Painting Hans Koernig

The early work of Hans Koernig was spared the fate accorded to the works of many of his fellow painters in Dresden: meaning their complete destruction during the bombing of Dresden. Justice however, who treats all impartially, neverthless saw to it that what was in actual fact his main oeuvre, and had come about even in the after-war years from 1949 to 1961, was to remain equally concealed from the consciousness of the art interested public, due to its being confiscated and carefully kept under lock and key by the former GDR* state.

Similar to many painters of his own and of the following generation, Hans Koernig pathway towards his unmistakeable style first led him towards impressionism. The greater part of his early works were unfortunately destroyed by the artist himself, their being scraped down or else painted over once again, but what did manage to survive, proves itself to be the promising beginning of a development rich in excitement.

" ...before the war I was a barbouilleur, as the French say, which means a paint splasher and smearer who takes his greatest pleasure in daubing the canvas in the schrillest colours and getting intoxicated by this"[1] was how Koernig himself judged his early work. Such "intoxicating colour" which he later came to interpret critically, first caught hold of his imagination when he left the acadamy and set out on his travels to Italy, France and Paris. Dieter Hoffmann has described what Koernig was bringing onto canvas from the middle and until the end of the 30's most aptly as impressionistic expressionism.[2] The influence of Oskar Kokoschka, to whose pupils Koernig did not actually belong, but whose effect the up and coming art student was able to sense at close hand in Dresden, can be seen most clearly in the works entitled "Self" and "View towards the city". Especially in the clownesque "Self" painting, Koernig impressionistic schooling experiences a sublimation into the expressive because of his pastose handling of the pigments. His "Summer", involving a self-portrait posing with a nude model, is full of the joy of life and abundant sensuality.

During his time at the academy a firm grounding in the technical skills and artistic foundations was transmitted to him by Ferdinand Dorsch and Max Feldbauer. In a tenacious and disciplined effort he overcame their early impressionistic influences, in favour of drafted composed planes and rhythmatised line. The development of his own style brought Koernig into proximity with the cubist portraits of Picasso and other works of his from the 1920's, which left their trace above all in Koernig nude representations such as the "Two female nudes" from 1950/51.

The "Naked family" and "In the park" both dating from 1949, are two examples of his first definitive works which came about after the caesura of the war. In them the central themes of the family, the portrait and the human body, which Koernig will again and again return to, already become discernable. "In the park" is a double portait togehter with his wife Lisbeth. The faces of both the half figures appear in profile and stare past one another, embodying an opposing pair in profound attachment. He is dressed in a shirt and smoking jacket, she is naked, seen nude from behind. He is proud and rigid with his nose upturned, the stone vase in the background caricatures this with its similar profile, she is self confident and with her body raised she embraces him but without clinging.

Koernig artistic production was not hemmed by domestic impulses such as his founding a family, but on the contrary most stimulated by them- the main stock of his paintings rest upon this constant. The birth of his daughter Margarete- he described her as his most important creation during his second attic room exhibition- moved his family towards the centre of his artistic creation. His family pictures reflect Koernig deeply felt happiness without ever drifting off into sweetness, his being saved from this by his dry humour and ironic sleight of hand. The prelude to these "programmatic pictures" was sounded in "The song", which was the first work to show his now completed family.

In the weeks from November 1954 until January 1955 a series of large scale oil paintings arose in quick succession, amongst them was the tryptych entitled "Nocturne - the bath- Pomona"."The bath" shows his wife and their daughters set in the scene of the entrance hall at Koenigstrasse nr. 7 not far from his studio. The coloured windows and the tiled floor certainly awaken associations with an old bathhouse. "Nocturne" brings the whole family together, this time together with Koernig stepmother Margarethe Reichert and upon a terrace. In the background the stone vase again appears as a symbolic accessory, cropping up like this most frequently in the earlier works.The spatial situation is quite similar in "Pomona", but now the terrace is not bordered by a balustrade but instead by a vine trellis. On the tiled floor, which connects all three of the paintings, various fruits have been piled up, and in between Lisbeth Koernig is throned as the figure of Pomona, the Roman Goddess of fruit trees .

Within and parallel to the larger set concerning family themes, other works with allegorical references arose again and again. Koernig gave himself great leeway in adapting the "classics", carefully approaching them in little steps and then marking off his own position. The "Nude at the mirror" continues with the tradition of Velazquez' "Venus and Cupid" and Goya's "Maya nude". With self-confidence in his own saxonian origins Koernig allows the bizarre spire of the Petri church, which he could see out of his own home in the petit-bourgeois suburb of Pieschen, to greet his beautiful nude through the window. The "Judgement of Paris" he transfers to the scenery of Saxon Switzerland, in front of the Gohrisch rock outcrop as the background.

One of the constants in Koernig images is the repetition of the compositional accessories and props. Special masks and the plaster cast of a foot on the blue pillar of his studio remind us as if from a greater remove of the surrealistically charmed still-lifes of the Italian de Chirico. In the midst of this atelier decoration Koernig places his models. These are not only the members of his family , but also his friends and acquaintances. "Dr. Lothar Bolz" is probably not only the most prominent portrait of this period which Koernig painted, the account of the paintings coming into being is also paradox. It is none other than the foreign minister of the GDR at tht time who is here sitting as model for the refractory painter.

The reason cannot have been narcissism, for Bolz sits, lacking in all pretention, on an old piano stool and stares at the viewer. Enframed by the alredy mentioned blue pillars and golden mirror, his massy hands resting on his knee, his posture would seem to correspond more to the type of the class conscious worker or farmer, than to the artistically informed lawyer which he was, according to his upbringing. An important place in Koernig oeuvre is taken up by the critical self-portrait, of the same sort as cultivated in the Dresden area by Curt Querner, born a year earlier.

All of his art is suffused with ironical - critical undertones, but these come particularly to the fore in various works. The pompous commemorative wreath with the heroic motto "Fame and Honour to the Soviet Army" is contravened by the squinting and grinning skull. In "Fame" and "Elegy for the Western World" Koernig the melancholic questions into the significance and what we strive for in human existence.

The fertile soil for the totality of his artistic creation was Dresden and his family. His fantasies grew out of his vital regionalism, which we should not confuse with provincialism. After Koernig failed to return to Dresden, painting became for him passé. His cramped spatial possibilities and the expensive paints were probably but one of the reasons that he dedicated himself thenceforth to printing.

"Economic constraints can lead to the emergence of brilliant printmakers." has been said of Käthe Kollwitz.[3] Koernig was already an excellent printmaker whilst still in Dresden. The constraints of his time were also to put a premature end to his distinguished painting.


[1] Hans Koernig: Manuscript of his opening speech for the exhibition in the attic in 1954
[2] Hoffman, D. In: Hans Koernig. 1992. p. 4
[3] Knesebeck, A. taken from: Käthe Kollwitz. Catalogue of the complete prints. Vol.1. p. 17