Werner Arndt (painter)

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Werner Arndt: Self-Portrait, 1958

Werner Bernhard Fritz Arndt (born November 30, 1918 in Stralsund ; † January 22, 1990 in Limburg ad Lahn ) was a German painter , graphic artist , sculptor and object artist .

Life

Arndt graduated from high school in 1937 and then studied at the college for teacher training in Darmstadt until 1938 . In 1938 he began studying at the State Art School in Berlin with Professors Willy Jaeckel and Walter Klinkert . At the same time studied at the free academy (painting technique with Kurt Wehlte , anatomy and life drawing with Wilhelm Tank ). In 1941 he married the teacher Anna Schuhmacher, whom he had met while studying in Darmstadt, and moved with her in 1942 to Nikolaiken in Masuria , from where he was called up for military service in the same year. In 1942 the family was evacuated to Bad Warmbrunn in Silesia , where their son Friedrich was born in 1944. In 1945 Werner Arndt and his family fled the Russian advance to the birthplace of his wife in Eisenbach im Taunus and in 1957 they moved again, this time to Frankfurt / Main . In 1963 their son Michael was born. From 1973 Arndt worked again in Eisenbach and died in 1990. Arndt had a second passion besides art, it was archery ; he took part in this discipline in world championships and temporarily coached the German women's team.

plant

Arndt can be attributed to Expressionism in essential parts of his work and has found his own formal language in object art.

Werner Arndt has used numerous techniques and art forms in his life to create an oeuvre that is distributed in private collections at home and abroad, as well as in museums and state property. In addition to the graphic work his passes object art equivalent in appearance, especially the torsos - sculptures , which he the English name Cager had given, as these are set up in cage-like containers. Arndt's poster designs (e.g. for his own exhibitions) also take on an aspect of his own in his work.

As a young artist, Arndt initially oriented himself towards Max Beckmann and German late expressionism, to which he was close as a North German. In addition, Cezanne and Leger von Arndt were admired role models.

In 1979 Arndt said at an exhibition about his work: "The central theme of my current work is the human being, his inner and outer compulsions, that" inner captivity "- as his friend and collector, the writer Ernst Herhaus, called it Hence the representation of the human being as the main motif through all phases of Arndt's work, initially in the form of the portrait in the style of late expressionism, then in his figurative torsos and finally in the casts of human body parts.

techniques

Werner Arndt was a painter, graphic artist, watercolorist and mastered the woodcut , lithography and pencil drawing and created an oeuvre of comparable scope as a sculptor and object artist. His artistic work is beyond even from polyester - reliefs and material collages , which result in a "partly destroyed (s) material of art". In his art, Arndt did not only approach the object by painting and drawing, he was also attracted by the "image of an object in its diverse possibilities" when he experimented "with new materials, especially epoxy resin " and fiberglass polyester. From around 1979 Arndt developed "numerous different techniques" by using, for example, the flaking technique , etching technique and relief , which have "one common denominator", namely "Arndt's love for craftsmanship ".

Evaluation of the work

painting

Arndt "was one of those artists who, with a sensitive feeling for the inner problems of our time, are ingeniously looking for forms that give artistic expression to this problem". In doing so, he succeeds in "symbolically illustrating the tense, even dramatic ambivalence of the creative and the destructive that is so characteristic of human beings."

Here Arndt stood in the tradition of representational painting and had no inclination to open up to the non-representational avant-garde direction, but in his "maritime phase" he experimented with "non-representational compositions from found objects, e.g. from flotsam ", although he nevertheless " an artist committed to the subject "remained, who" no longer depicted the objects in this phase of his work, but incorporated them directly into the works ".

Werner Arndt: Cager covering himself with hands, 1978

Arndt's pictures often show people sitting or lying down in "uncomfortable interiors", which symbolize the "prisons of the soul that man carries within himself". Arndt also goes his own way in his portrait art, for example when he depicts the writer and art collector Ernst Herhaus in his work of the same name through a "combination of mannerist directness" and "erasure" in a brokenness in which the author found himself as a longtime alcoholic .

Object art, sculpture

With his objects called Cager , Arndt wants to show "people in cages" less in their physical "being locked up behind prison bars " but rather the inner, spiritual bias, the inner imprisonment of modern people. That these depictions show the viewer in their "pessimistic ( n) Basic attitude "overwhelming is desired and finds its correspondence in the destruction of the human body in the form of the torso chosen by Arndt. These bodies, called Cager , symbolize" the fundamentals of human existence ", whereby" the fragmentary and fragmentary, the turmoil and hollowness, the oppressive narrowness and the search for support (...) are (become) symbols of our life and "projections of our psychic existence".

Self-testimony

Arndt was an artist who developed his work with great consistency, pushed it forward without considering his own interests and who, on the other hand, knew very well about the existential necessity of this approach. When asked about this by the writer Ernst Herhaus, Arndt stated that the greatest misfortune of his life was "having become an artist", and when asked about the attitude on which the work was based, he replied that he was experiencing it (in relation to his cagers ) as "compulsion to have to make such beings in such cages".

Solo exhibitions

Werner Arndt: Exhibition poster, hand screen print, 1953

Publications

  • Catalog for the exhibition in the Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg 1982
  • Retrospective 1972–1982 (figurative objects, pictures, hand drawings, prints, tearing graphics and working sketches), publisher: Regensburg Studio Druck, 1982
  • Werner Arndt. Exhibition May 25 - June 22, 1979. Rathaus-Galerie Neukölln, Berlin, 1979
  • Werner Arndt. Figurale objects, publisher: Galerie Phönis Limburg, 1978

Mentions

  • Rudi Otto (editor): Eisenbach, Selters (Taunus): 750 years, 1234-1984 . Meinerzhagen. 1984. ISBN 9783889130747
  • Community of Selters: A life for art , commemorative publication for Werner Arndt's 70th birthday. 1988

Web links

Commons : Werner Arndt  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Information from the Arndt family
  2. ↑ a b Werner Arndt on the LOT-TISSIMO auction platform . Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  3. ↑ Werner Arndt's curriculum vitae on wernerarndt.de. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p An attempt on a versatile artist. Rupert Schreiner in the catalog for the exhibition in the Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg 1982. Retrieved on November 27, 2017.
  5. ↑ Figurative objects "Cager". wernerarndt.de. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  6. ↑ INNER CAPTIVITY by Ernst Herhaus. wernerarndt.de. Retrieved November 27, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Arndt, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Arndt, Werner Bernhard Fritz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, graphic artist, sculptor and object artist
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Stralsund
DATE OF DEATH January 22, 1990
Place of death Limburg ad Lahn