Max Friese
Max Robert Sofus Friese (b. 15 April 1883 in Dresden, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire; d. 1958 in Schwabach, Bavaria, West Germany) was a German artist. He was a versatile painter, engraver, graphic artist, designer for glass paintings, lithographer, fresco painter, sculptor, draughtsman as well as author of works in glass and ceramics.
Life
Max Friese was born in Dresden in 1883 and lived since his early childhood in Breslau, where he first apprenticeship began. He studied since 1900 at the State Academy for Arts and Crafts (Staatliche Akademie für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe, then still known as the Königliche Kunst und Gewerbeschule until 1911) in Breslau under Max Wislicenus, Eduard Kaempffer, Carl Ernst Morgenstern and Arnold Busch, then until 1903 under Ludwig von Herterich and Carl von Marr at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts (Münchner Akademie). Then he was active there as a freelance artist until his return to Breslau in 1907.
In Breslau, he took over for two years the artistic direction of the Institute for Glass Painting "Adolph Seiler" (Institut für Glasmalerei Adolph Seiler). From 1903, he took part in various exhibitions. At the latest since 1905, he produced designs for the Villa Georg Schneider in Breslau and in 1908 partially produced the stained glass windows for the the church in Schmolz.
In 1909, he worked on the Baptistery (Taufkapelle) of the Johanneskirche in Breslau and the evangelical Church in Koscian 1911. In the following years he undertook study trips to Holland, Belgium, France, Italy and Denmark. During the First World War he served the Imperial German Army as a war painter (Kriegsmaler) and designed 1917 for a officers' mess at the Beverloo military training area in Belgium individual figures and entire scenes (cycle of 14 large-format oil paintings) from the "Nibelungenlied" (de). After the armistice, Friese sold them to the then owner of the historic manor house Rudelsburg, where they were moved in 1922 to the famous Rittersaal, the hall of the knights.
Friese was a member and co-founder of the Silesian Artists' Association in 1919 and of the Reichsverband Bildender Künstler Deutschlands. In December 1919, he was a co-founder of the Free Association for Local Art (Freie Vereinigung für Heimatkunst). In the 1920's and 1930's, Friese carried out various commissions for monumental paintings in the Breslau region. The publishing house Georg Nickisch Verlag of Breslau disseminated his best known works in these years such as "Macht dich frei", "Wachet auf", "Und neues Leben blüht aus den Ruinen" and the works of the "Nibelung cycle".
In 1939, he received the city's prestiged art prize (Kunstpreis der Stadt Breslau). In the same year, he made a portrait of Julius Streicher, then Gauleiter of Franconia, which was seized by the American military after the war and never returned due to the "political content of the painting".[1] He also produced paintings and drawings for the Reich Labour Service (Reichsarbeitsdienst; RAD) and various publications. His last exhibition was the RAD-Kunstschau Prag 1944. After the Second World War, he was vertrieben from Silesia, as was the fate of millions of Germans, and moved to Wolkersdorf near Nuremberg. Many of his works were destroyed or stolen.
In his last years, he occupied himself mainly with industrial advertising. The city of Schwabach commissioned him and Kurt Severin (1896–1970), who also lived in the area, to design the large assembly hall of the town hall. Using 14,000 sheets of Schwabach gold leaf, they designed a 60-centimetre-high frieze with 16 ornate inscriptions with the names of prominent Schwabach companies. The Goldener Saal or Golden Hall was destroyed by arson on 15 January 1974 and restored between 2000 and 2002.
Kriemhilds Rache (example)
Representation of a motif from the Nibelungen saga from the end of the second part: Kriemhild's revenge. Etzel, the king of the Huns, gave Kriemhild the power to carry out her plan of revenge. She moves to the land of the Huns with a large entourage and becomes a powerful monarch there. After many years, she invites her brothers and Hagen, whom she has never forgiven for the murder of Siegfried and the theft of the Nibelungen treasure, to a court festival in the land of the Huns. There are arguments. When Hagen kills Ortlieb, the son of Kriemhild and Etzel, a bloodbath ensues. In the course of the fighting, the heroes of both sides perish; Kriemhild is also killed at the end by Hildebrand, Dietrich von Bern's armorer.
Further readig
- Mortimer G. Davidson: Kunst in Deutschland 1933–1945 – Eine Wissenschaftliche Enzyklopaedie der Kunst im Dritten Reich, Grabert Verlag, Tübingen 1991
External links
- Max Friese, Italian Gallery "Thule" (Archive)
- Der Maler und Zeichner Max Friese