Willy Davidson

From the portfolio "Earth and Iron", Adolf Harms Verlag, Hamburg 1921, Museum for Art and Industry Hamburg

Willy Davidson , actually Willy Davidsohn (born February 13, 1890 in Bromberg , † February 4, 1933 in Hamburg ) was a German painter , graphic artist and set designer .

Life

Willy Davidson received his training as a painter and set designer at the Dresden School of Applied Arts . Immediately after completing his studies, he was drafted into military service. During the First World War he fought in Holland , Belgium and France and moved to Hamburg after the end of the war in 1918. A year later he played a significant role in the Hamburg Secession and was a member of the board in the year it was founded. Davidson took part in the work of the Hamburg artist festival and took over the function of treasurer there.

Davidson's private apartment was at Rothenbaumchaussee 26. He lived here with his partner, the interior designer Curt Ahleff. The avant-garde artists from Hamburg often met in the apartment .

Willy Davidson died shortly before the National Socialists came to power . Since his family members were murdered during the National Socialist era , the artist's estate and works have only been partially preserved. The curriculum vitae is also poorly documented.

The grave of Willy Davidson can be found on the grave complex Z 37 of the Ohlsdorf cemetery .

Works

Willy Davidsohn captured impressions of large cities and landscapes in his pictures. In addition to the countries in which it was used during the First World War, this included Italy and Spain . He visited these countries again in the 1920s. In addition, he devoted himself to topics related to Hamburg such as the Port of Hamburg . The works that have survived are rarely dated by hand, so that it is not possible to assign them to individual work phases. The work can be described as unusually closed and consistently high.

Most of the paintings have a melancholy mood. The contours often appear blurred and the colors muted, so that a veil seems to lie over them. The scenes shown work almost exclusively as dream images.

The Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts show Davidson's works. Further pictures are in private hands.

literature

• Friederike Weimar: Davidson, Willy . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 3 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-8353-0081-4 , p. 89-90 .