Will Sohl

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Will Sohl (born June 17, 1906 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ; † September 11, 1969 in Heidelberg ; civil Wilhelm Albert Friedrich Leonhard Sohl) was a German artist.

life and work

Born in Ludwigshafen, Sohl grew up in Mannheim . When he left the Lessing Realgymnasium in 1924, he wanted to become an artist. However, since his father insisted on studying architecture with a previously completed apprenticeship as a bricklayer , Sohl went to the Düsseldorf Art Academy and began to study architecture. Shortly afterwards, however, he switched to studying painting. He also studied art history and archeology in Cologne , Zurich and Berlin . In 1928 he became a master student of Heinrich Nauen (1880–1940), the most important representative of " Rhenish Expressionism ". In the same year Sohl also had his first exhibition in Mannheim at the Kunstverein .

After completing his studies, he traveled to Holland , Belgium , France , Yugoslavia and the Baltic States . In between he was a set designer for two years at the Schauspielhaus Zurich and also a guest set designer at the Nationaltheater Mannheim.

He married Ruth von Davans in 1930 and they had five children. During the first years of his marriage, she accompanied him on his travels. Every year at Christmas Sohl thanked her with an "artist book", which he lovingly dedicated to her. Each of these partly large-format and lavishly designed books with drawings, watercolors or graphics and often magnificently painted book covers is a small exhibition of paintings in itself. Sometimes they show the family (“Rund ums Haus”, n.d.), the memory of a visit to a fair (“Funfair memories”, 1941) or contain beautiful, colorful watercolors from his trip to Lofoten in 1968.

Sohl was on Sylt for the first time in 1935 and was enthusiastic about the landscape and the sea. “I owe all of my work to this island; she is made for me ”(May 1939). It was here that he created the watercolors with which he is still famous today: large-scale compositions with often strongly contrasting colors. In a letter from 1937 he wrote about working on Sylt: “Today was a hard day, snow gusts swept every half hour. I sat in Munkmarsch behind the wall and painted as best I could and admired the beautiful colored clouds that chased black over a brilliant blue, the horizon pale yellow, the water peculiarly green, like from overgrown flowers to black ”.

In 1936 he moved with his family to Heidelberg- Ziegelhausen , where he lived until his death. A good friend and artist also lived there: Joachim Lutz (1906–1954). The domicile of the artist community at the foot of the Stiftweg was, especially after the war, with the artist community “Free Group”, a creative and intellectual center to which artists of other genres also belonged. Sohl was one of the founding members of the Palatinate Secession in 1946 .

In 1950 an intensive collaboration began with the architect Otto Bartning (1883–1959). Will Sohl furnished his churches with murals made of natural stone mosaics and glass windows. In addition, stage sets for plays were also repeatedly created.

The artist processed his travel impressions in many works. As a painter, he was committed to expressionism. And he carried on the legacy of Expressionism after 1945. The fact that he became known nationwide was largely thanks to the directors of the Mannheim Kunsthalle . On the one hand, it was Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub who, with exhibitions in 1932 and 1933, provided a decisive impetus for Sohl's popularity. On the other hand, the director Walter Passarge presented it in two exhibitions in 1947 and 1949 and then made it known to the relevant collectors' circles. Another important impulse for his popularity was the former director of the Kunsthalle Mannheim, Fritz Wichert . Wichert got to know Sohl and his work during his first stay on Sylt and supported him all his life through positive reviews and recommendations.

Prices

  • 1968: Hans Thoma State Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg

Exhibitions (selection)

Literature (selection)

  • Rudolf Hagelstange : Will Sohl and the island of Sylt. Stuttgart 1974.
  • Klaus Mugdan: The painter Will Sohl. On the award of the Hans Thoma State Prize in August 1968. In: Ruperto Carola, vol. 20, 1968, no. 45, pp. 129–135
  • Marion Tauschwitz : The artist Pieter Sohl. An artist can be crazy, but not cast shadows. Biography. Heidelberg 2015 (Relatively detailed about Will Sohl)
  • Barbara Widmann: Will Sohl (1906–1969): Will Sohl - his artistic estate. 2 volumes, Master's thesis, Heidelberg 1988
  • Will Sohl - At the foot of Neuburg Abbey. Watercolors from the artist's estate. Exhibition catalog, Heimatmuseum Ziegelhausen. Ed. from the district association Ziegelhausen-Peterstal. With texts by Barbara Widmann and others Heidelberg 1989
  • Klaus Mugdan (catalog editor), texts by Rudolf Hagelstange, Klaus Mugdan, Ernst Schlee, Fritz Wichert: Will Sohl (1906–1969) memorial exhibition. Exhibition catalog, Heidelberg 1970, Heidelberg 1970
  • Susanne Kaeppele, Silvia Köhler and Christine Schumann (eds.): Will Sohl: A way according to your own nose, walking at your own pace - Will Sohl 1906–1969. Heidelberg, Berlin 2017
  • Fritz Zobeley, Will Sohl: Fürstbischöfliche Badereise 1722. According to letters and other documents from the collection of Karl Graf von Schönborn-Wiesentheid . Ingelheim am Rhein 1963.
personal data
SURNAME Sol, Will
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sohl, Wilhelm Albert Friedrich Leonhard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludwigshafen am Rhein
DATE OF DEATH 11th September 1969
Place of death Heidelberg