Werner Kunkel

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Werner Kunkel (born July 18, 1922 in Magdeburg ; † July 1, 2017 in Braunschweig ) was a German painter, draftsman and graphic artist.

Life

After graduating from school in 1940, Kunkel began an apprenticeship as a businessman. From 1941 to 1945 he did military service as a telephone operator on the Eastern Front . In October 1945 he was released from Soviet captivity . On the recommendation of Karl Hofer , he was admitted to the entrance examination at the Berlin University of Fine Arts (today Berlin University of the Arts ), where he studied with Hans Kuhn in the class for free painting and wall design from 1948 to 1954 . After completing his master's degree, Kunkel worked on Hans Kuhn's wall designs in Berlin and southern Germany, including for Burda-Verlag in Offenburg . Between 1955 and 1957 he was Hubert Burda 's private art teacher and accompanied him on numerous trips to European art and cultural sites.

In 1957 Kunkel returned to Berlin and married the painter Anne Schilbach (1927–2006). From 1962 to 1986 he taught nature studies and life drawing at the Berlin Lette Association . After retiring, he moved to Lehe / Dithmarschen . Kunkel had to give up his work for health reasons and moved to Braunschweig in 2007 .

plant

As a student in divided Berlin experienced Kunkel not only the political controversies of the Cold War , but also the hard-fought Bilderstreit between representatives of abstraction and supporters of objectivity . With the exception of a few excursions into abstract pictorial worlds, Kunkel turned to realistic painting. His artistic work includes, in addition to prints and some sculptures, especially drawings, sketchbooks and oil paintings.

Werner Kunkel: Cyclists , oil on canvas, 1954

Apart from a few participation in exhibitions - in 1957, 1958 and 1960 at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition (GBK) - Kunkel deliberately stayed away from the art scene. In 1960 he painted the house of the major publisher Aenne Burda in Taormina . It was not until 1981 that he exhibited again at the Free Berlin Art Exhibition (FBK). In 2005, on the occasion of Hubert Burda's 65th birthday , the Kunstverein Offenburg showed a retrospective of Werner Kunkel's work, entitled All about the wedding cabinet, which Georgis Zwach described as follows: “The many veristic drawings and studies of skeletons and figures, the images of flotsam and fishing nets, the statuesque portrayed, whose specialty lies in the precise and sometimes almost meticulous capture of the object, nevertheless convey a distance to their surroundings ... Looking back at the essential years after 1950 that shaped their own style, the diverse influences are evident to spot his work quickly. The realism continuation of Karl Hofer, the tectonic image structure of the landscapes and their color rhythms handed down by Cézanne . Kunkel's pictures ... are based on the classicism and objectivity of forerunners, which nonetheless allow magical dimensions to shine in the sober. In addition, there are samples of an unexpected graceful lightness: clownish, ... somewhat surreal cyclists, impressions of nature in Art Nouveau mauve and green and the Ischia images that bring to mind Werner Gilles and Hans Purrmann . Kunkel is not an innovator, but certainly a representative of a high painting culture in the best sense of the word. ”Werner Kunkel is represented with many works in the Schubert Collection in Berlin and in the Hubert Burda Collection.

Exhibitions (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Braxmaier: Poets, painters, petticoats - Hubert Burda and his friends. Munich 2005, ISBN 3-87115-452-0 .
  2. ↑ Bilderstreit ( Memento from February 17, 2018 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Figure on p. 4 of the PDF file
  4. ↑ Understanding yourself in context. In: Badische Zeitung. September 26, 2005.
  5. ↑ Schubert Collection
  6. ↑ Mention of Kunkel at the exhibition of the Burda collection in 2006
  7. ↑ Dr. Hubert Burda opens art exhibition on hubert-burda.de , September 27, 2005
  8. ^ An opening full of memories , Baden Online , September 26, 2005
  9. ^ An artful gift giving , Baden Online , December 8, 2006
  10. ↑ Werner Kunkel - an almost unknown , Berliner Morgenpost , June 19, 2008
  11. ↑ Exhibition on museum-offenburg.de
personal data
SURNAME Kunkel, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, draftsman and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH July 18, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 2017
Place of death Braunschweig