Ute Steffens

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Trio , Bronze, 1974, Ostpreußenstrasse 1–3, Wiesbaden-Rambach

Ute Steffens (born December 29, 1940 in Koenigsberg / East Prussia ) is a German sculptor and painter who found a new home in Portugal in the 1960s, where she received “exceptional public attention”, which was shown in various solo exhibitions, awards and Purchases expressed.

Life

In January 1945, Steffens was from East Prussia expelled and almost at one during their flight appendicitis died, she would not be in a Hungarian hospital train been treated. After living for a while as a child on a farm in Westphalia near Espelkamp and attending the New Language High School in Bielefeld , she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart from 1959 , where she was a student of professors Peter Otto Heim (1896-1966 ) and Otto Baum was. She then moved to the art college in Hamburg , where she attended courses with Professor Gustav Seitz and Rudolf Müller until 1962 .

This was followed by study trips to Switzerland , Austria , Belgium , France , Spain and Portugal, where she held her first solo exhibition at the Palácio Foz in Lisbon in 1964 , where she lived for the next five years and was able to experience her first great successes and public recognition. She has lived in Wiesbaden since 1967 and once again had to experience “years of privation” with a “grueling battle for a decent apartment and a small studio”, until private individuals and public bodies, such as the Hessian Ministry of Education , bought their work in Germany promoted. She still lives in Wiesbaden-Biebrich to this day , in a house whose furniture she has furnished according to her own designs.

The importance of Königsberg

Throughout her life, Steffens remained connected to her hometown Königsberg; she described her East Prussian homeland as the landscape “where the world would have been at its most beautiful (...) if she hadn't lost this homeland through displacement at the age of five.

plant

In addition to solo exhibitions, Steffens has sent various group exhibitions in Portugal and Germany, for example in Lisbon, Estoril , Porto , Evora and Belém . In July 1966 she received first prize in the sculpture category for her contribution to the exhibition at the Salon Arte Moderna in Estoril. In 1967 she took part in the group exhibition of Wiesbaden artists in the Nassauischer Kunstverein , which took place in the Wiesbaden State Museum . A solo exhibition was organized by kabinett i in Wiesbaden in March 1968 , for which a catalog with further information on life and work was published. In 1974 her bronze sculpture Trio was set up at the entrance of Ostpreußenstrasse 1–3 in Wiesbaden-Rambach , which had been commissioned by the non-profit housing association of the city of Wiesbaden. In 1986 the artist took part in the exhibition of East and West Prussian Artists from Wiesbaden , which took place in the Haus der Heimat in Wiesbaden.

techniques

Steffens creates her sculptures in marble , granite and fired clay ; For her drawings she uses graphite , wooden pen , ink , charcoal , red chalk pencil , brush and drawing pens .

Evaluation of the work

Steffens is attested by critics as having "a very personal artistic handwriting", which shows itself in a "multi-layered range of expression " and combines " tradition consciousness " with a " contemporary formal language ".

Subjects

Steffens sees the focus of her subjects in sculpture in humans and their likeness: “I will stay with humans”, “the human gives me the task”.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 1964 Palazio Foz in Lisbon, Portugal
  • 1968 in kabinett i in Wiesbaden, Hasengartenstrasse 19
  • 1970 in the Carl-Zeiss-Saal in Oberkochen
  • 1973 Düsseldorf
  • 1974 Erlangen

Sculptures in public space

Cultural Office Wiesbaden

In the possession of the cultural office of the state capital Wiesbaden are:

  • 1964: cross , bronze
  • 1965: Consolation , bronze
  • 1972: unfolding , bronze

Awards

Publications

  • Ingrid Nedo: Masterpieces from the Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg: painting and sculpture . East German Gallery Regensburg. Regensburg. 1984. Self-published. 192 pages
  • Christof Dahm, Hans-Jakob Tebarth: The Federal Republic of Germany and the expellees: fifty years of integration, development and understanding with the states of Eastern Europe . Cultural Foundation of the German Displaced Persons, 2000. 196 pages
  • Carl Emde (preface): Ute Steffens - sculptures and drawings . Catalog. cabinet i . Wiesbaden 1968.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Ute Steffens - sculptures and drawings . Catalog. cabinet i . Wiesbaden. 1968
  2. ↑ a b c The artist lives on hope - The Ostpreußenblatt from February 10, 1968
  3. ^ A b c Günther Ott: Over and over again listening to nature - The Ostpreußenblatt from January 3, 1981
  4. ↑ Ute Steffens - Success in marble, granite and metal , Wiesbadener Kurier, July 25, 1989
  5. ↑ a b The human gives me the task , Wiesbadener Tagblatt of February 29, 1968
  6. ↑ a b c The stony road to success - The Ostpreußenblatt of March 21, 1970
  7. ↑ Björn Lewalter and Axel Unbehend: Space.Art, Sculpture in Wiesbaden since 1955 . Published by the state capital Wiesbaden. Edition 6065, Wiesbaden, 2002. ISBN 9783980863902
personal data
SURNAME Steffens, Ute
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 29, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Koenigsberg