Walter Wichmann

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Walter Wichmann (* 1916 in Berlin-Pankow ; † 1970 in Munich ) was a German painter and graphic artist. His oeuvre includes sketches , graphic sheets , panel and wall paintings .

Life

Walter Wichmann was born in 1916 in Berlin-Pankow, the son of the bank employee Paul Wichmann and his wife Ida. From 1933 to 1935 he completed an apprenticeship as a printer. During this time he devoted himself self-taught painting. From 1936 to 1939 he took painting lessons from Otto Nagel in Berlin and in 1939 attended the German Art School , Association for Free Art Creation and Art Care eV

From 1939 to 1945 he took part in the Poland and Russia campaigns, where his watercolors and drawings of the war were created. In 1943 he received the Villa Romana Prize; In 1945 he was taken prisoner of war.

In the years from 1947 to 1951 he had a teaching position at the Berlin University of Fine Arts as a lecturer for "figurative drawing" at the master school for graphics and book trade in Berlin . 1951 to 1960 he took on commissioned work for the World Youth Festival 1951 in East Berlin, Theater Magdeburg , Friedrich Wolf Theater Eisenhüttenstadt (sgraffitos), Friedrichsfelde cemetery (glass windows), book illustrations, light installations; Beginning of expressively non-representational painting.

In 1960 he moved to Munich, where he continued to devote himself to expressive painting.

Works (selection)

The early studies and graphic studies were made between 1936 and 1939, partly under the guidance of Otto Nagel.

  • Female nudes, undated, red chalk, 25 × 31 cm

  • Self-portrait, 1936, graphite, 30 × 21 cm

Of documentary interest are the drawings and water color studies and sketches in which the artist recorded his visual experiences as a soldier in Russia from 1941–44 and for which he received the Villa Romana Prize in 1944 . Committed to what is seen, these sheets are free from any war propaganda, but also from sentimentality; the sketchy protects against artificial exaggeration.

  • Russia, 1942, watercolor, 38 × 60 cm

  • Ruins, Russia, undated (around 1942), watercolor, 27 × 35 cm

After 1945 Walter Wichmann lived in the eastern sector of Berlin. His painting belonged to the movement of post-war expressionism against which polemicists and pressure were exerted in the GDR.

  • Berlin-Pankow, Breite Straße, 1945, oil on hardboard, 53 × 37 cm

  • Schlossinsel Köpenick, undated (around 1958), oil on hardboard, 60 × 75 cm

Graphic sheets from the 1950s are mostly dedicated to illustrative projects. The panel paintings from the years after the war - often urban landscapes, still lifes - are initially restrained or dark in color, but have increasingly been replaced by stronger and bright colors.

In Munich mostly pastels were created in which non-representational, multi-faceted compositions were developed with strong colors. In this work, Walter Wichmann realized his idea of ​​expressiveness with strong colors. (Jens Semrau)

  • Landscape study, undated, watercolor, 41 × 28 cm

  • Composition, 1969, pastel on paper, 50 × 75 cm

Exhibitions (incomplete)

  • Exhibition of North Berlin Artists, Niederschönhausen Castle , 1943
  • Art show painting graphics plastic, Berlin-Weißensee, City of Berlin magistrate , 1946
  • Working group of visual artists, Berlin-Pankow, Künstlerheim Berlin-Niederschönhausen , 1946
  • Walter Wichmann, Lowinsky bookstore, Berlin, 1946
  • Art exhibition Maler-Aktiv-Wedding Berlin-Charlottenburg, 1947
  • Exhibitions “Young Generation”, organized by: Magistrat Groß-Berlin, Berlin, 1947
  • Walter Wichmann Aquarelle - Pastels - Oil paintings , Lowinsky bookstore, Berlin, 1948
  • Exhibition “Carnival” masks, landscapes, figures , Gerd Rosen Gallery , Berlin, 1948
  • Masters of Expressionism Oil paintings - watercolors - graphics, Wilhelm Peters, Walter Wichmann, Lowinsky bookstore , 1950
  • Painting graphic plastic, exhibition at the Kastanienwäldchen, Central House of German-Soviet Friendship , 1957
  • Walter Wichmann "Pictures of Russia", House of the Church, Berlin-Charlottenburg, 1969
  • Walter Wichmann painting, graphics, drawing , Städtische Galerie Eisenhüttenstadt , 2007
  • Walter Wichmann, Helmut Thoma, paintings & woodcuts, Galerie Joachim Pohl, Berlin-Pankow , 2010

literature

  • Wichmann, Walter . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists of the XX. Century. tape 6 , supplements H-Z . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1962, p. 476 .
  • He went his own way. In: Berliner Zeitung, September 18, 1943
  • Villa Romana Prize awarded. In: Völkischer Beobachter, 2.11.43
  • Maler-Aktiv Wedding: Catalog for the autumn exhibition 1947, Berlin.
  • German architecture, 5 (1956)
  • German arts and crafts 1956, (published by the Inst. F. Angew. Kst), Dresden
  • An arcadia of modernity? 100 years of the Künstlerhaus Villa Romana in Florence, catalog for the exhibition Neues Museum Weimar, 2005
  • Christa and Peter Koronowski, art and artists in the north of Berlin 1926–1945 Berlin, Koronowski 2008

Web links

Commons : Walter Wichmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Wichmann, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Pankow
DATE OF DEATH 1970
Place of death Munich