Walter Renz

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Walter Renz (born 1908 in Stuttgart ; died 1998 in Tecklenburg ) was a German painter , photographer and restorer .

biography

Renz was the son of the painter Alfred Renz . He lived and worked in Stuttgart. The professional basis of his work as a freelance artist was the collaboration in the company for picture frames founded by his father and older brother Erich Renz. After completing his art studies and qualifying as a master gilder and restorer, he was responsible for the company's artistic area

After attending grammar school, he studied at the Stuttgart School of Applied Arts and at the Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts from 1925 to 1927 . His father, who was a teacher at the arts and crafts school until 1922, taught him himself at an early age and shaped and promoted his artistic development over the long term. Landscapes and cityscapes, the central themes of his father, were the focus of their artistic work on a joint study trip to Italy / Sicily in 1928. After the early death of his father, Renz continued to develop these topics independently. In 1934 he traveled to Paris and Sanary-sur-Mer , where he not only painted, but also took photographs at the same time. In addition to such photographs, still lifes were repeatedly created, which were later increasingly followed by abstract compositions.

For Renz, contacts to artists from his Swabian homeland were just as important as his travels. a. HAP Grieshaber , Fritz Ruoff , Werner Oberle, Willi Baumeister .

He had already met Grieshaber while studying together at the arts and crafts school. Both have been lifelong friends since then and have worked together on joint projects several times. Since 1933, assertion against the Nazi arbitrariness became one of the main motives of their collaboration.

Renz got to know his future wife Josefa Schuler and her husband, the economist Erwin Schuler, from committed opponents of the National Socialists. In both cases, particularly under the pressure of persecution in the “3. Reich “has a particularly close relationship. Walter and Josefa Renz got married in 1944 after Erwin Schuler's death. After the war, his son Michael was followed by his son Thomas and daughters Claudia and Vera.

Under the auspices of the rehabilitation of “degenerate art”, several exhibitions took place after 1945 in which pictures of Renz were included: 1946 in Dresden, 1947 in Baden-Baden, in Bern, in Stuttgart and 1948 in Tübingen. In Stuttgart, works by Renz have also been shown in the Lutz & Meyer gallery and the Herbert Herrmann gallery since 1946.

In the post-war period, new similarities arose with Grieshaber in the Bernstein School , in the newly founded artist group Die Freunde and in projects such as the Angel of History . The experiences of persecution and resistance and the interest in a committed artistic work connected Renz with the close friends Margot and Max Fürst , Lutz Greve and Robert (Bob) Gutmann. From the circle of friends around Grieshaber, the collaboration with Helmut Heißenbüttel and Gerd Hatje developed to publish his photographs, which became the focus of his artistic work in later years. From 1957 to 1959 he taught as a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart . He contributed to the design of the facades of some public buildings in the city of Stuttgart. Since 1981 he was a holder of the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg

Exhibitions (selection)

Works by Renz have been included in the collections of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, the Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart, the gallery of the city of Stuttgart, the Museum Folkwang Essen and private collectors

  • 1947 Participation in the exhibition Die Freunde , Galerie Herbert Herrmann, Stuttgart
  • 1950 Exhibition of Ida Kerkovius and Walter Renz , Zimmergalerie Franck, Frankfurt a. M.
  • 1955 Exhibition of works by Walter Renz, Stuttgart , Herbert Herrmann, Stuttgart
  • 1964 Participation in the 10th annual exhibition of the Artists' Association of Baden-Württemberg , Stuttgart
  • 1984 Exhibition participation Malgré tout - Grieshaber with his friends , Schiller National Museum, Marbach
  • 1986 Exhibition Walter Renz - Photographs , Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart
  • 1986 Exhibition 25 years of the gallery of the city of Stuttgart Art of the 19th and 20th centuries in Baden-Württemberg, acquisitions since 1961
  • 1987 Walter Renz exhibition , photo images 1927–1957 , Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • 1987 Walter Renz exhibition - photographs from the pre- and post-war period , Kunstverein Koblenz
  • 1989 Participation in the exhibition Bild und Lichtbild - 150 Years of Photography , Städtische Galerie, Saulgau
  • 1995 Participation in an exhibition, Subjective Thing , Stuttgart City Hall
  • 2001 Exhibition of HAP Grieshaber and Walter Renz, Documents of a Friendship , Schlichtenmaier Gallery, Dätzingen Castle, Grafenau
  • 2019 Museum Folkwang, Essen, New Worlds (new presentation of the collection from June 2019)

Publications (selection)

  • Walter Renz, HAP Grieshaber: Paris stores , Sautter, Reutlingen 1938
  • Walter Renz, Stilleben , Sammlung Woldemar Klein, in: The artwork (magazine) , II. Year 1948, no. 7, p. 33f
  • Graphic contribution to HAP Grieshaber u. a .: Hommage à Werkman - the next call , Eggert, Stuttgart 1958.
  • Walter Renz - photographs. (Foreword by H. Heißenbüttel). ISBN 37757 0228 8 , Hatje 1986.
  • Photo contributions to the angel of history. No. 1 (1964), No. 12 (1969), ed. HAP Grieshaber, Manus Presse, Stuttgart 1964-1981 and No. 26, Karlsruhe 1982
  • Interview on the genesis of the series Angels of History. In: Ludwig Metzger: HAP Grieshaber and The Angel of History. Documentary film. WDR 1994 and 1996, accessed January 5, 2019 . .
  • HAP Grieshaber: Malbriefe. Hatje 1967.

