
  • Living, Singing, Fighting: Songbook d. German youth. Ed. On behalf of d. Central Council d. FDJ. Editorial staff: Alexander Ott [u. a.] Wood carving: Ursula Wendorff-Weidt. 8th edition Berlin: Verl. Neues Leben, 1954. 425 pp.
  • And also summer by Elfriede Brüning, Verlag Hinstorff Rostock 1974
  • The night on the Mädcheninsel by Irma Harder, Verlag Neues Leben Berlin, 1987
  • On the large street, Henschelverlag Berlin 1984
  • Lucie and the Angler from Paris by Friedrich Wolf , Verlag Fladung, Düsseldorf
  • In my time - stories from four decades by Elfriede Brüning, Hinstorff Rostock 1976
  • The Red Dancer, Henschelverlag Berlin 1984
  • To death and life, Verlag Das Neue Berlin 1999
  • Wendorff-Weidt, Ursula. Rangsdorf: GEDOK Brandenburg, 1999
  • Hans Clauert, the Brandenburg Eulenspiegel Krüger, Bartholomäus. Berlin: Verlag am Park, 1999

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wendorff-Weidt, Ursula
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH August 26, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 2000
Place of death Berlin