Die Rampe, Mahnmal, Detail, Kassel, E R Nele

Eva Renée Nele (born 1932) is a German artist who works principally in

goldsmith A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and servicea ...

ing and metal sculpture.

Life

Nele was born on 15 March 1932 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

, the daughter of

Arnold Bode Arnold Bode (23 December 1900 – 3 October 1977) was a German architect, painter, designer and curator. Arnold was born in Kassel, Germany. From 1928 to 1933, he worked as a painter and university lecturer in Berlin. However, when the Nazis ca ...

; she grew up in Kassel. She studied under at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and under Richard Hamilton at the

Central School of Art and Design The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and ...

in London. She also studied at the

Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut The Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut was a printer specializing in fine printmaking in Paris. In the 1930s the Atelier produced prints for Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. It was founded by Roger Lacourière (1892-1966) in 1929. The establishment was ...

in Paris. She was a member of Situationist International until 1962. She lives in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. From 1985 to 1990 she taught sculpture at the in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label= Austro-Bavarian) is the fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the Roman settlement of ''Iuvavum''. Salzburg was founded ...

, Austria. She also taught at the Goethe-Universität of Frankfurt and – from 1993 – at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...

, in

Hesse Hesse (, , ) or Hessia (, ; german: Hessen ), officially the State of Hessen (german: links=no, Land Hessen), is a state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt. Two other major historic cities are Dar ...

Work

Nele participated in '' Documenta II'', organised by her father in 1959. Her sculpture ''The Couple'', made in 1961, is in the collection of the

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen The Bavarian State Painting Collections (german: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen), based in Munich, Germany, oversees artwork held by the Free State of Bavaria. It was established in 1799 as ''Centralgemäldegaleriedirektion''. Artwork includes ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. ''Die Rampe'', a

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

memorial showing faceless cloaked figures descending on a ramp from a railway goods wagon or collapsed at the foot of it, was created in 1982, and was installed on the campus of the

University of Kassel The University of Kassel (german: link=no, Universität Kassel) is a university founded in 1971 located in Kassel, Hessen, in central Germany. As of February 2022 it had about 25,000 students and about 3300 staff, including more than 300 profe ...

in 1985. It was destroyed by arson soon after, and restored in 1987. In 2017 it was moved to the Holländischer Platz campus of the university, much of which is built on land that was formerly the site of factories of the

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting v ...

company, which during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

made extensive use of forced labour. A work titled ''Windsbraut'' is in the Dalbergplatz in Frankfurt-Höchst. In 2008 she was, with the cellist , one of two recipients in that year of the

Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt (german: Goethe-Plakette der Stadt Frankfurt am Main, links=no) is an award conferred by Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany and named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. The plaque was originally designed by sculptor ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nele, Renee German sculptors German goldsmiths 1932 births Living people Artists from Berlin Situationists German women artists German contemporary artists Alumni of the Central School of Art and Design Women metalsmiths