Curt WITTENBECHER
Curt Wittenbecher, born on August 1, 1901 in Magdeburg and died on January 2, 1978 in Bremen, was an important German painter, draughtsman and graphic artist.
After graduating from high school in Magdeburg in 1921, Wittenbecher began his studies at the private school for fine arts in Munich under the guidance of Moritz Heymann and Walter Thor. He then continued his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg under Harold Bengen and completed them in Magdeburg under Ernst Hoffmann and Richard Winckel at the Kunstgewerbe- und Handwerkerschule there. In 1925, he became a member of the St. Lukas artists’ association in Magdeburg, from which he left shortly afterwards. He gained a high reputation in Magdeburg as a freelance painter and graphic artist. In 1934, he became a member of the Börde Artists’ Association and served as deputy chairman until its dissolution in 1939. He then took on a leading position in the “Gleichgeschaltete” Künstlerkameradschaft Magdeburg and was responsible for organizing the annual art exhibitions in Magdeburg during the war years. In 1942, he was awarded the City of Magdeburg Art Prize for his artistic achievements.
After serving in the army and in military hospitals in Holland, Wittenbecher moved to Hindelang in the Allgäu in 1944. At the end of the Second World War, he suffered the total loss of his apartment and all his artistic works during the air raid on Magdeburg on January 16, 1945. In 1949, he moved to Worpswede and later, in 1955, to Bremen, where he worked as a freelance painter until his death.
During numerous trips, which took him to the Netherlands, England, Switzerland, Italy, Iceland and, above all, Greece, Wittenbecher always found inspiration for his painting.
Wittenbecher was married to Hildegard Wittenbecher, née Marquardt. As his widow, she bequeathed a large part of his artistic estate in the form of watercolors and oil paintings to the Bremen Home Foundation.
Wittenbecher’s artistic development is characterized by an original expressionist phase, through naturalistic landscape painting to a strong abstraction, which ultimately led to his own unmistakable style. His work always began with drawings, which often resulted in watercolors or oil paintings.
Wittenbecher was also intensively involved with the theory of his subject and held courses at the Magdeburg adult education center at a young age. He later also gave art history lectures in Bremen.
As a lover of music, Wittenbecher enjoyed painting concert situations and followed his guiding principle: “To hear what I see – to see what I hear”.
Over time, Wittenbecher devoted himself more and more to watercolors as his most original form of artistic expression.
Gerhard Gerkens, the head curator of the Bremen Kunsthalle, paid tribute to his work in his eulogy.
A selection of his oil paintings includes works such as “Wounded Man” (1942), an award-winning painting at the KHM Magdeburg, “Worpsweder Elegie” (oil, exhibited at the Kunstverein Hannover in 1954) and “Concert, Finale” (oil, 1970/71). His landscape paintings, mainly in the form of watercolors, include motifs from the North Sea, the Baltic Sea, the Odenwald, Lake Constance, Cornwall (England), Greece, the Netherlands and Italy.
Among the personalities portrayed by Wittenbecher are Wilhelm Kaisen (mayor of Bremen), Mary Wigman (dancer), Harald Kreutzberg (dancer), Ernst Friedlaender (publicist), Heinz Frowein (mayor of Wuppertal) and Hanns Lilje (Protestant bishop).
Wittenbecher also created portfolios such as “Bremen – seen by Curt Wittenbecher” (8 pen and ink drawings, 1960) and “Bremen – 8 original lithographs” (1961) as well as murals in cities such as Bremen, Bochum, Magdeburg, Barby and Elmshorn.
His works can be found in public collections and institutions such as the Goethe Institute in Athens, the Bremen City and Art Hall, the Chemnitz Municipal Art Collection, the Lower Saxony State Gallery and City of Hanover, the City of Hamburg, the KHM Magdeburg, the Münster State Museum, the Märkisches Museum in Witten/Ruhr and the von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal.
His exhibitions include collective exhibitions at the Kunsthandlung Heinrichshofen/Magdeburg (1932), the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum in Magdeburg (1934), the Landesmuseum Münster (1948/1949), the Bremer Kunsthalle (1959), the Goethe-Institut Athens (1958) and the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven (1969).