Werner Scholz (painter)

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Werner Scholz (* October 23, 1898 as Werner Ferdinand Ehrenfried Scholz in Berlin ; † September 5, 1982 in Schwaz , Tyrol ) was a German-Austrian painter .

Werner Scholz is a representative of the second generation of German Expressionism . As a contemporary of George Grosz and Otto Dix , he portrayed city life in Berlin. His powerfully painted pictures show people in their existential loneliness and hardship ( Witwer [1927], Winterweg [1927], Paar am Wasser [1927], Am Bülow-Bogen [1928], pair [1929], argument [1930], murder [1930], hunger [1931]). After being ostracized as a “degenerate artist” by the National Socialists, he retired to the Tyrolean mountain village of Alpbach in 1939 , where he lived until his death.

Life

Werner Scholz, son of the architect Ehrenfried Scholz (a pupil of Walter Gropius ) and the pianist Elisabeth, b. Gollner, began studying painting at the Berlin University of Fine Arts in 1916 . Scholz entered the First World War as a volunteer . On his 19th birthday (October 23, 1917), he was seriously injured in France, Chemin des Dames, and subsequently lost his left forearm. In the years 1919–1920 he continued his painting studies at the Berlin College of Fine Arts . In 1920 Scholz left the art college and moved into a studio on Nollendorfplatz in Berlin.

Berlin

In the 1920s and 1930s, Scholz used expressionist stylistic devices to depict the hardship and misery of the petty bourgeoisie in post-war Berlin with a powerful gesture . Werner Scholz was next to George Grosz , Otto Dix and Max Beckmann a member of the second generation of German Expressionism. The oil paintings from 1919 to 1945 are initially of a subdued color tone, but of enormous expressiveness. Like Franz Frank , Albert Birkle and Otto Pankok , Werner Scholz is a representative of expressive realism who does not gloss over anything and, as in the oil painting The Displaced in 1933, foresaw the disastrous future.

For Scholz it was not the image construction alone that was important, but the expressiveness of the line and the expressiveness of the color. That is why the meeting with Emil Nolde , who acquired a picture of him at an early age, was particularly important for him . The constructive energy with which the German next generation of the "Fauves", Franc Marc , August Macke , Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Erich Heckel and Emil Nolde tamed the wilderness of colors, undoubtedly had an impact on Werner Scholz's generation. But like his contemporaries George Grosz and Otto Dix , Scholz goes far beyond the generation of his predecessors in his expressiveness. Scholz's work derives its constructive power from concentrating on the relentlessness of a gesture in which human fate is concentrated.

In National Socialism

Scholz recognized the threat to German culture and civilization posed by the rise of National Socialism very early on and took a journalistic position on it. In the “Diary” of January 17, 1931, one finds the following statements by him: “ Yes, it is high time to counter the furious destruction of culture by the Nazis, to respond with energetic work. Paper pamphlets and protests today, as daily events prove, become irrelevant. The outrages that fascists can already legally afford must be demonstrated to the entire public in their irresponsibility. And it does so continuously and systematically, by creating a combat community that includes all cultural means that carries their struggle to the streets, uses all propaganda means to capture large strata of the population, who repeatedly pound into the brains of what will happen when this is dangerous Reaction comes to power . ”His visual response is of similar vehemence ( Orphans [1932], Das tote Kind [Triptychon 1933], Child between Graves [1933], The Displaced Persons [1933], Freezing Child [1934]). Scholz was a member of the German Association of Artists and exhibited his works at the DKB annual exhibitions until the last, compulsorily closed exhibition in Hamburg.

In the National Socialist propaganda exhibition " Degenerate Art " in Munich in 1937, in which the main representatives of German Expressionism were defamed by the National Socialists, there were at least two pictures by Scholz: the large triptych The dead child and the still life with amaryllis . As a “degenerate artist”, Scholz was banned from exhibiting by the National Socialists.

Alpbach (Tyrol)

In 1939 Scholz moved from Berlin to Alpbach in Tyrol, which he knew well from previous stays, and bought the house “Büchsenhausen” there with his wife Ursula. His Berlin studio was completely destroyed by a bombardment in 1944. Almost all of the oil paintings from his time in Berlin that Werner Scholz had hidden there in secret were destroyed.

For Scholz, the Tyrolean mountain village of Alpbach was an antipode to the hectic world of the big city. Very expressive pictures were created here, depicting peasant society tied to the church ( The Monks [1932], Old Farmer [1932], Reliquie [1932], Prayers [1932], Nun [1932], The Dead Child [Triptychon 1933], Kirchhof [1933] grave cross [1933], child from graves [1933] Frier end child [in 1934], candlelight procession [triptych 1934] confirmands [1935]). In these pictures, too, Scholz is not concerned with the realistic depiction of the rural world. With a powerful gesture, he rather shows the essential, existential aspects of this very different world.

