Willy Wolff (painter)

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Moritz Martin Willy Wolff (born July 5, 1905 in Dresden-Trachau , † July 8, 1985 in Dresden ) was a German painter , sculptor and graphic artist . He was a master student of Otto Dix and became known around 1960 as a GDR artist with his adaptation of Pop Art .

Life

artistic education

At the age of 15, Willy Wolff began an apprenticeship as a cabinet maker in Dresden , which lasted until 1924 , in which he was mainly engaged in the manufacture of baroque furniture. When he took part in the woodworkers' strike in 1921, he met anarchist groups. In the economic crisis of 1924 he was dismissed. As a wandering bird , Willy Wolff first moved from Berlin to Rostock in 1924 , and a few weeks later from Berlin to Hamburg .

At the Staatliche Kunstgewerbeschule Dresden he attended further training courses from Professor Max Frey from 1925 to 1927 and studied at the Dresden Art Academy from 1927 to 1933 initially with Richard Müller and Georg Lührig , and from 1930 as a master student with Otto Dix . In the next two years, Willy Wolff received a certificate of recognition for his work and also took part in the exhibition “Master Students of German Art Universities Dresden - Karlsruhe - Stuttgart”. After they came to power in 1933 , the National Socialists ensured that Otto Dix was dismissed. With him, Willy Wolff also left the Dresden Art Academy.

Wolff had been a member of the KPD since 1929 and worked in the Red Aid . The next year he became a member of the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists . Until he was called up for service in the Wehrmacht in 1940, he lived off small sales, delivering newspapers and working as a "room painter". In April 1935 he married Charlotte Erna Wischke. Reluctantly, he accepted his conscription to the Wehrmacht. Towards the end of the war he deserted in 1945 and was almost caught twice on his way to Dresden, he only got away because he pretended to be crazy.

Artistic new beginning

During the air raids on Dresden on February 13, 1945, most of his previous artistic work was lost, including the paintings and drawings from the Dix era, so that after the end of the war he was actually faced with a new artistic start that was directly influenced by Otto Dix and the academy time disappeared more and more. In 1946, Willy Wolff and other artists founded the Dresden artist group “ Das Ufer ” and was also a member of the Association of Visual Artists (VBK-GDR) when it was founded.

At an exhibition in Branitz Castle , Willy Wolff met the painter Annemarie Koehler-Balden , who had returned from British emigration and with whom he moved in in 1952 and with whom he had the son Pan Wolff in 1953. In 1956 they married.

While Willy Wolff focused on painting before 1950, drawing was the focus of his interest until the mid-1960s. Until 1954 it was mainly paint brushes and reed pens. In the six years that followed, it was almost exclusively the pen with which Wolff used the utmost precision to emphasize the character of the object of the portrayed in both an ironic and frightening undertone and to give his drawings a surrealistic note. Two trips he made with his family for one month in 1957 and 1958 to London and Derby , Central England, had a particular influence on his work . At that time Pop Art began to develop in England as in the USA . Willy Wolff was inspired by Pop Art, only to develop his own variant years later.

As a management assistant at the Dresden State Art Collections , the Historical Museum and in the Green Vault until 1970, he was able to find a part-time job from 1959 to 1971, while he continued to work as a freelancer on his artistic work.

Life with an exhibition ban

1959 was a turning point for Willy Wolff artistically, in which he translated his impressions on trips abroad. His presentation changed from the factual, precise, and towards the end of the 1950s also surreal, to a world of abstract forms. 1960 to 1962 it was mainly knight helmets that he admired as a management assistant in the Dresden art collections, and that he analyzed by drawing and simplified more and more. 1963 to 1964, non-objective structures were created that tried out new and experimental things according to his nature and needs. Under the influence of his wife, collages and assemblages were also made from wooden parts. Since 1967 he developed his own kind of Pop Art , which is why he was mostly known as the " Andy Warhol of the GDR". His new style did not please the party and the government. Until 1972, Willy Wolff was not shown at various exhibitions, especially at the official art exhibitions of the GDR . His personal exhibition in the cooperative gallery Kunst der Zeit Dresden was simply banned in 1968. The physiotherapist and art collector Ursula Baring negotiated the disfavor of the party and government because she twice exhibited his works in her practice. In the German Democratic Republic he was long considered an "officially not recognized outsider". The death of his wife Annemarie in 1970 was also a great loss. Willy Wolff suffered as a result.

