Hans Feibusch

Hans Feibusch (1898-1998) was born to Jewish parents in Frankfurt under the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II. He served with the German Army in Russia during the First World War and, after a false start in medicine, began his art studies under Carl Hofer in Berlin. Gaining the Rome prize, he went to Italy, and then studies in Paris with Andre Lhote. You can see the influence of Carl Hofer in this magnificent painting:

Hans Feibusch, Trommler (Drummer), 1934 

In 1930, he received the German Grand State Prize for painting. With the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933, Feibusch’s status as a Jewish artist ensured that his work was outlawed. Later that year he fled to Britain. In 1937, his work was banned and destroyed by the Nazis. He became a British citizen in 1938, just a year after his work had been included in the Degenerate Art Exhibition. England was at first parsimonious with honours and critical recognition. Despite the enthusiasm for his work shown by men as perceptive as Maxwell Fry and Walter Hussey, it was not until 1997 that the Tate Gallery acquired a canvas, this one: 

 Hans Feibusch, "1939", 1939

This painting relates to Feibusch’s experience as a soldier fighting on the Russian front from 1916-18. Feibusch had a brother and in 1929 he went skiing. Lutz was tragically killed in an avalanche and Feibusch had to meet the body at the train station. This experience was also much in mind when he painted 1939 his premonition of what was to come.

  Hans Feibusch, Monkeys, 1946

Soon after the second world war, Feibusch established himself as a mural painter and the commissions came flooding in. He was successful not only in ancient buildings, such as St Ethelburga's, in the City of London, where his murals were damaged in the 1993 IRA bombing, but also in modern churches where he worked closely with the architects. His murals in the Civic Centre at Newport, Monmouthshire, are one of the most ambitious 20th century decorative cycles in Britain. You can see them here.

 Hans Feibusch, Newport Civic Centre Mural, The Building of the George Street Bridge, detail, 1960-64

In 1986, Feibusch had a major retrospective exhibition in Frankfurt and in  1967 he had been awarded the German Order of Merit (first class), and in 1989 received the Grand Cross of Merit. He was in his last years the sole survivor of those whose work had been banned in the notorious Degenerate Art Exhibition. Hans Feibusch eventually converted to Christianity, but in 1992 he formally left the Church of England and shortly before his death said: "I am just a very tired old Jew." 

You can visit Hans Feibusch's official site here.

Aftermath

Karl Hofer, Ruinennacht (Night of Ruins), 1947

Georg Heym, Die Stadt (1911)

Sehr weit ist diese Nacht. Und Wolkenschein
Zerreißet vor des Mondes Untergang.
Und tausend Fenster stehn die Nacht entlang
Und blinzeln mit den Lidern, rot und klein.

Wie Aderwerk gehn Straßen durch die Stadt,
Unzählig Menschen schwemmen aus und ein.
Und ewig stumpfer Ton von stumpfem Sein
Eintönig kommt heraus in Stille matt.

Gebären, Tod, gewirktes Einerlei,
Lallen der Wehen, langer Sterbeschrei,
Im blinden Wechsel geht es dumpf vorbei.

Und Schein und Feuer, Fackeln rot und Brand,
Die drohn im Weiten mit gezückter Hand
Und scheinen hoch von dunkler Wolkenwand.

Bernhard Klein, Berlin 1943 (Burning City), 1947

Georg Heym, The War (1911, last two stanzas)

An important city, chocked in yellow glow,
jumped without a whisper to the depths below,
while he stands, a giant, over glowing urns,
wild, in bloody heavens, thrice his torch he turns 

over stormstrung clouds reflecting fiery brands,
to the deadly dark of frigid desert sands,
down he pours the fires, withering the night,
phosphorus and brimstone on Gomorrha bright.

Adrian Ghenie, Jumping off the Reichstag, 2008 


Georg Heym, Der Krieg (1911, last two stanzas)

Eine große Stadt versank in gelbem Rauch,
Warf sich lautlos in des Abgrunds Bauch.
Aber riesig über glühnden Trümmern steht
Der in wilde Himmel dreimal seine Fackel dreht,

Über sturmzerfetzter Wolken Widerschein,
In des toten Dunkels kalten Wüstenein,
Daß er mit dem Brande weit die Nacht verdorr,
Pech und Feuer träufet unten auf Gomorrh. 

 

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Book Cover for Georg Heym's "Umbra Vitae", 1924

 

Karl Hofer

 Karl Hofer, Grosser Karneval, 1928

Karl Hofer was born in Karlsruhe on 11 October 1878 as son of a military musician. After an apprenticeship in C.F. Müller's court bookstore, he began to study at the Großherzogliche Badische Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe in 1897. Here he studied under Poetzelberger, Kalckreuth and Thoma until 1901. None of these teachers, however, were able to provide him with ideas for his ambitious striving for a new art form and he soon came under the influence of Arnold Böcklin. 

 Karl Hofer, The Caller, 1935

Hofer travelled to Paris in 1900 where he was greatly impressed by Henri Rousseau's naive painting. The art historian Julius Meier-Graefe introduced Hofer not only to private collections worth while seeing in Paris, but also drew his attention to Hans von Marées. As a result Hofer decided in 1903 to spend a couple of years in Rome. His painting, which was until then influenced by Böcklin's Symbolism, changed in favour of Marées' classic Arcadian concept. In 1904 the Kunsthaus Zurich presented Hofer's first one-man show within the ‚Ausstellung moderner Kunstwerke', which was afterwards shown in an extended version at the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and at the Folkwang-Museum in Hagen and in Weimar in 1906. 

Karl Hofer, Die Wächter (The Guardians), 1936

From 1908 Hofer lived temporarily in Paris. The stay changed his style through dealing with influences of Cézanne, French Impressionists and El Greco. In 1913 the artist moved to Berlin. He was interned in France one year later and only returned to Germany in 1917. He accepted a post as a professor at the Kunstschule in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 1921 (where he was the teacher of Hans Feibusch). On the occasion of his 50th birthday a retrospective took place at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, the ‚Berlin Secession' and Alfred Flechtheim's gallery in Berlin. His art was considered "degenerate" during the 'Third Reich' and he was dismissed from his teaching post in 1933/34. His works were exhibited in 1937 in the Munich exhibition 'Entartete Kunst'. 

 Karl Hofer, The Camp, 1944

A vehement anti-Nazi protest, the next work, Santa Denunziata  is tied to the tragic events in Karl Hofer's life. In 1941, Mathilde Hofer (neé Scheinberger), the artist's wife, was denounced as a Jew by Gestapo informants (Denunziaten) and sent to her death at Auschwitz.

Karl Hofer, Santa Denunziata, 1941

Hofer then declared; "When they are finished with the Jews, they will start with the artists, and with all of those who cannot defend themselves." The partly concealed, haloed figure, is likely a self-portrait of the artist as a future victim surrounded by accusers who may fear they will be the next victims themselves.

Karl Hofer, The Black Rooms, 1943

After the war, in July 1945, Hofer was appointed director of the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin. Together with Oskar Nerlinger he edited the art magazine "Bildende Kunst". Hofer died in Berlin in 1955.

More paintings by Karl Hofer are here on my Flickr page.