Werner Hofmann (graphic designer)

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Werner Hofmann (born September 7, 1907 in Dresden ; † August 10, 1983 there ) was a German graphic artist and painter.

Life

Werner Hofmann was trained as a commercial artist from 1922 to 1924 and at the same time attended evening school at the Academy of Applied Arts . From 1925 to 1929 he studied at the Academy of Applied Arts with Paul Hermann, Richard Lippmann , Max Frey , Arno Drescher and Georg Erler . In addition, he worked as a freelance exhibition graphic designer at the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden . Hofmann was a founding member of the ASSO local group in Dresden in 1929 and was politically active with his painter colleagues Otto Griebel and Wilhelm Lachnit . He participated in exhibitions at the Künstlerhaus Dresden-Loschwitz . After that he was unemployed and took on occasional jobs as a commercial artist and type painter. In 1961 he designed the cover of his album "Seltsame Liebeslieder" for Georg Kreisler .

Grave of Werner Hofmann and family on the Heidefriedhof in Dresden

In 1939 Hofmann was drafted into the Wehrmacht and in 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British. During the air raids on Dresden , he lost more than 500 of his works, including oil paintings, watercolors and drawings, and more pictures burned in 1945 in Berlin in the house of the German Municipal Council . After the war, Hofmann worked as an exhibition designer in Dresden and in 1949 took over a lectureship for handicrafts at the Dresden University of Fine Arts . As a co-founder of the workers and farmers faculty (with Otto Griebel) at the University of Fine Arts, he was appointed director in 1952 and held the office until 1954. He then worked as a freelance painter and graphic artist (exhibition design) and took over functions in the Association of Visual Artists in Dresden. Study trips took him to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia . He received awards with the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze and silver in 1969 and 1979.

Werner Hofmann lived until his death in August 1983 in the Künstlerhaus Dresden-Loschwitz , a studio house in which his well-known artist colleagues Hans Jüchser , Max Lachnit , Wilhelm Rudolph and Hermann Glöckner also lived and worked. His daughter Brigitte and his son, the painter Veit Hofmann , who now lives in Dresden , were born there.

It was not until after his death at the end of 1983 that Werner Hofmann received the deserved artistic recognition with an extensive personal exhibition of over 200 oil paintings, watercolors, drawings, prints and linocuts in the precious hall of the Dresden Palace .

plant

Hofmann began with graphic work and developed his skills as a painter, especially through numerous portraits showing members of his family (he was married to Erika), friends and painting colleagues. Only a few socially critical images have survived. In addition, Dresden cityscapes, still lifes, landscapes and animal pictures were created. Most of his work is privately or family owned.

Public collections

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1933 Participation in the IfA (Interest Group for Working Culture) exhibition in the Künstlerhaus Dresden
  • 1965 joint exhibition with Otto Griebel and C. Großpietsch in the Leonhardimuseum Dresden
  • 1983 Personal exhibition in Dresden Castle
  • 1989 hand drawings from the artistic estate in the Galerie West, Dresden
  • 2011/12 New Objectivity in Dresden. Painting of the twenties from Dix ​​to Querner , October 1, 2011 - January 8, 2012, Kunsthalle im Lipsius-Bau , Dresden

literature

  • Werner Hofmann . In: Birgit Dalbajewa (ed.): New Objectivity in Dresden . Sandstein Verlag, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-942422-57-4 , p. 242-244 .
  • Werner Hofmann, painter and graphic artist, Dresden 1907–1983, member of ASSO ; Exhibition catalog 1983, Dresden, Office for Fine Arts of the Dresden District Council
  • Diether Schmidt: Exhibition catalog Otto Griebel, Curt Großpietsch, Werner Hofmann , Dresden, Leonhardimuseum, 1965
  • Reinhard Kittel: Four graphics by Werner Hofmann , in: Journal of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University of Greifswald, series 19, 1970, issue 1/2, pp. 35–36
  • Heinz Quinger : Werner Hofmann - a painter of the working class, In: Bildende Kunst, Vol. 32 (1984), 5, pp. 214-216

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hannelore Gärtner: The Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists of Germany in Dresden , in: Art im Aufbruch Dresden 1918–1933 , Dresden, 1980
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German graphic artist and painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH August 10, 1983
Place of death Dresden