After 1945 Werner Scholz turned his work intensively to peasant society ( Der Kirchenfürst , Triptychon [1960–1961]) and the landscape ( thunderstorm sun [1942], storm [1951], moon behind bare trees [1953], Alpbach) [1957], Der Berg [1957], Lago di Bernaco [1960], Moon Cloud [1961], The Night [1961], March [1963], Bergkirche [1964], Im Apennin [1964], Am Gardasee [1965]) . Its color palette is getting lighter and more intense.

In 1954 Scholz painted the steel triptych on behalf of the Krupp company , which was followed by a large number of pictures from the industrial world of the Ruhr area: for example fire [1955], kettledrum [1955], shovel excavator [1955], the Schlemmer [1955] , Steamers , tugs [1955] and blast furnace batteries [1956].

The intensive preoccupation with myths led Scholz to create an extensive pastel cycle on the Old Testament from 1948 onwards. Consequences arose from the Revelation of John, the God-seeker Job and the Proverbs of Solomon. The pastel cycle “Revelation of John” was purchased by the Albertina Graphic Collection in Vienna. During this time, Scholz devoted himself intensively to Greek mythology in a series of 113 pastels and some oil paintings. In addition, Scholz created a large number of pastels and oil paintings with depictions of nature and depictions of rural society, which was shaped by the church.

Werner Scholz died on September 5, 1982 in Schwaz in Tyrol.

Works

  • 1927 Widower , oil on cardboard
  • 1927 Winterweg , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1927 Couple at the water , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1928 Am Bülow-Bogen , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1929 Couple , oil on cardboard, Hermitage St. Petersburg
  • 1930 argument , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1930 Murder , oil on cardboard
  • 1931 Hunger , oil on cardboard, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum , Cologne
  • 1932 nun , pastel
  • 1932 The Monks , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1932 Alter Bauer , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1932 Relic , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1932 Orphans , oil on cardboard
  • 1932 Prayers , oil on cardboard, Lehmbruck Museum , Duisburg
  • 1932 Nun , oil on plywood
  • 1933 Mondnacht , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1933 The dead child (triptych, lost)
  • 1933 Kirchhof , oil on cardboard, Franconian Gallery, Nuremberg
  • 1933 grave cross , oil on cardboard
  • 1933 Child between graves , oil on cardboard
  • 1933 The Expellees , oil on cardboard, Märkisches Museum (Witten)
  • 1933 Dying Dancer , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1934 Freezing Child , oil on cardboard, State Gallery Stuttgart
  • 1934 November sun , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1934 Light procession (triptych), lost
  • 1935 Couple of people , oil on cardboard, National Gallery (Berlin)
  • 1935 Confirmers , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1937 The Man of Sorrows (triptych), oil on cardboard, Kunsthalle Mannheim
  • 1938 Der Stern , oil on cardboard, private collection
  • 1938 Peasant girl from Alpbach , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1942 Thunderstorm Sun , oil on cardboard
  • 1943 The Widow , oil on wood, private property
  • 1943 The Children , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1946 circus rider , oil on cardboard, National Gallery (Berlin)
  • 1947 Captive Bird , oil on cardboard, Austrian Gallery Belvedere
  • 1948 Simson breaks the pillars , pastel, private property
  • 1948 David's Lamentation , pastel, private property
  • 1948 Naemi builds Jerusalem , pastel, private property
  • 1948 Psalmist , pastel, private collection
  • 1949 Saul , oil on wood, private property
  • 1951 Jesus , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1951 Rahel , oil on cardboard, private collection
  • 1951 Antigone , oil on cardboard, Folkwang Museum , Essen
  • 1951 Sturm , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1952 Minotaur , oil on cardboard
  • 1952 Orpheus , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1952 Dove of Aphrodite, oil on wood, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen , Munich
  • 1953 Athena with the owl , oil on cardboard, private collection
  • 1953 Moon behind bare trees , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1955 Steamers and tugs , oil on wood, Folkwang Museum , Essen
  • 1955 Railway bridge , oil on panel
  • 1955 moonlight , oil on cardboard, private collection
  • 1955 Tropical butterfly, oil on panel, private collection
  • 1955 From a steelworks , oil on cardboard
  • 1956 gas torch , oil on hardboard
  • 1956 Night in the Revier , oil on cardboard
  • 1957 Alpbach , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1957 Der Berg , oil on cardboard, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum , Cologne
  • 1958 Königsee , oil on hardboard, private property
  • 1958 Tauern Church , oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1960 Lago di Benaco , oil on hardboard
  • 1960 Die Nacht, oil on hardboard, Hamburger Kunsthalle
  • 1960/61 The Prince of the Church (triptych), oil on hardboard, Lehmbruck Museum , Duisburg
  • 1961 moon cloud , oil on hardboard
  • 1961 Die Nacht, oil on cardboard, private property
  • 1962 Sunset , oil on hardboard, private property
  • 1962 Medea , oil on hardboard
  • 1962 Antigone , oil on cardboard
  • 1962 Judith , oil on hardboard, private collection
  • 1963 March , oil on hardboard, private property
  • 1963 Doge , oil on hardboard, private property
  • 1964 Bergkirche , oil on hardboard
  • 1964 In the Apennines , oil on hardboard, private property
  • 1965 Am Gardasee , oil on hardboard
  • 1965 Lucrecia Borgia , oil on hardboard

