Georg Philipp Wörlen (5 May 1886,

Dillingen an der Donau Dillingen or Dillingen an der Donau (Dillingen at the Danube) is a town in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative center of the district of Dillingen. Besides the town of Dillingen proper, the municipality encompasses the villages ...

Bavarian Swabia Swabia (german: Schwaben, ) is one of the seven administrative regions of Bavaria, Germany. Governance The county of Swabia is located in southwest Bavaria. It was annexed by Bavaria in 1803, is part of the historic region of Swabia and was ...

– 18 April 1954) was a German painter, particularly associated with

Passau Passau (; bar, label=Central Bavarian, Båssa) is a city in Lower Bavaria, Germany, also known as the Dreiflüssestadt ("City of Three Rivers") as the river Danube is joined by the Inn from the south and the Ilz from the north. Passau's popu ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

, Germany.

Life

Wörlen was born in

. After completing his ''

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

'' he attended the art college in Nuremberg and subsequently worked as a restorer in the Atelier Altheimer in

Regensburg Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...

. In 1914, after marrying Margarete Neunhöfer, he moved to

Marnheim Marnheim is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe aft ...

to work as a teacher in a technical secondary school. While he was fighting at the front in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in Romania and France, among other places, his son Hanns Egon was born. During the war Wörlen was twice buried and seriously injured. Shortly before the end of the war he was captured by the British and was held as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

for 15 months, in a camp near

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. During this time he changed his artistic direction and committed himself to

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

. After his repatriation in 1920 Wörlen moved with his family to

and became an art teacher in the Gymnasium Leopoldinum. Along with Franz Bronstert and Fritz Fuhrken, who had been detained in the same POW camp in England, and a number of other artists including the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Carry Hauser Carry Hauser, born Carl Maria Hauser (16 February 1895 – 28 October 1985), was an Austrian painter, stage set designer and poet. Life Carry Hauser was born in Vienna as Carl Maria Hauser into the family of a civil servant. He was educate ...

, he founded the Expressionist artists' group Der Fels (1920/21-1927), which held over 30 exhibitions featuring his work. in addition he was for a short time (1923/1924) a member of the '' Gruppe der 6'', and between 1927 and 1938 he was a member of the

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

-based group Der Hagenbund. In 1947 he was a founder member of the Donau-Wald-Gruppe. He died in

, where there is a street named after him. The holdings of the Museum of Modern Art in Passau consist largely of his works.

Selected works

* ''Liebespaar'' ("Lovers"), tempera on cardboard, 1920 * ''Gasse'' ("Lane"), oil on linen, nd * ''Passauer Häuser'' ("Passau Houses"), oil on linen, 1920 * ''Passauer Gasse'' ("Passau Lane"), watercolour, 1923 * ''Kreuzigung'' ("Crucifixion"), watercolour, 1919

References

* Wiener Secession (publ.): ''Georg Philipp Wörlen'', Vienna 1971 * Museum Moderne Kunst Passau (publ:) ''Philipp Wörlen 1886-1954'', Passau 1990

External links

Website of the Museum Moderner Kunst Wörlen Passau

1886 births 1954 deaths People from Dillingen an der Donau People from the Kingdom of Bavaria 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German Expressionist painters German Army personnel of World War I People from Passau Academy of Fine Arts, Nuremberg alumni {{Germany-artist-stub