Wilhelm Rudolph ( German: Wilhelm Rudolph ; February 22, 1889 , Chemnitz , German Empire - September 30, 1982 , Dresden , GDR ) - German artist and graphic artist, twice winner of the national GDR prize
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Life and work
Born in a weaver's family. In 1906 he began his studies at the lithograph, in 1908 he entered the Higher Art School of Dresden. During World War I, an infantryman took part in battles on the Western Front - near Verdun and on the Somme. In 1919-1922 he lives as a free artist in Dresden. Initially, he wrote as a post-impressionist, then he adopted the expressionist style, later an adherent of new objectivity , with its interest in socially significant topics. The first successes and fame V. Rudolph brought his images of animals.
In 1924-1925, the artist participated in major exhibitions in Dresden (Emil Richter Gallery) and in Berlin (Goldschmidt and Wallerstein Gallery), 1931 - again in Dresden (New Art Gallery - Fides). These presentations of his work bring W. Rudolph recognition as a painter and a professor at the Academy of Arts in Dresden (in 1932). After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the artist’s works were counted as so-called. degenerative art . Since 1937, he was forbidden to exhibit and sell his works, 43 paintings by V. Rudolph were confiscated. In 1939, he was fired from the Academy.
In 1945 and later, the artist creates his most important work - a graphic series of hundreds of sheets on the bombing of Dresden by American aircraft on the night of February 13-14, 1945, its destruction. Up to our time, it remains an unsurpassed artistic evidence of this tragedy.
In 1946-1949, V. Rudolph again occupied the professorship at the Dresden Academy of Arts, but was again dismissed - this time against the wishes of his students and in connection with the conflict with the Academy's rector, artist Hans Grundig . After that, W. Rudolph leads the life of a free artist in Dresden, but was repeatedly encouraged by the government of socialist Germany for his creative successes. In 1961 he received the National Prize of the GDR, in the same year - the Martin Andersen-Nexo Prize of the city of Dresden and the Free German Trade Union Prize (FDGB). In 1980, he was re-awarded the National Prize of the GDR, this time I class. In 1979, V. Rudolph became an honorary citizen of Dresden, and in 1982 - Chemnitz (then Karl-Marx-Stadt).
The creative heritage of V. Rudolph includes about 700 paintings, painted in oil, and the same number of woodcuts , created mainly after 1945, as well as earlier lithographs and graphics related to the 1920s. Woodcuts dedicated to the Dresden bombardment include 150 sheets. His works are kept in museums in Berlin, Los Angeles, Dresden, Weimar, Chemnitz, Erfurt and others. The artist was creatively active until his very old age.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 118603760 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ Wilhelm Rudolph
Literature
- Wilhelm Rudolph. Holzschnitte aus zwei Jahrzehnten. Buchheim, Feldafing u. Zwinger, Dresden 1958
- Jule Hammer, Siegfried Kiok u. Ludwig Thürmer (ed.): Dresden als Erlebnis und moralische Landschaft. Wilhelm Rudolph, Holzschnitte, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen. Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin 1981
- Martin Schmidt: Wilhelm Rudolph. In Licht und Dunkelheit des Lebens und der Natur. Leben und Werk. Monographie und Dissertation. In: Rainer Beck und Constanze Peres (ed.): Phantasos IV. Schriftenreihe für Kunst und Philosophie der Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden. Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden und Verlag der Kunst Dresden (Philo Fine Arts), Dresden 2003, ISBN 3364004366