Catalog raisonné

  • Claudia Grasse: Werner Scholz. Catalog of works for the 100th birthday . Alpbach 1998.

Publications

  • The action in “Diary”, January 17, 1931
  • Art is not just an entertaining game, Das Kunstblatt, 15th year 1931
  • Emil Nolde, Die Familie, Museum der Gegenwart, magazine of the German museums for modern art, vol. 3, issue 2, 1932
  • Post-war painting, Berliner Tagblatt, January 1, 1933 and Die Presse (Vienna), May 4, 1948
  • The catchphrase Expressionism, Kurier (Vienna) September 14, 1946
  • Emil Nolde, voice of Tyrol, August 27, 1947
  • Art has no program, Die Neue Zeitung, July 5, 1950
  • Pastels from the Old Testament, catalog of the Kestner Society for the Werner Scholz exhibition, September 1950
  • The art of our days, catalog for the exhibition Werner Scholz, Kölnischer Kunstverein 1953.

Solo exhibitions

literature

  • Adolf Behne : Werner Scholz , Potsdam 1948.
  • Otto H. Förster : Werner Scholz , Essen 1948.
  • PO Rave: Art dictatorship in the Third Reich , Hamburg 1949.
  • PF Schmidt: History of Modern Painting , Stuttgart 1952.
  • Ernst Köhn: Werner Scholz , Essen 1955.
  • G. Händler: contemporary German painting , Berlin 1956.
  • Karl Gustav Gerold: German painting of our time. Munich 1956.
  • Bernard S. Myers: The Painting of Expressionism. Cologne 1957.
  • Franz Roh : History of German Art from 1900 to the Present. Munich 1958, p. 166.
  • W. Grohmann: New Art after 1945 , Cologne 1958.
  • Bernard S. Myers: The German Expressionists. A generation in Revolt. New York 1963.
  • Hans-Georg Gadamer : Image and Gesture , Kleine Schriften II, 1967.
  • Hans-Georg Gadamer: Werner Scholz , Aurel Bongers, Recklinghausen 1968.
  • Walther Killy , Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . Volume 9. Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-23163-6 , p. 111.
  • Brockhaus Encyclopedia, 21st edition . Volume 24. 2006, ISBN 3-7653-4145-2 , p. 411.
  • Rainer Zimmermann : The Art of the Lost Generation. German painting of expressive realism 1925–1975 , Munich 1980, pp. 26, 88, 105, 113, 142, 159.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Georg Gadamer: Werner Scholz , p. 17.
  2. ↑ Hans-Georg Gadamer: Werner Scholz , p. 32.
  3. ↑ 1936 forbidden pictures , exhibition catalog for the 34th annual exhibition of the DKB in Bonn, Deutscher Künstlerbund, Berlin 1986. (p. 9899: DKB membership directory 1936 )
  4. ^ Claudia Grasse: Werner Scholz, catalog of works for his 100th birthday , p. 13.
  5. ↑ Carl Kraus , Hannes Obermair (ed.): Myths of dictatorships. Art in Fascism and National Socialism - Miti delle dittature. Art nel fascismo e nazionalsocialismo . South Tyrolean State Museum for Cultural and State History Castle Tyrol , Dorf Tirol 2019, ISBN 978-88-95523-16-3 , p. 246–247 (with illustration) .
personal data
SURNAME Scholz, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schulz, Werner Ferdinand Ehrenfried (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH October 23, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 5th September 1982
Place of death Schwaz , Tyrol