Wolfram Beck

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfram Beck (born April 30, 1930 in Greiz ; † January 10, 2004 in Berlin ) was a German visual artist . Among other things, he created the Golden Camera and the Hörzu film and television award .

Life

Bronze sculpture, bronze casting with different surface treatments approx. 1980, previously wood approx. 1960
Metal sculpture, steel, flexible, ca.1970

Wolfram Beck was the first-born child of a merchant and an embroiderer and artist. Conflicts with his bossy mother left the introverted and sensitive boy with a lifelong skepticism towards authority figures. In 1944, when he was 14 , he was drafted into the flak helper service, was seriously wounded by a grenade and spent a long time in a hospital, an experience that he later spoke of often. His father was killed during the war.

After completing an apprenticeship as a wood turner, he moved to West Germany in 1948, where he trained as a wood sculptor with the Bauhaus student Wilhelm Löber in the Rhön for the next two years . With hard wage work in the Fritz-Heinrich colliery in Essen and in the port of Hamburg , he then financed the rest of his schooling, which he finally completed with a “ late high school diploma”. His first opportunity to earn his living with sculpting came in 1951 when he designed exhibits for the “Great Health Exhibition in Cologne”, including depictions of the human vascular system.

From 1955 to 1960 Beck studied at the State University of Fine Arts in Berlin , where Paul Dierkes was his teacher in the wood and stone department. During this time he created numerous wooden sculptures, the motifs of which he varied for the rest of his artistic work, also with other materials. He completed his studies with the appointment as a master student.

Friends and acquaintances that he made during his studies enabled Beck to get commissioned work for publishers and other companies. It was in this context that he designed the Golden Camera for Axel Springer Verlag , a work that, in retrospect, he critically assessed as incorrectly dimensioned. The prize was first awarded in 1966.

Since 1965 he was married to Bärbel Wendt, an actress and daughter of an industrialist. The generous financial support from his father-in-law enabled Beck to devote himself to his art in the coming decades without being constantly plagued by existential fears. The marriage resulted in a daughter, Karoline, and a son, Arnold.

Arnold Beck died in a traffic accident in 1981 at the age of 13. The traumatic experience plunged his father into a crisis of meaning that he could not fully overcome until the end of his life. In his artistic work, this resulted in a long-lasting examination of the religious theme of "Christ on the Cross" and the transition from life to death, which he processed in the recurring motif "The Gate". During the Stravinsky Days in 1982 Beck worked experimentally with the conductor Hugo Käch and the Berlin Philharmonic in an attempt to “ visualize music and set sculptures to music”.

In the last two decades of his life, Beck increasingly withdrew from his surroundings in order to devote himself entirely to his art in Louis Tuaillon's former studio house in Berlin-Grunewald . Bronze and stone became the dominant materials in his work. Even early works that were created in plaster of paris and wood were translated accordingly.

Wolfram Beck died in Berlin in early 2004 at the age of 73. He was buried in the Wendt hereditary funeral in Cemetery IV of the Jerusalem and New Church on Bergmannstrasse in Berlin-Kreuzberg . There is a metal plaque there to commemorate him.

plant

Stone sculpture (granite), 1998

At first Beck made large organic woodwork, portrait busts and torsos from clay and stone, followed by constructive metalwork. Later he worked with acrylic glass and bronze, most recently with bronze and natural stone. His works are characterized by extremely precise forms.

His very colorful and extensive painting shows exact forms and is reminiscent of architecture and two-dimensional sculptural work.

Beck never gave his works titles and only occasionally signed on “external pressure” because, as his daughter reports, he perceived the former as showmanship and the latter as vanity.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1961 "Berlin artists exhibit", Axel Springer publishing house, Berlin
  • 1962 Berlin artist, Bauzentrum Essen, Essen
  • 1964 "Great Berlin Art Exhibition", Berlin
  • 1964 “Contemporary work of Berlin painters and sculptors”, Theater der Stadt Lünen
  • 1974 Joint exhibition with Hans Heidenreich, Galerie an der Hundekehle, Berlin
  • 1990 Graphic and plastic work, Atelier Louis Tuaillon, Berlin
  • 1992 Overall view and graphics, Atelier Louis Tuaillon, Berlin
  • 1997 Works from 1992-1997, new works in acrylic glass, Atelier Louis Tuaillon, Berlin
  • 2000 retrospective work show, Atelier Louis Tuaillon, Berlin

Commissioned work

  • For Egon Eiermann
  • For the Axel Springer family
  • For Eduard Rhein
  • For industrial family Ludowigs
  • For industrial group Slip-Naxos, Sweden
  • For BHI Bank for Commerce and Industry
  • For Oswin Mechsner
  • For Carl Eric Ziemen
  • For Berlin Terrasit Industry

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GOLDEN CAMERA 1966 - 1st award. In: goldenekamera.de. Retrieved October 5, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  3. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  4. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  5. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  6. ↑ Marc Neller: Wolfram Beck. In: Der Tagesspiegel. June 4, 2004, accessed October 5, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  8. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  9. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  10. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 288.
  11. ↑ Wolfram Beck - Life . Biography on the website of the "Galerie Beck", accessed on April 9, 2019.
  12. ↑ Karoline Beck, always for something new. In: Der Tagesspiegel. May 27, 2004, accessed October 5, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Beck, Wolfram
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German visual artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 30, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Greiz , Germany
DATE OF DEATH January 10, 2004
Place of death Berlin , Germany