Willi Hartung (painter)
Willi Hartung (born February 12, 1915 in Zurich ; † June 18, 1987 in Sternenberg , canton Zurich , entitled to live in Ermatingen ) was a Swiss painter .
Life
Willi Hartung grew up as the second oldest son of the facade and mural designer Wilhelm Hartung and Klara Hartung in Zurich. Inspired by his father and his uncle Eugen Hartung , he completed an apprenticeship as a flat and decorative painter in Zurich in 1930 . He then attended the Zurich School of Applied Arts from 1934 to 1936, where he took the subjects of drawing in nature, life drawing , color theory and font painting .
Hartung secured his livelihood through graphic commissions and decorative paintings, which he carried out for various companies. Hartung stayed in Paris in 1947 and 1948 , where he could study the old masters in the Louvre . Another study trip took him to Italy ( Florence ) in 1949 . Hartung found new impulses for his works in the sacred art of the Trecento and Quattrocento and developed his own style of expression based on that of the Christian world of images. He preferred to paint his small-format pictures in tempera and watercolor . Hartung also dealt intensively with the other religions and world views.
In 1952 Hartung won second prize in an international competition for a Christmas picture. This gradually opened up the American art market for him, which meant that a large part of his work is located in America . From 1958 to 1965 Hartung stayed in Greece on various occasions .
In 1956 he was able to realize his first mural in Switzerland. This was followed by other orders that he carried out for private buildings, schools and churches. In addition to the large public commissions, Hartung also worked here and there for private collectors and exhibited his pictures in galleries.
Hartung taught as a drawing teacher at Princeton from 1967 to 1969 . There his works met with great interest and he was able to exhibit them in museums and galleries. He then lived in Mexico for another two years and got to know the country and its people. Initially he lived in Cuernavaca and Zihuatanejo , later he stayed in Oaxaca and then returned to Zihuatanejo. As on his earlier trips to Italy and Greece, Hartung also included elements of real reality in his dreamlike visions of nature in Mexico. Further trips followed in 1974 to Sri Lanka and 1977 to Vita Levu and Tonga .
From 1971 he settled in Wigoltingen ( Canton Thurgau ). The first joint work with Ernst Egli emerged . In 1973 a mural for the house at Klosbachstrasse 106 in Zurich, in 1975 a ceramic mural for the children's hospital in Affoltern am Albis and in 1978 a ceramic mural for the “Spanner” school in Frauenfeld . In addition to ceramic figures and wall paintings , he also designed stained glass (including the Glis , Vernamiège , Raperswilen churches ).
Between 1979 and 1983 Hartung created watercolors together with Ernst Egli, Rudolf Baumgartner, Martin-Guy Marquardt and Hannelore Walther-Dittrich. Each artist started by creating one or two watercolors freely or partially according to a given motif and passing them on to another artist for further completion. Thus the works, always alternating between beginning and finishing, were mutually exchanged and ultimately bore the signature of two artists. The pictures were shown in 1983 in Aesch near Birmensdorf on the occasion of an exhibition.
Hartung's pictures are an expression of a positive, modest way of life, but also reflect Hartung's deep, cosmopolitan religiosity. His predominant motifs are nature as well as scenes from the Bible , whereby there is always a very life-affirming and positive force speaking from his pictures, which are detailed and almost ornament-like and colorful. Typical of the artist, some pictures show dreaming and sleeping people, who float diagonally in the picture and express a complete letting go and trust, a complete surrender. Most of the pictures were made using the watercolor technique. Today Hartung's pictures hang in various museums, but mainly in private apartments.
On June 18, 1987, Willi Hartung died at his favorite place, on the Sternenberg in the Zurich Oberland . His grave is in Wigoltingen.
literature
- Elisabeth Grossmann: Willi Hartung . Man and artist. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 60, 1985, pp. 9–31. ( e-periodica.ch )
- Gerhard Piniel: Willi Hartung . Pendo-Verlag, Zurich 1995
Movie
- Documentary The Thurgau . 1986, with a five-minute documentary about the artist.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Baumgartner, Rudolf In: Sikart
- ↑ Marquardt, Martin-Guy. In: Sikart
- ^ Dittrich, Hannelore. In: Sikart
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hartung, Willi |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss painter of naive painting |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1915 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zurich |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 18, 1987 |
| Place of death | Sternenberg ZH |