Richard Oelze
Encyclopedia
Richard Oelze was a German
painter
. He is classified as a surrealist
.
, at first in Weimar
with Johannes Itten
, and then in Dessau
, where he received a special teaching post at the Bauhaus. From 1926 until 1929, he lived in Dresden
, participating in an exhibition of the "Dredner Secession" there, and lived from 1929 through 1930 in Ascona
in Switzerland
, and then in Berlin
until 1932. After a longer residence at the Gardasee, he stayed in Paris in the years from 1932 to 1936 and became acquainted with André Breton
, Salvador Dalí
, Paul Éluard
and Max Ernst
. In 1936 and 1937, he again lived in Switzerland and in Italy
. In 1938, he moved to Germany
, where he settled in the artists' colony in Worpswede
in 1939. From 1941 through 1945, he performed military service and was taken prisoner. After the war
, he again went to Worpswede, where he worked until 1962, and then moved to Posteholz. Richard Oelze participated in documenta II
in 1959 and in documenta III
in 1964 in Kassel
. In 1965, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste
in Berlin.
, London
, Paris and New York
.
Oelze was regarded as one of the most important painters of surrealism
. His works are typified by a secretive representation of landscape and figural compositions, with rendition of details in the manner of the old masters.
Oelze had an important influence on the later French surrealist, Christian d'Orgeix.
, received the Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Preis
of the city of Hagen
, the Großen Kunstpreis (Great Art Prize) of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, the Lichtwark-Preis of the city of Hamburg
and was awarded the Niedersachsenpreis in the category of culture in 1980.
The city of Magdeburg
named a street for Oelze, the Oelzeweg, and there is a Richard-Oelze-Ring in Worpswede
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
. He is classified as a surrealist
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
.
Life
As of 1914, Oelze attended the School of Decorative Arts in Magdeburg, where he was trained as a lithographer until 1918. He learned nude drawing in evening classes. Among his teachers there were Richard Winckel and Kurt Tuch, as of 1918. From 1919 until 1921, he completed his studies at the same school as a Stipendiat (a person receiving a scholarship). Between 1921 and 1925, he was a student at the BauhausBauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
, at first in Weimar
Weimar
Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
with Johannes Itten
Johannes Itten
Johannes Itten was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus school...
, and then in Dessau
Dessau
Dessau is a town in Germany on the junction of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it is part of the merged town Dessau-Roßlau. Population of Dessau proper: 77,973 .-Geography:...
, where he received a special teaching post at the Bauhaus. From 1926 until 1929, he lived in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, participating in an exhibition of the "Dredner Secession" there, and lived from 1929 through 1930 in Ascona
Ascona
Ascona is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore.The town is a popular tourist destination, and holds a yearly jazz festival, the Ascona Jazz Festival....
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, and then in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
until 1932. After a longer residence at the Gardasee, he stayed in Paris in the years from 1932 to 1936 and became acquainted with André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
, Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
and Max Ernst
Max Ernst
Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
. In 1936 and 1937, he again lived in Switzerland and in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
. In 1938, he moved to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where he settled in the artists' colony in Worpswede
Worpswede
Worpswede is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen. The small town itself is located near the Weyerberg hill. It has been the home to a lively artistic community since the end of the 19th century, with over 130...
in 1939. From 1941 through 1945, he performed military service and was taken prisoner. After the war
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he again went to Worpswede, where he worked until 1962, and then moved to Posteholz. Richard Oelze participated in documenta II
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
in 1959 and in documenta III
Documenta
documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...
in 1964 in Kassel
Kassel
Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
. In 1965, he became a member of the Akademie der Künste
Akademie der Künste
The Akademie der Künste, Berlin is an arts institution in Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 1696 by Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg as the Prussian Academy of Arts, an academic institution where members could meet and discuss and share ideas...
in Berlin.
Work
His most important work may well be Die Erwartung (The Expectation, 1935/1936), where a group of people stare into an empty landscape with their backs to the observer. This picture is judged to be a fundamental picture in the history of painting. However, he had already had great success with exhibitions in AmsterdamAmsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Paris and New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
.
Oelze was regarded as one of the most important painters of surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
. His works are typified by a secretive representation of landscape and figural compositions, with rendition of details in the manner of the old masters.
Oelze had an important influence on the later French surrealist, Christian d'Orgeix.
Honors
Oelze is the winner of the Max-Beckmann-PreisMax Beckmann
Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement...
, received the Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Preis
Karl Ernst Osthaus
Karl Ernst Osthaus was an important German patron of avant-garde art and architecture.In 1902, Osthaus founded the Folkwang Museum in Hagen, Germany...
of the city of Hagen
Hagen
Hagen is the 39th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr...
, the Großen Kunstpreis (Great Art Prize) of the state of North Rhine Westphalia, the Lichtwark-Preis of the city of Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
and was awarded the Niedersachsenpreis in the category of culture in 1980.
The city of Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
named a street for Oelze, the Oelzeweg, and there is a Richard-Oelze-Ring in Worpswede
Worpswede
Worpswede is a municipality in the district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen. The small town itself is located near the Weyerberg hill. It has been the home to a lively artistic community since the end of the 19th century, with over 130...
.
Literature/References
All references are in German- Klaus Lison: Magdeburger Maler war weltbekannt, Magdeburger Volksstimme of November 10, 2005
- Ines Hildebrand, in Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon, 2002, Magdeburg, ISBN 3-933046-49-1
- Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-WestfalenKunstsammlung Nordrhein-WestfalenThe Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is the art collection of the German Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia, located in Düsseldorf. United by this institution are three different exhibition venues: the K20 at Grabbeplatz, the K21 in the Ständehaus and the Schmela Haus...
(publ.): Einblicke. Das 20. Jahrhundert in der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Hatje Kantz Verlag, Düsseldorf 2000; ISBN 3-7757-0853-7 - Martin Wiehle, Magdeburger Persönlichkeiten, 1993, Magdeburg, ISBN 3-910146-06-6