K. R. H. Sonderborg

KRH Sonderborg ( born April 5, 1923 in Sønderborg (Denmark) as Kurt Rudolf Hoffmann, † February 18, 2008 in Hamburg ) was one of the most important painters of the art direction Informal. He took his stage name in tribute to his home.

Overview

" Sonderborg, born in 1923, appeared almost ten years ago to the public and was observed immediately, even though what he did was anything but catchy. It was neither Tachistically nor otherwise classified, it was, at least from 1953, very singular, coined in and was unmistakable Sonderborg. "

This characterization by Will Grohmann dates from 1961 and makes noise Detlef Bluemler in the essay entitled " shape in the state of motion " from the critical lexicon of contemporary art - which is also the basis of the local text and from which the following quotes - still claim to validity. The artist has retained despite its art historical association with the " Informal " its own style, which often comes out of this " significance of the Formless ". Sonderborg's Vita and art corresponds equally to the dictum of Bazon Brock, after which the artist must be visible behind his work at any time.

As an example of how reluctant Sonderborg saw filed in art-historical categories his job and how little he wanted to commit himself, is his - later renewed Done - statement against the in the 50s/60s years with leading Munich gallery owner Otto Stangl: "I can only so much to my pictures say that I know that I have made them, where I have made them and when I have made them. "

Thus, his work is fundamentally expressive and non- figurative, classify without obvious time reference. But in his works there are always pictures, take the clearly the current reference and " realistic " appear. For example, his portrayal of a machine gun. It originated in the time of the RAF ( Red Army Faction ), which held in the 1970s, the entire West German population in breathing. Some art historical interpretations go from rapid implementation of an optical impression from, but Detlef Bluemler refers to Sonderborg's utterance from a pamphlet against the " perversity " of so-called " peace tools".

1965-1990 Sonderborg was professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart with interruptions ( leave of absence ) from 1969-70 as a visiting professor at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 1986 and a visiting professor at the Art Institute in Chicago.

Childhood, youth during the Nazi era

Kurt Rudolf Hoffmann was / born in Denmark Sønderborg As he came without right-hand man to the world. Born and raised in Hamburg, he was discharged at the age of 18 years on March 16, 1942 to one and a half years Gestapo prison from the concentration camp Fuhlsbiittel. The primer was: Anglophilia, staatsabträgliches behavior with the aim to cause unrest among the population. "Two things ," says recalls the long and brunette friend Sonderborg, the painter and writer on art Hans Platschek, " had brought about this time anti-state behavior of young people like Kurt Rudolf Hoffmann. Once they were the marches, the same pace, the Hitler Youth Quex, the jagged speech, the newsreel announcer as distasteful as ever uniforms and the military or compulsory labor. On the other hand practiced the Jazz, especially the hot music, such a lasting influence of that security authorities of one image moral and characterological neglect ' spoke. The young people called themselves Swings or Swing Boys [ ... ]. They greeted with, Swing Heil; the ideal life was that, dissolute life ', from which the verb, wobble ' derived [ ... ]. He seemed therefore predestined for this life already, because his father, Kurt Hoffmann, jazz musician, trombonist, including the Orchestra Heinz Wehner. "

Shortly before the dismissal Sonderborg, who was then still called Hoffmann, Heinrich Himmler wrote to Reinhard Heydrich: " Enclosed I send you a report, the Reich Youth Leader Axmann me has sent over the Swing Youth ' in Hamburg. I know that the Gestapo has ever intervened. But my opinion has to be radically eradicated all evil. [ ... ] The stay in the concentration camp must be longer to be 2-3 years. It must be so clear that they will never be able to study again. "

Although these sentences describe even the mood among some of the young people of that time, as they document the terror of the Nazi regime to another. Quoted they were here but primarily because their contents starting point for a life was that operates today under the synonym "Swing", but should be added to the one appointed by the anarchic political awareness, and a sense of justice.

Training

First, the young Kurt Rudolf Hoffmann completed a commercial education, by the end of which he went as a shopping assistant of a Hamburg export firm in the Soviet Union. After returning, there were only more intensive contacts to art, certainly on the first painting also father. Primary but he was probably influenced by the people living in the neighborhood painter Ewald Becker- Carus, in which he took private lessons. Then, he studied at the National Art School in Hamburg, the painting and graphics at Willem Grimm and the textile design with Maria May Already during his studies, which should be " bored " him because of his academic orientation very soon, Sonderborg began, mostly in the nature and encouraged by his father to work his ideas of art according to.

The Hamburg Art Air was then determined primarily by a figurative expressionism, whose " fathers " Emil Nolde and Edvard Munch were. In addition to their trailers, a small group had formed, which paid homage to a freer abstraction and which had its origin in Rudolf Steiner theosophical thought.

