Helmut Andreas Paul GrieshaberorHAP Grieshaber(15 February 1909 – 12 May 1981) was a German artist. His preferred medium was large formatwoodcuts.[1]

At the signing of the bookGrob, fein und göttlichby Grieshaber and his wife Margarete Hannsmann at theLandesvertretung Baden-Württembergon 8 October 1970

Biography

edit

Grieshaber was born inRot an der Rot.He went to school inNagoldand later inReutlingen.From the age of 17 he was apprenticed to the printing trade in Reutlingen. While here, from 1926 to 1928, he studied art in nearbyStuttgart.He then travelled extensively to Paris, London, Egypt, Arabia and Greece. At the beginning of the Nazi regime, from 1933 until 1940, Grieshaber was banned from his profession. During that time he scratched out a living as an untrained labourer in the town ofReutlingen.He spent the war years unwillingly in the German army and, as a prisoner of war, doing forced labour in Belgian mines. After the war he returned to Germany, living in a small cottage on theAchalm,and concentrated on doing large-scale woodcuts and posters. From 1951 to 1953 he taught at theBernsteinschuleschool of art. Between 1955 and 1960 he taught at theKunstakademie(Academy of Fine Arts) in Karlsruheas successor toErich Heckel.[2]

Grieshaber was a long-time pacifist and political activist, not only against the dictatorships in Greece and Chile, but also in the area of conservation and ecology, against nuclear plants, and in favour of a bridging between the two Germanies. His companion in his later years, from 1967 till his death in 1981, was the lyric poet Margarete Hannsmann.

Grieshaber was honoured with numerous prizes and retrospective exhibitions. He exhibited works at thedocumentain 1959 and 1964. In honor of his 70th birthday in 1979, large retrospectives were shown in various museums in both parts of Germany. The last prize that Grieshaber was awarded in 1980 was the art prize of the town ofKonstanz.Grieshaber died in 1981 inEningen unter Achalmaged 72 years.

Relations

edit

Grieshaber's daughter, Nani Croze, founded the Kitengela Glass workshop on the Athi-Kapiti plains adjacent to theNairobi National Park.She is a muralist, experimenting in a range of materials. Her commissioned works can be found all over East Africa. Nani's son, Anselm Croze, has expanded the studio. Together, they create art glass pieces and a large variety of other glass.

Works

edit

Grieshaber's work were influenced by works ofPaul KleeandLyonel Feininger.[citation needed]He took a stab at industrial design in the 1970s with a 500-piece run of the upscaleSuomitableware byTimo Sarpanevathat Grieshaber decorated for the German Rosenthalporcelainmaker'sStudio Linie.[3]

See also

edit

References

edit

Exhibition Catalogue (1966, Auckland, New Zealand) - Some of the foregoing information is taken from the catalogue of an exhibition of Greishaber's held during the 1966 Auckland Festival. It is likely that the biography in that document was provided by the artist himself

  1. ^"Helmut A.P. (HAP) Grieshaber".Retrieved26 April2009.
  2. ^"HAP Grieshaber: Basel Dance of Death with the dialogues from the medieval frieze".Archived fromthe originalon 1 September 2009.Retrieved26 April2009.
  3. ^[Anon.] (1976). "Faenza-Goldmedaille für SUOMI".Artis.29:8.ISSN0004-3842.
edit