Late recognition

Grave of Annemarie Balden-Wolff and Willy Wolff in the Loschwitz cemetery

For health reasons Wolff had to give up painting in 1970 and since then has been experimenting with a wide variety of graphic and plastic techniques, such as monotypes , collages , assemblages and objects. In the 1970s, the Vienna Albertina acquired drawings and monotypes by Willy Wolff at an exhibition in the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett in the Albertina. In 1971 Willy Wolff sold his 1932 painting “The Love Couple” to the Dresden New Masters Gallery . It was the first official purchase of one of his works. His artistic work was hesitantly recognized in the German Democratic Republic. After a long time, the first large representative exhibition followed in 1976 in the precious hall of the palace and in the glockenspiel pavilion of the Zwinger in Dresden. In 1979 Willy Wolff was honored with the Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze, which he called the " Order of Perseverance". On the occasion of the 80th birthday, the Neue Meister gallery presented a small special exhibition with paintings and objects by Willy Wolff. Wolff was unable to attend the opening of his exhibition in the Galerie am Schönhof in Görlitz for health reasons. In 1985 he died in his Dresden apartment and place of work, Am Wachwitzer Höhenpark 6, at the age of 80. His grave is in the Loschwitz cemetery .

His estate is in the Saxon State Library - State and University Library (SLUB) Dresden .

meaning

His art, which can best be compared to Pop Art, did not fit into the centrally controlled socialist art business and so his work here was only known to insiders for a long time.

Works

  • “The Lovers”, 1932.
  • "Flat composition", 1964.
  • "Self-portrait"
  • "Lenin on the 100th birthday"
  • Portrait of the artist by Max Uhlig, 1971.

Quotes

“Some people say I am volatile; that's not me. But I don't want to strain the tried and tested. "

- Willy Wolff

“The sixties were such that Willy Wolff did not exhibit at all for the entire decade. It was not until 1968 that Dresden's “Kunst der Zeit” attempted to hold an exhibition, which was canceled, and the colleagues at that time from the “Kunst der Zeit” took a lot of time to dismantle it, left the pictures below, and who did Wanted to see the exhibition, and there were many, could then go and see it anyway. But you can say that he actually worked for himself in the sixties (...) because he didn't even have this public space. "

- Sigrid Walther

“I think that was also the tragedy of his biography that he was actually cut. So Curt Querner once put it nicely: Willy Wolff ran his ass off for this country, for actually his party, for his comrades, and they could not do anything with this offer, even with this intellectual offer for socialism, so to speak. (…) Well there are parallels, John Heartfield is similar, John Heartfield said that he would have become the designer of socialism if he had been left with him. "