literature

  • Small lexicon of abstract painters , in: The artwork (magazine) , Woldemar Klein, born 1946–47, no. 8–9, pp. 50 and 60.
  • Ludwig Greve : Malgré Tout - Grieshaber with his friends , in: Marbacher Magazin, 29/1984, pp. 18f, 25, 29f, 34.
  • Rudolf Mayer: Tagröte - The young Grieshaber and his friends , Hatje-Cantz-Verlag, 1998, ISBN 978-3-7757-0759-6 , pp. 85, 93, 100, 108, 110ff.
  • Rudolf Mayer: Der Läufer - Die Galerie Herbert Herrmann, 1947-1948 , Writings of the Friends of HAP Grieshaber, 2, 1994, pp. 19, 26, 28, 43, 53, 61, 64f, 78.
  • Petra von Olschowski : HAP Grieshaber - What I call freedom - the beautiful dependency , catalog for the Grieshaber collection by Walter Renz and the Grieshaber estate, Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau 2001, ISBN 3-89298-132-9 p. 7ff
  • Wolf Strache, Otto Steinert (Hg): Das deutsche Lichtbild 1961 , Stuttgart 1960, pp. 98, 121, 123, 211, 216, 246.
  • Harry Schlichtenmaier: Walter Renz - The quiet look of the photographer , Grafenau 2001, ISBN 3-89298-133-7 .
  • Günther Wirth: Verbotene Kunst 1933-1945-Persecuted Artists in the German Southwest , ISBN 37757 0243 1 , Hatje Verlag 1987, pp. 163, 157, 322.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anja Rumig: Subjective Dinglichkeit , catalog Verband bildender Künstler Württemberg, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-929419-04-1 , biography Walter Renz
  2. ↑ Rudolf Mayer: Tagröte - The young Grieshaber and his friends , Hatje Cantz Verlag 1998, pp 85, 93, 100, 108, 110ff
  3. ^ Akademie der Künste Berlin: Walter-Renz-Archiv> Bildende Kunst.
  4. ↑ Ludwig Greve: Malgré Tout - Grieshaber with his friends , in: Marbacher Magazin, 29/1984, pp. 18f, 25, 29f, 34
  5. ^ Günther Wirth: Verbotene Kunst 1933-1945 - Persecuted Artists in the German Southwest , Hatje Verlag 1987, p. 157
  6. ^ General German Art Exhibition, Dresden 1946 , catalog, list of works
  7. ^ Exhibition of German Contemporary Art , Baden-Baden, 1947, catalog, p. 20
  8. ^ Exhibition of Rhenish and Southwest German Art , Bern 1947, Die Neue Zeitung, September 15, 1947, p. 4
  9. ^ Württembergischer Kunstverein, Neue Grafik exhibition , Stuttgarter Zeitung, September 17, 1947, p. 3
  10. ^ Exhibition of the Stuttgarter Schule , Tübingen 1948, Die Neue Zeitung, April 18, 1948, p. 4
  11. ↑ Robert Gutmann yvesvincentgrossmann.info.
  12. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, April 10, 1971, p. 28
  13. ↑ Hugo Borst , Dieter and Martha Keller, Woldemar Klein, see The Artwork (magazine) , vol. 1946-47, vol. 8–9, pp. 50, 60 and vol. 1948, vol. 7, pp. 33f
  14. ↑ Stuttgarter Zeitung, November 1, 1947, p. 3, Frankfurter Rundschau, December 9, 1947, p. 3
  15. ↑ Frankfurter Rundschau April 28, 1950, p. 5 and FAZ, April 25, 1950, features section,
  16. ↑ Stuttgarter Nachrichten, November 5, 1955, p. 18
  17. ^ Catalog: Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, Marbacher Magazin 29/1984
  18. ^ Catalog: Walter Renz - Photographs. (Foreword by H. Heißenbüttel). ISBN 37757 0228 8 , Hatje 1986
  19. ↑ Catalog, pp. 102, 169
  20. ↑ Schwäbische Zeitung, features section July 5, 1989
  21. ^ Catalog: Association of visual artists ISBN 3-929419-04-1
  22. ^ Catalog for the Grieshaber collection by Walter Renz and the Grieshaber estate, Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau 2001, ISBN 3-89298-132-9 , catalog for the photographic work of Walter Renz, Galerie Schlichtenmaier, Grafenau 2001, ISBN 3-89298- 133-7 , Stuttgarter Zeitung, July 7, 2001, weekend supplement
personal data
SURNAME Renz, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, photographer and restorer
DATE OF BIRTH 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH 1998
Place of death Tecklenburg