Walter Stallwitz

Walter Stallwitz (born April 28, 1929 in Mannheim ) is a German painter .

Life

From 1946 to 1950 Stallwitz studied at the Free Academy Mannheim with Paul Berger-Bergner , Carl Trummer and AI Cherlé. Oskar Kokoschka was also his teacher at a summer academy in Salzburg . Kokoschka noted in his handwritten diploma "artistically entitled to hope if he does not starve to death in prosperous Germany."

In 1958 he moved into his studio in the historic observatory , which he still uses today.

In 1962 he portrayed well-known intellectuals on behalf of the student newspaper Die Ampel of the Mannheim Business School (now the University of Mannheim ). In 1964 and 1966 he traveled to India and Morocco for long periods of time for artistic inspiration.

As a member of the Free Academy Mannheim, he taught drawing between 1985 and 2004 .

In 1993 he received the Federal Cross of Merit , which he returned a little later in protest against the asylum policy of the then federal government.

Member of the Rhein-Neckar Artists' Association .

plant

W. Stallwitz has created an extensive body of work since the late 1940s, which includes painting, drawings, mixed media and (to a lesser extent) prints.

Based on the influence of his teachers at the Free Academy, he initially adopted a critical-realistic, figurative and objective, but abstract style that was enhanced into expressionistic. He worked narrative until around the end of the 1950s. After that, his visual language continuously developed into more abstract representations without ever losing the reference to reality. During this phase he created his “transformations” - works in which typically (with both graphic and painterly means) individual figures seem to merge with an object or with space to form a morbid unit. Only in the 1980s did his palette increasingly lighten.

His entire work is thematically and consistently shaped by his interest in people. People are often shown indirectly or only hinted at: through their surroundings, shadows, objects, etc.

An exception are his portraits, which deal directly with specific individuals. Some of his first pictures already show people from his immediate surroundings: his parents, friends, etc. With the recognition in the 1950s, portraits of well-known personalities were added, e.g. B. by Günter Grass , Hans Magnus Enzensberger , Martin Walser , etc. In the following years the artist also appeared regularly as a portraitist, portraying Willy Brandt , Heinz Fuchs , Franz Mazura , Hilde Domin , Martin Stather , Robert Häusser and many others

Again and again, over all creative periods, socially and socially critical pictures were created, which seek to combine the traditional aesthetic values ​​of painting with a sometimes striking statement.

In his most recent works he keeps his interest in the human figure as well as in the traces of human existence, and occasionally in nature.

Prizes and awards

• 1957 Art Prize of the Youth of Baden-Württemberg and 1st scholarship from the Michael Karolyi Memorial Foundation in Vence (France)
• 1978 bronze medal of the Polish UNESCO commission for fine arts
• 1980 Medal from the Polish Ministry of Culture
• 1990 Silver badge of honor from the Mannheim Evening Academy
• In 1993 Stallwitz received the Federal Cross of Merit and gave it back the following year.

Solo exhibitions (selection)

• 1958 Mannheim Art Association
• 1966 Göttingen City Hall
• 1970 Municipal Art Gallery , Mannheim; National Theater, Mannheim (portraits)
• 1974 Art Association Pforzheim; Gallery “Kabinett Griesbach-Grewenig”, Heidelberg
• 1976 International Art Market, Düsseldorf
• 1982 Kunstverein Speyer, "Children's portraits"
• 1983 Prix de Portrait Paul-Louis Weiller, Academy des Beaux-Arts, Paris
• 1981 Villa Streccius , Landau
• 1986 Kunstverein Ludwigshafen
• 1988 Zenthaus, Jockgrim
• 1992 Municipal Art Gallery, Mannheim
• 1995 Viernheim Culture Barn (for the inauguration)
• 2001 Gallery days at the Mannheimer Kunstverein (at Galerie Nedev)
• 2006 Mannheim Clinic
• 2009 Villa Meixner, Brühl (Baden)
• 2012 Ludwigshafen Clinic
• 2015 Art Association Viernheim

Literature and media

• Heinz Fuchs: Walter Stallwitz. Catalog. City Kunsthalle Mannheim . 1970.
• Heinz Fuchs, J. Hunkemöller, H. Bender, S. Gerth, K. Meier, In: Walter Stallwitz - Portraits 1947–1979. Catalog. Mannheim 1979.
• Gustav Adolf Bähr: Studio visit: Walter Stallwitz. SW3, 1982. (film)
• Manfred Fath In: Cat. Paintings - Drawings 1970–1986. Catalog. Ludwigshafen 1986.
• Manfred Fath, W. Marx, J. v. Schemm, A. Huber In: Walter Stallwitz - paintings and drawings. Catalog. City Kunsthalle Mannheim, 1992.
• The Brockhaus Mannheim. 400 years of the city of squares - the lexicon. 1st edition. Mannheim 2006, ISBN 3-7653-0181-7 .
• Jo Goertz (Ed.): Photography meets Artists. The portrait in transformation. Kerber Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-86678-345-4 . (German English)
• Tilmann Moser: Art and psyche: pictures as a mirror of the soul. 1st edition. Belser Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7630-2572-5 .
• City and half-timbered museum "Old University" Eppingen (Hrsg.): By hand. Artist books with signature and drawing from the Reinhard Besserer collection. 2012, ISBN 978-3-926315-40-3 .
• D. Nedev (ed.): Traces of time: Walter Stallwitz - life and work. Wellhöfer Verlag, Mannheim 2015, ISBN 978-3-95428-181-7 .

Web links

• HP of the artist
• Literature by and about Walter Stallwitz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ freie-akademie-rn.de