In addition, Sonderborg came in Hamburg for the first time with an environment in contact that fascinates and it offers him to this day subjects: firstly, the great river Elbe and the Hamburg harbor with its pontoons, ships and cranes as well as the tracks of the freight yards, which later the metropolitan and their airports should come.

The beginnings

As early as 1949 was the first (group) exhibition at the Hamburger Kunstverein, which, after the Hamburg Museum of Ethnology in 1950, then in 1951 joined another. This year, he also adopted the name of his birthplace. As a result, he went similar ways as the artists of the " Informal ", for example, Karl Fred Dahmen, KO Götz, Hoehme, Bernard Schultze, Emil Schumacher, Fred and Thieler Hann Trier. But in 1982 he set himself the question whether he was ever an " informal " artist, so someone who without exception work on the principle of the formless, which was directed in its founding period, from the mid-1940s, against the geometric abstraction.

By this criterion alone, Werner Schmalenbach, " could the art of so excellent artist like Sonderborg not be labeled. [ ... ] That it pays homage to the tempo, is manifest. But ultimately concerns not the intellectual content of the images, but only the style in which the spiritual concern expressed here. "

Sonderborg found in the 1950er/1960er years, as a movement and speed had a decisive influence on the avant-garde arts, the inspiration for his work on the street rather than in a museum, in art history, in which he already saw no role models. Sonderborg took part in documenta II (1959) and the documenta III in Kassel in 1964.

ZEN 49 and Action Painting

Willi Baumeister, Rolf Cavael, Gerhard Fietz, Rupprecht Geiger, Willy Hempel and Brigitte Meier - Denninghoff founded in 1949, the group ZEN 49 Sonderborg had joined in 1953 after conception builder. Rainfall this more contemplative and spiritual direction can be found in Sonderborg's work, for example, in his meditative -looking drawings, August 5, 1953. On the other hand, but he was also driven by an outer world that paid homage to the dynamism of the break-up time 50s and in corresponding characterizations like " supersonic, September 25, 1953 " expressed. In general, there has been another quieter, more inward, and "forward" signaling drawings and images in parallel in all of his creative phases.

Sonderborg often changed center of his life, which led critics to believe that he needed the movement not only in his art but also in his life. In Paris, the Mecca of artists in the 1950s/60s years, he spoke at length an apartment. But even in Chicago or Berlin, he stayed over again. It is known that he was a Swingboy even at an advanced age still love good food, for days to "pulls the houses " and extensively frequented the local jazz clubs.

After Detlef Bluemler this state of persistence and biding often took days to the time - act itself began. By preference, he used a hotel room or other room where he could spread, as a studio. On the floor, he ordered canvases, sign boxes, paints, brushes, wipers, scratches, knives and other utensils on hand. In the process of painting itself, he reached " a high level of alertness and concentration ", which, however, " does not prevent a concurrent, contemplative tranquility and Overview [ s ] " him. It often took hours until he had prepared everything. He often corrected the arrangement of tools in order to guarantee an exact sequence of movements later. In the course of these activities his inner tension grew and then erupted all at once, so that he suddenly reciting with great energy and speed, similarly as do the followers of Action Painting. He made the quick drying of egg tempera or acrylic paint advantage. Did he work for complete, so he gave her a title. Since the 1960s, these titles exist in Sonderborg only age dating, perhaps in the form May 3, 1963, 21:02 to 21:21 h By his own admission he rejected any interpretive statement to his work now and just wanted to point out when, where and to which time they were created.

Since Sonderborg had long time no fixed studio, but mainly worked in hotel rooms, they named him as a painter without a studio.

Fascinated, he was on the dynamics of Mahlstöme as the Moskenstraumen between the islands of Lofoten, he traveled several times. In his pictures you can always find this circular, dynamic swirl.

Occasionally act Sonderborg's work but also almost objectively, especially when the technique of pen and ink drawing made ​​use of. He already had to go for technical reasons thoughtful to work and could not continually reschedule off and back also. However, is also here by scraping or masking of lines an unusual characteristic style.

Reception

The art-historical position of the Informal and especially that of KRH Sonderborg is rezipiert uneven. How Götz, Hoehme, Schultze, Thieler and Trier he was " German Art in the 20th Century" at the Royal Academy is not represented in the London exhibition. This is surprising, but it concerned those artists who actually symbolized the reconquered artistic freedom after 12 years of Nazi terror. The Stuttgart State Gallery, which took over the show from London, Sonderborg, however, granted in 1987 a large one-man show, which was followed by another one, the city in her gallery connected to the Molfenter Prize, 1988.

Among the collectors of Sonderborg's works Björn Engholm, who was also a friend of the artist belongs.

Awards

Swell

  • Detlef Bluemler, In: Artist - Critical Dictionary of contemporary art. Issue 4, Munich 1988.
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