Walter Schelenz

Walter Schelenz (born May 21, 1903 in Karlsruhe , † September 5, 1987 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German sculptor .

Life

Walter Schelenz was born in Karlsruhe on May 21, 1903 . After leaving school, he completed an apprenticeship as a dermoplastic . In 1922/23 he began studying sculpture with Georg Schreyögg at the State Art School in Karlsruhe and studied in Hermann Gehri's drawing class . From 1923 to 1927 he continued his studies with Karl Albiker at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden , from autumn 1926 as a master student . As a freelance sculptor, Schelenz lived in Berlin from 1927 to 1945. Between 1939 and 1945 he was hired by the Air Force as a draftsman. During the war years, sculpting was hardly to be thought of. Since the end of the war, the native of Karlsruhe lived first in Menzenschwand , then in Bonndorf , where he founded and initially directed the arts and crafts school. In 1954 this was dissolved again in the course of the amalgamation of Baden and Württemberg. From 1955 until the end of his life he worked as a freelance sculptor in Freiburg im Breisgau. He died there on September 5, 1987.

Schelenz was married to Charlotte Lange and had 2 daughters. His toohter Barbara married the architect Herbert Dörr . The film producer Sebastian Schelenz is his grandson.

Exhibitions

As a member of the New Group , Walter Schelenz exhibited at the Great Art Exhibition in the Munich House of Art . After being a guest participant in exhibitions of the German Association of Artists before the Second World War , Walter Schelenz also took part regularly as a member of the DKB annual exhibitions from 1957.

Awards

• 1959: Upper Rhine Art Prize
• 1970: Reinhold Schneider Prize from the city of Freiburg.
• 1973: Guest of Honor at the German Academy Villa Massimo in Rome
• 1977: Awarded the title of professor (hc) by the Prime Minister of the State of Baden-Württemberg
• 1986: Honorary membership of the German Association of Artists

plant

"Walter Schelenz's early work was essentially shaped by problems of form and the exploration of space," said Werner Haftmann in a greeting on the occasion of the sculptor's 80th birthday. In the years up to 1939 he stuck to the figurative tradition, comparable to the sculptors Hermann Blumenthal , Ludwig Kasper and Gustav Seitz , who belonged to his circle of friends in Berlin. In 1954 the fencer came into being . For Schelenz a time of transition, of the decision to go back to freelance sculpture - also a time of self-creation. The fencer marks the end of his figurative phase, but at the same time stands for a pioneering reorientation. Largely reduced in volume, a lively relationship between form and space manifests itself in this work.

From 1957, now living in Freiburg, Schelenz finally came to non-representational design, for a short time he brushed against Art Informel , then slowly, almost imperceptibly, included nature-related, vegetative forms in his work again at the end of the sixties, but without the level of a high level To give up the abstraction and the sense of form gained in the past few years.

Walter Schelenz's large-scale sculptures in public space are mainly in southwest Germany , particularly in Freiburg im Breisgau. In 1988 he created the Blasius Fountain in front of the St. Blasien Cathedral .

In the late years of his life (approx. 1967–1987) he found an unmistakable personal style in small sculptures with his free work and clearly poetic themes. Works by Walter Schelenz are in state ownership of the state of Baden-Württemberg, in the Museum of New Art Freiburg , in the State Art Gallery in Karlsruhe and in private ownership.

Art in public space

• 

  Large sculpture Form Development , 1957, bronze, 240 × 310 × 200 cm, Freiburg , Mozartstrasse

• 

  Large terracotta group, 1964/65, terracotta, 320 × 500 × 300 cm, inner courtyard of the Freiburg Regional Court

• 

  Memorial to the Victims of the Nazi Regime, 1975, bronze, 370 × 160 × 135 cm, Freiburg , Rotteckring

• 

  Dammed wave , 1978, Tombak MS 85 , 250 × 475 × 215 cm, Iffezheim , barrage

Free work

• 

  The fencer , plaster of paris (there is also a bronze cast), 1954

• 

  Group in the headwind , bronze, 1981

• 

  Resurfacing , bronze, 1986

literature

• Walter Schelenz. A catalog raisonné , Kunstverein Freiburg, Freiburg 1983.
• Sabine Fischer: Between tradition and modernity: the sculptor Walter Schelenz (1903-1987). A monographic study with a catalog of works . Scaneg, Munich 1991, ISBN 978-3-89235-041-5 ( publisher's advertisement ).
• Michael Klant (Ed.): Sculpture in Freiburg , Volume 1 Art of the 20th Century in Public Space . modo publishing house, Freiburg i. Breisgau 1998, ISBN 978-3-922675-76-1 , pp. 67-70.
• Walter Schelenz, view out of the window , Freiburg Municipal Museums, Museum of New Art, modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Breisgau 2003 ( publisher's advertisement ).
• Schelenz, Walter in: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. Fourth volume (QU) , EA Seemann, Leipzig 1999 (study edition). ISBN 3-363-00730-2 (p. 180)

Web links

Commons : Walter Schelenz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Walter Schelenz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Large Art Exhibition Munich 1963 , Süddeutscher Verlag Munich, official exhibition catalog 1963 (p. 117: Schelenz, Walter, Freiburg / Breisgau: catalog no. 811, Mandorla , bronze, 40 × 17 cm)
2. ↑ 1936 forbidden pictures , exhibition catalog for the 34th annual exhibition of the DKB in Bonn, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin 1986. (guest participant list 1936, p. 99)
3. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Exhibitions since 1951/1979 to 1986 ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on January 18, 2016) 
4. ^ Freiburg: Town Hall; Prime Minister Filbinger hands over the title of professor to Walter Schelenz, sculptor, State Archive Baden-Württemberg, Department State Archive Freiburg - sub-inventory W 134 (Neg. BaWü), part 1: Willy Pragher photo collection