Josef DOERR

Josef Doerr, born on May 2, 1914 in Speyer and died on November 14, 1999 in the same city, was an important German painter and organist. His life was shaped by the turmoil of two world wars and his passion for art and music.

After attending a humanistic grammar school and graduating from a teacher training college, Doerr was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1939. During the war, he fought on various fronts and only returned home in 1945. After the war, he began a career as a teacher, which took him to various places in the Palatinate until he finally settled in Speyer in 1962. There he taught at primary and secondary schools until his retirement in 1977. Parallel to his teaching activities, he developed his talent as an organist, a passion he pursued from 1962 until his death in 1999 at the Speyer seminary and Speyer Cathedral.

Doerr’s artistic work began late, in 1948, when he turned to painting. His works reflect his personal exploration of color and form, a theme that preoccupied him until his death. His later works in particular are characterized by organic, dynamic formal structures that masterfully merge the contrast between abstraction and figuration, as aptly described by Manfred Zach.

Despite the challenges that life in the shadow of the world wars brought with it, Doerr always remained true to himself artistically. He confidently pursued his own unmistakable style and worked exclusively at the easel. His preferred techniques were mixed media, oil and acrylic painting, whereby he developed forms that lent structure to his colors without dominating them. His works increasingly tended towards abstraction, with figures rarely being the subject. Inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh, he translated the beauty of nature’s microcosm and macrocosm into flowing, dynamic forms with an intense and idiosyncratic use of color.

Today, Doerr’s works can be found in renowned collections such as the City of Speyer and the Mittelrhein-Museum in Koblenz and bear witness to his extraordinary artistic talent and his deep connection with his home town and nature.