Werner Höll

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Werner Höll (born September 11, 1898 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † April 14, 1984 in Reutlingen ) was a German painter , wood cutter and art critic .

Life

Born and raised in Freiburg im Breisgau, Höll took part in the First World War from 1914 to 1918 as an officer. After an apprenticeship as a bookseller, which began in 1920 and was broken off, he studied at the Karlsruhe Art Academy from 1921 to 1928 . Influential teachers were Hans Adolf Bühler , Albert Haueisen and Hermann Goebel . His friend Vladimir von Zabotin , who was later classified by the National Socialists as a degenerate artist , had a strong influence on his development . Even in his time in Freiburg he had Bissier met, which as hell with Zen - Buddhism employed.

After Höll initially occupied himself with landscape and portrait painting in the New Objectivity style , the first non-representational pastels and drawings can be traced in his work from 1932 . From 1931 to 1934 he worked as a freelance draftsman at Herder-Verlag . 1934–38 he found employment as a draftsman at the Mineralogical Institute of the University of Freiburg .

In 1936 he took part in a seminar for artists from the Supreme SA leadership . On September 16, 1937, Höll was a member of the commission (named by the Nazi district leadership ) that examined works of art for "degeneration" in the Augustinermuseum in Freiburg on behalf of the Reich Chamber of Culture and confiscated works of art declared degenerate, among many other works by his friend Zabotin . Since he was temporarily employed as an auxiliary restorer for paintings in the museum, he knew his way around the painting collections. He also made a name for himself through polemical art criticism in the battle journal of the National Socialists in Oberbadens, " Der Alemanne ". During this time he painted Nazi propaganda pictures. In 1937, for example, the SA Obertruppführer created a leader's picture for the large meeting room of the Freiburg City Hall.

From 1939 to 1945 he was an officer in a munitions column or a propaganda unit in the Wehrmacht . In 1939 he got to know Ernst Jünger , with whom he was stationed in Paris in 1941, and then linked a 'lifelong friendship', which he himself described.

After it was bombed out in Freiburg, he first lived in Ravensburg from 1945 and was based in Reutlingen from 1952 . He obviously avoided his hometown Freiburg, where he was known as an avowed National Socialist artist. During this time, Höll, who was now withdrawn and extremely modest as a painter and wood cutter, at times also as a publisher's draftsman and restorer, turned away from figurative art and towards pure abstraction . His work received significant impulses during annual stays in Paris . He became deeply involved with the work of the neighboring village Eningen acting HAP Grieshaber apart, in which he became proverbial as an annoying visit.

After a phase shaped by Informel , Höll began to create more woodcuts and collages from the mid-1960s . For this he received quite recognition in provincial art circles after he had adapted to the current political conditions. Numerous exhibitions in Germany, but also abroad, for example in Copenhagen in 1959 or in Paris in 1960, honored his work and show the artistic strengths of Werner Höll. His oeuvre also includes works in oil , tempera pictures , ink drawings and watercolors .

For the role of the art critic in the time of National Socialism, Höll was of great importance, as he was nationally active for the Nazi press. Despite his strong Nazi past, which was probably not known to the jurors and co-winners, Höll received the recognition award of the Upper Swabian Art Prize for his complete work in 1977 together with Jakob Bräckle and André Ficus . The Upper Swabian Art Prize , which was founded in 1951 by the districts of Biberach , Ravensburg , Saulgau and Wangen , is one of the most highly endowed German art prizes.

literature

  • Heinrich Geissler : Werner Höll. Collages 1965–1978 [Exhibition at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart December 9, 1978 - January 7, 1979], Stuttgart: Staatsgalerie 1978.
  • Werner Höll. Paintings, collages, ink drawings, woodcuts; Reutlingen Town Hall, December 19, 1983 to January 29, 1984; Braith Mali Museum , Biberach, February 5–4, 1984; Bonndorf Castle District Museum, Black Forest, April 15 - June 13, 1984 . Reutlingen: School, Culture and Sports Office, 1983.
  • Walter Jacobi: Iconoclasm in the provinces. The Nazi campaign “Degenerate Art” in 1937 in South Baden . Freiburg i. Br .: 1988.
  • The art of the early years, Freiburg 1945-60 . Freiburg Municipal Museums, Museum of New Art, exhibition from September 5 to October 18, 1992. Freiburg: Museum of New Art, 1992.
  • Werner Höll. Woodcuts . Municipal Art Museum Spendhaus Reutlingen, 1992. ISBN 3-927228-47-8 .
  • Ute Scherb: Freiburg under National Socialism. A city has a brown face . In: Journal of the Breisgau history association "Schauinsland" . 127, 2008, pp. 113-144 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Freiburg newspaper of June 16, 1937, evening edition
personal data
SURNAME Hell, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, wood cutter and art critic
DATE OF BIRTH September 11, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg im Breisgau , Germany
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1984
Place of death Reutlingen , Germany