Wilhelm Hager

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Wilhelm Hager.

Wilhelm Hager (born May 26, 1921 in Karlsbad , Czechoslovakia , † October 14, 2006 in Illingen ) was a German sculptor and painter .

biography

Wilhelm Hager's artistic training begins in 1935 at the state college for the porcelain industry in Karlsbad. He met Walther Klemm in the studio of his father's friend Wilhelm Srb-Schloßbauer and in 1937 came to Klemm at the University of Architecture, Fine Arts and Crafts (today Bauhaus University Weimar ) in Weimar . After the incorporation of the Sudetenland and the loss of his scholarship abroad, Hager became a working student in Berlin in 1939. Due to differences with Arno Breker , he left the University of Fine Arts in Hardenbergstrasse (today UdK Berlin ) and was accepted by Käthe Kollwitz in theAtelier community at Klosterstrasse .

Cenotaph for the fallen and missing of both world wars in Illingen , 1963.

Wilhelm Hager was drafted into military service in February 1941, transferred to the Crimea in 1942 and seriously wounded near Kharkov in the Ukraine in November 1943. While still convalescing, Hager was transferred to the Milan soldier station. After his health deteriorated, he was taken to the reserve hospital in Arco (Trentino) . At Christmas 1944 he was sent to the release camp in Illingen, where he met his future wife Irmgard Kilian. In January 1945 Hager was released from the Wehrmacht. His mother died on February 25th and on April 19th his parents' house in Karlsbad was destroyed in a bomb attack. In July 1945 Hager left his hometown Karlsbad and found accommodation and friends in Bamberg. He became a founding member of the Free Artists' Union of Bamberg , which was licensed on October 10th , took part in the first art exhibitions and was involved in building a theater group.

In September 1946 he married Irmgard Kilian and settled in Illingen, where he worked as a freelance painter and sculptor from then on. Initially, his success was limited to sales in Switzerland, where he won the influential art dealer Max G. Bollag as a friend and patron. With the "Württembergischer Kunstpreis der Jugend" (Wuerttemberg Art Prize for Young People), which was advertised for the first time in 1951, Hager received the first recognition in his new homeland, in 1980 the culture prize for fine arts of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft and in 1981 the plaque of the Heimatverband der Karlsbader, Wiesbaden, for outstanding artistic achievements. In 1997 he was awarded the honorary professorship by the University of Applied Sciences for Porcelain Design in Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), Czech Republic.

plant

Stromberghalle in Illingen with the concrete frieze "Motives from the history of Illingen" by Wilhelm Hager, 1966.

"As a sculptor, Hager is stylistically in the footsteps of the psychologically permeated, naturalistic formal language in sculpture of the 1920s and represents the practice of the 1950s that was based on this tradition." (V. Frank AKL) One of the main areas of work is the artist and politician portrait The portrait busts of Thomas Mann (1953 Erlenbach am Zürichsee), Hermann Hesse (1953 Montagnola, Casa Camuzzi) and Theodor Heuss (1958 Bonn) represent important milestones in Hager's work. At the end of the 1960s, Hager developed a completely new technique by making styrofoam sculptures made of cast aluminum that were worked on with soldering irons. This technique allows a free, impulsive way of working and enables the creation of filigree abstract forms.

As a painter, Hager remains - after stylistic experiments in the post-war period - versatile. Despite his inclination towards objectivity (landscapes), his main painterly work (lacquer pictures, watercolors and extremely impasto oil paintings from the 1960s) can be assigned to the Informel . Works can be found in the Städtische Galerie Stuttgart, in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, in the Schillermuseum Marbach, in public collections in the cities of Bamberg, Friedrichshafen, Heilbronn, Munich and Regensburg as well as in many private collections.

Portrait busts (selection)

Public contracts, art in architecture (selection)

  • Monument to the fallen, bronze, 1960, Marbach am Neckar .
  • Ikarus, bronze, 1963, Mühlacker , Mörike School.
  • Cenotaph for the fallen and missing of both world wars, bronze, 1963, Illingen.
  • Crowd, bronze, 1964, Regensburg , Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie .
  • Motifs from the history of Illingen, concrete frieze, 1966, Illingen, Stromberghalle.
  • Neckar river, paint on hard fiber, 1970, Ludwigsburg , Hoheneck primary school.
  • East-West Dialogue, 1970, Stuttgart , Ministry for Culture, Youth and Sport - Regional Council.
  • Rübezahlbrunnen, granite, 1979, Neuhof an der Zenn .
  • Displacement monument, marble, 1985, Asperg .

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1946 Exhibition by the Free Bamberg Artists' Union, Bamberg.
  • 1947 Paul Swiridoff Gallery , Ludwigsburg.
  • 1959 “44 Untitled Pictures”, Galerie Vincianca, Milan, then in Rome, Florence, Venice, Turin, Cannes, Paris, London and New York.
  • 1964 City Museum, Wiesbaden.
  • 1967 Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart.
  • 1973 House of the East German Homeland, Berlin.
  • 1974 Municipal Museums, Regensburg .
  • 1976 Council Hall, Pforzheim .
  • 1990 Gallery of the Esslingen Artists' Guild, Esslingen am Neckar .
  • 1998 Gerling Gallery, Bettingen .
  • 2001 Gallery of the Buslat artists' guild, Bauschlott Castle , Neulingen .
  • 2007 commemorative exhibition “work and accessories”, Illingen, historical wine press.

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Hager  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

supporting documents

Wilhelm Hager Archive, Mozartstrasse 25 75428 Illingen

AKL-Online, general artist lexicon de Gruyter Verlag

personal data
SURNAME Hager, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German sculptor and painter
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Carlsbad
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 2006
Place of death Illingen