Hanns Bolz

Hanns Bolz ( born January 22, 1885 in Aachen, † July 4, 1918 in Munich) was a German painter, sculptor and illustrator of expressionism and cubo-futurism.

Life

After leaving school in Aachen and Cologne Bolz studied between 1905 and 1908 at the Dusseldorf Art Academy. He then spent nearly three years in Paris, where he set up a studio in the Rue Gabrielle 49 rented in Montmartre, which had previously Pablo Picasso ( 1881-1973) used in the year 1900. Here, and especially in the Cafe du Dome, a popular meeting place for artists, he met Hans Purrmann (1880-1966), and Rudolf Levy (1875-1944), and finally the art dealer Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937) know that later, even after Bolz ' death for his works began.

In the years 1911 and 1912 he lived in Munich, where he worked as an illustrator for the magazine comet among others. Here he used in the Schwabing bohemian neighborhood acquaintances, among others, Richard Seewald (1889-1976) and actress Emmy Hennings (1885-1948) and belonged to the Friends of the editorial community Der Blaue Reiter to the painter Franz Marc (1880-1916) and Wassily Kandinsky ( 1866-1944 ). But it kept him here not long and he already returned again in 1912 to Paris, where he now moved into a studio in Montparnasse. In the meantime, he undertook several study trips to Madrid, London, Venice and Oslo.

In 1914 he was drafted into the army and sent to the front. Here he suffered severe gas poisoning and was almost blind. This led in 1917 to his early release from military service, but quite capable of work he no longer was then and so he deals only with modeling. He stopped now mainly in Cologne with Otto Freundlich (1878-1943) in his atelier in Gereon house, where he met Max Ernst ( 1891-1976 ). Later he went back to Munich, but had to be taken on the basis of his war suffering in 1918 in the local sanatorium Neuwittelsbach, where he eventually died.

Artistic characteristics

After initial drawings and cartoons for satirical magazines as well as some pictures and portraits as "Woman with Hat" and " Romantic castle " itself Bolz changed under the influence of his time in Paris and there children to meet artists became a protagonist of Expressionism and the cubo-futurism and of French Fauvism. In those years, initially created Still life of more subdued colors, which changed a little later in colorful and expressively motivated pictures with designs from the Montmartre area. Also counted at this time probably also his first better-known masterpiece, the portrait of his friend and promoter Alfred Flechtheim in which Bolz by cubist principles the transitions of light and shadow as well as the opposite points of lighter and darker portions knew how to unite in gentle form. More luminous portraits and variety pictures followed, in which he experimented with colors varied with related notes and the Parisian-style with a new objectivity combined, thus making a significant contribution to the art of classical modernism.

From 1912, probably since his second sojourn in Paris, his drawings and paintings were increasingly abstract and he let to flow into suggestions of Guillaume Apollinaire ( 1880-1918 ) with. Bolz now joined nested lines with circle segments, triangular and trapezoidal shapes and bestowed it with a shadow-like inking again greater plasticity. So abstracted cityscapes and cubo- futuristic form conglomerates and Otto Freundlich emerged during this period increased designated Bolz, therefore, as the only artist who had played a significant role within the cubo-futurism.

His custom built after his military service and in the diseased state statues and sculptures are characterized by extreme reduction and expression, but did not achieve a greater level of awareness and went mainly to the portfolio of his friend Max Ernst. Although Bolz had caused to destroy his works after his death, most of them were mainly saved and cataloged by Alfred Flechtheim. Even later appeared again and again for some of his works as chance finds. Since 1999, the works of Hanns Bolz permanent exhibition stock in Suermondt -Ludwig- Museum in Aachen.

Works (selection)

  • Romantic castle, watercolor. Cologne 1903
  • The painter Heinz Simons, watercolor. Cologne 1907
  • Old woman - bigot. Bronze, 1907
  • When Thrift Stores, ink. Paris 1909
  • Portrait of Alfred Flechtheim, oil on canvas. Paris 1910
  • In the ring, oil on cardboard. Paris 1910
  • Still life, oil on canvas. Paris 1910
  • White Gilles with Lady, oil on canvas. Paris 1910
  • Antique rider, cartoon on the Tripolitan. In: The Comet, Munich 1911
  • Erich difficulty Cafe Stefanie. with dog and cigar, cartoon, ibid July 29, 1911
  • Emmy Hennings, oil on canvas. Munich 1911
  • Streetscape ( Montmartre), oil on canvas. Paris 1912
  • Montmartre, ink. Paris, May 1913
  • Venice ( Venice ), ink. Venice 1913
  • Dada Abstraction, ink, pencil. Cologne 1917
  • Portrait of Louise Straus -Ernst, ( first wife of Max Ernst ), oil on canvas. Cologne before 1918
  • Male head, plaster. Munich 1918

Exhibitions (selection)

Literature (selection )

  • Matthias Forschelen: Hanns Bolz (1885-1918): an artist between Expressionism and Cubism: Image and text documenting the life and work. Aachen 1985
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