Harald Metzkes (born 23 January 1929) is a German painter and

graphic artist A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography, or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, p ...

Life

Harald Metzkes was born and grew up in Bautzen, a long-established mid-sized town in eastern

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

. His father was a doctor. In 1945 he undertook war service, but he was able to pass his school leaving exams in 1945/46 at the local secondary school, and progress to the study of art. In 1946 he studied

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the U ...

under Alfred Herzog. Between 1947 and 1949 he was apprenticed as a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. It is one of the oldest activities and professions in human history. Many of the long-lasting, ancient shelters, temples, mo ...

with the Bautzen sculptor Max Rothe. After that, between 1949 and 1953, he studied painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts where his teachers included Wilhelm Lachnit and Rudolf Bergander. From 1953 till 1955 he worked as a freelance artist in Bautzen. Between 1955 and 1958 he was a , studying under

Otto Nagel Otto Nagel (27 September 1894 – 12 July 1967) was a German painter, graphic designer and long-time head of the Berlin Academy of Arts who was one of the most prolific artists of East Germany. Life Born at Berlin-Wedding, Nagel was the son ...

, at the Arts Academy in Berlin. In 1957, with Werner Stötzer, along with John and Gertrud Heartfield, he undertook a three-month study trip to China. In 1959 Metzkes settled on the southside of

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, moving into a studio-workshop apartment in 1960: he embarked on a career as a free-lance artist, identified in some quarters by the soubriquet "The Cézannist of Prenzlauer Berg". The first exhibition devoted to his work took place in Berlin in 1963. 1963 was also the year in which he contributed illustrations for a book by

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, "The enchanted one". During the ensuing 27 years he contributed illustrations for a further fifteen books, mostly by high-profile authors, including

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Barbara Gard ...

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, August Strindberg and even

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known toda ...

. In 1976 he won the

Käthe Kollwitz Prize The Käthe Kollwitz Prize (german: Käthe-Kollwitz-Preis) is a German art award named after artist Käthe Kollwitz. Established in 1960 by the then-Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic (nowadays the Academy of Arts, Berlin), the pri ...

from the and state-level official recognition in the form of the

Banner of Labor The Banner of Labor () was an order issued in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was given for "excellent and long-standing service in strengthening and consolidating the GDR, especially for achieving outstanding results for the national e ...

. The next year his work was the focus of an exhibition at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director o ...

in (East) Berlin, "Harald Metzkes – Two decades of Pictures". 1976 was also the year in which he was a recipient of the

National Prize of East Germany The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) (german: Nationalpreis der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, ...

for illustrations and graphic art. In 1984 and 1988 Metzkes participated in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. Some years after the end of the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, the Soviet sponsored one-party state of which he had been a citizen throughout its politically and socially troubled existence, Metzkes took part in the "Arts in the German Democratic Republic" exhibition staged in 1997/98 at the

. Another of the numerous exhibitions in which he was featured, in 2006, was "Bilanz des Malers" at Gottorf Castle in the extreme north of the country.

References

1929 births Living people People from Bautzen Illustrators of fairy tales 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters Stonemasons Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Recipients of the Banner of Labor German military personnel of World War II 20th-century illustrators {{Germany-painter-stub