- Gisbert Porstmann, director of the Dresden City Gallery

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1932: "Master student of the German art academies Dresden - Karlsruhe - Stuttgart"
  • 1936 and 1938: “Association of creative artists” in the Dresden City Art Gallery
  • 1940: Dresden Artists Association. First exhibition.
  • 1940: 1st and 2nd autumn exhibition, as well as Christmas exhibition of the Saxon Art Association .
  • 1941: Great Dresden Art Exhibition
  • 1945: “Free artists. Exhibition No. 1 “, Dresden Art Academy
  • 1949: “The bank. Group of Dresden Artists 1947 ”, Rudolf Richter art dealership in Dresden
  • 1949: "10 murals are created", State Academy of the Arts in Dresden
  • 1950: "The ancient myth in the new art" of the Kestner Society in Hanover
  • 1951: "Das Ufer", Dresden State Art Collections
  • 1954: "First district exhibition of the Association of German Visual Artists", Albertinum in Dresden
  • 1955: Galerie Kunst der Zeit in Dresden on the occasion of his 50th birthday
  • 1956: “Art exhibition of Dresden and Stuttgart artists” in the Albertinum , Dresden; “Art exhibition of Dresden and Stuttgart artists” in Frankfurt am Main; House of home in Freital
  • 1957: Art exhibition Dresden - Stuttgart; 3rd district art exhibition
  • 1960–1968: Cooperative gallery Kunst der Zeit Dresden
  • 1976: Pretiosensaal of the castle and in the glockenspiel pavilion of the Zwinger in Dresden
  • 1977: Kunsthalle Rostock ; “Dresden Art Today” in the Galerie Nord in Dresden; “From collage to assemblage - aspects of material art in the GDR”, Berlin National Gallery; "Collages, montages, frottages by GDR artists" in the gallery on Sachsenplatz in Leipzig; “Revolution and Realism” of the Berlin State Museums in the Altes Museum
  • 1978: “Contrasts” in the Leonhardi Museum in Dresden-Loschwitz; "Colored graphics in the art of the GDR (II)" in the State Museum in Schwerin ; 10th art exhibition of the Dresden district
  • 1978: “Revolution and Realism. Revolutionary Art in Germany 1917 to 1933 ”, National Museums in Berlin
  • 1979: “Companions of the Contemporaries” in the Altes Museum in Berlin
  • 1979: “The first years. Fine arts in the GDR 1949–1955 ”, club of cultural workers“ Johannes R. Becher ” in Berlin
  • 1979: “Reflection and Renewal. 25 Years of Art of Time ”, Gallery Art of Time in Dresden
  • 1980: “Drawings. Berlin and Dresden artists ”in the gallery in the tower in Berlin; "Drawings. Berlin and Dresden artists ”in the precious hall of the Dresden Palace ; Arcade Gallery, Berlin; Galerie Am Sachsenplatz, Leipzig; Small gallery, Meerane; 6. Berlin graphics market of the Pirckheim company
  • 1980: “Art on the move. Dresden 1918–1933 ”, Dresden State Art Collections
  • 1981: "Art of the GDR" in the Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paries; Gallery Mitte, Dresden
  • 1982: until 1983 IX. Art exhibition of the GDR ; "Breakfast outdoors" Leonhardi Museum Dresden
  • 1983: “Prints of the GDR. Works by the old generation of artists ”, Burgk Castle State Museum
  • 1983: Galerie Kunst der Zeit, Dresden
  • 1983: "From Dresden Ateliers", art exhibition Kühl , Dresden
  • 1984: "Assemblages" in the art of time, Dresden; “30 Years of Art of Time Dresden” in the cooperative gallery “Art of Time”; "The Ufer Gruppe 1947. Dresden Artists 1947-52" in the precious hall of the Dresden Palace; “Sculpture from Dresden 1945–1984” in the Rähnitzgasse gallery in Dresden
  • 1985: State Art Collections Dresden “Dresden. Confession and Commitment ”in the Albertinum; "Graphics from Dresden workshops" in the Rähnitzgasse gallery in Dresden; Special exhibition Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden; Galerie am Schönhof, Görlitz; Gallery Comenius, Dresden
  • 1987: "From Merz to today", State Lindenau Museum , Altenburg
  • 1988: Angermuseum Erfurt; Special exhibition Galerie Oben , Karl-Marx-Stadt
  • 1989: "Art - Academy - Dresden. Painting, graphics, sculpture by teachers and students in the 20th century ”, Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
  • 1990: Galerie der Berliner Graphikpresse, Brunnenstrasse
  • 1995: "Dix pupils - proximity and distance", Gera art collections, orangery / Otto-Dix-Haus Hemmenhofen
  • 2000: Leonhardi Museum Dresden, Textile Museum Forst
  • 2003: “Art in the GDR” a retrospective of the Nationalgalerie in the Nationalgalerie in Berlin; “Art of the sixties from the Atlantic to the Urals” in the Karlsruhe Municipal Gallery
  • 2004: "Art in the GDR" a retrospective of the National Gallery in the art and exhibition halls in Bonn
  • 2005: Personal exhibition on the occasion of the 100th birthday in the Galerie Finckenstein Dresden; Galerie am Blauen Wunder 14th summer exhibition "Saxon Art - Art of the 20th Century" in the cabinet: Willy Wolff on his 100th birthday
  • 2006: “Willy Wolff zum Hundertsten” in the Dresden City Gallery
  • 2011/12: “New Objectivity in Dresden. Painting of the Twenties from Dix ​​to Querner ”, October 1, 2011 - January 8, 2012, Kunsthalle im Lipsius-Bau , Dresden

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Helgard Sauer: In memory of Willy Wolff. (PDF; 34 kB) In: SLUB-Kurier 20 (2006) 3, pp. 13-14. January 15, 2007, accessed November 30, 2014 ( persistent link ).
  2. ^ A b Pan Wolff: Biography of the Dresden Dix master student Willy Wolff, who brought Pop Art to Europe as a GDR artist around 1960.
  3. ↑ a b c Brigitte Rieger-Jähner on Willy Wolff
  4. ↑ Re- (en) visioning art in the GDR (English) ( Memento from December 20, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 54 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolff, Moritz Martin Willy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter, sculptor and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH July 5, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden-Trachau
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1985
Place of death Dresden