Heinz Trökes 2

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Heinz Trökes, Hamburg 1957

Heinz Trökes (15 August 1913 in Hamborn/Rhine) – 22 April 1997 in Berlin) was a German painter, printmaker and art teacher.

Biography

After completing his Abitur (school leaving examination) in 1933, Trökes was a pupil of Johannes Itten in Krefeld from 1933 to 1936. From 1936 to 1939, he lived as a painter in Augsburg and earned his living designing textiles with the J. P. Bemberg company. In 1938, his first solo exhibition in the Galerie Nierendorf in Berlin was closed at the initiative of the Nazis. He was then expelled from the Reich Chamber of Culture and had no more opportunities to exhibit until 1945. In 1937 he met Wassily Kandinsky in Paris; the following year, he travelled to Vienna, Budapest, Yugoslavia and once again to Italy. In 1939, Trökes moved to Zurich in order to emigrate from there to the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). The outbreak of the Second World War prevented this, however. Returning to Germany in 1940, he studied with Georg Muche in Krefeld, but was and conscripted to the Wehrmacht, until 1942 as a flak soldier in Berlin. He attended the art school of Max Dungert in his free time. He was friends with, among others, Oskar Huth, who provided him with a fake official exemption from the Wehrmacht.

In 1945, Trökes was a co-founder of the Berlin Galerie Gerd Rosen, the first private art gallery in Germany after the war, and remained artistic director until 1946. From 1946 to 1948, a series of cosmonaut-like images was created, including Die Mondkanone (The Moon Cannon), Terrain der Kosmologen (Terrain of the Cosmologists), Sphärische Kontraste (Spheric Contrasts) and Zwei Welten (Two Worlds). He was called to the Staatliche Hochschule für Architektur und Kunst in Weimar (College of Architecture and Art) (today Bauhaus Universität) together with the painter Mac Zimmermann in 1947, but finished teaching after one semester due to excessive external influence. He participated in the exhibition L’Art Allemand Moderne, Deutsche Kunst der Gegenwart (German art of the present) in Baden-Baden. During the blockade from 1948 to 1949, he stayed in Berlin, in Rodenbach near Neuwied on the Rhine, then again in Berlin. In 1949 he married Renata Severin. Trökes published an article in the magazine Les Temps modernes, Paris (Dir. Jean-Paul Sartre) on La peinture et le public en Allemagne. L’inflation d’expositions et le scandale qu’elles provoquent. From 1950 to 1952 he won the Blevin-Davis competition in Munich, stayed in Paris and befriended with Wols and Paul Celan. Trökes joined the Rixes group with Roberto Matta, Jaroslaw Serpan, Jean-Paul Riopelle and Zañartu, among others. Participation in the weekly Jour fixe revolving around André Breton (Benjamin Péret, Marcel Duchamp, Toyen, Max Ernst, Rufino Tamayo and Gérard Hérold).

Heinz and Renée Trökes moved to Ibiza in 1952. Here, he created many island pictures, often of a topographical character. He won the Hallmark competition, New York. In 1954 his son, Jan Manuel, was born. He toured Spain extensively in 1955, including Madrid, Alicante and Toledo. Also in 1955, he received the Deutscher Kritikerpreis and teaching offers from art schools and academies in Berlin, Karlsruhe, Zurich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt, which he, however, declined. In 1955, he participated in documenta 1 in Kassel. (He also participated in further documentas in 1956 (II. documenta) and 1964 (documenta III).

In 1956, Trökes travelled from Ibiza to Andalusia and Morocco. Trökes received the Berliner Kunstpreis (Berlin art prize). From 1956 to 1958, he headed the Department of Free Graphics of the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Kunst in Hamburg. Here he created lithographs and etchings. In 1957, he exhibited a mosaic at the Triennale in Milan. In 1958, he undertook a three-month trip to Ceylon and visited, among others, Cairo, Djibouti, Aden and Bombay. On a rubber plantation, watercolours were produced for the volume Singhalesische Miniaturen. He participated in the Biennale di Venezia. At the Interbau in the Berlin-Hansaviertel in 1957, he realised a glass window for the Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtniskirche (Emperor Frederick memorial church). He returned to Ibiza. From 1959 to 1960, Trökes lived with his family on the island of Aegina in Greece. Following the strongly pronounced colourfulness of the Paris and Ibiza years, quiet pictures in reduced and atmospheric colours arose in the differentiated light of Greece, continuing until 1966. He travelled to Crete, Rhodes, on the Peloponnese islands and to Istanbul. From 1960 to 1961, through Berlin, Wameln (etchings Wamelner Folge (Wameln Series)), Paris and Barcelona back to Ibiza. Three carpet designs were created in that period for the company Anker-Teppiche, Düren.

As a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund (DKB) (Association of German artists), Trökes participated between 1952 and 1971 in seven major DKB annual exhibitions, including the travelling exhibition in 1961 in Belgium. From 1961, he was a member of the Akademie der Künste (Academy of arts), Berlin. From 1962 to 1965, he alternated between Ibiza and Stuttgart, teaching at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart (State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart). In 1964, Trökes undertook extensive travels through Latin America: Curaçao, Caracas, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Guatemala, Mexico and New York. The illustrated book Eldorado originated after these travels. Karl-Ströher-Preis (Karl Ströher prize) The 1st Internationale der Zeichnung [International of drawing], Darmstadt. Solo exhibition in the Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas.

In 1965, Trökes was called to the Hochschule für bildende Künste, today Berlin University of the Arts. He thereafter again lived in Berlin, but also on Ibiza. Church window in Leonberg near Stuttgart. He made extensive travels through northern and southern Spain, to Madrid and Morocco. In 1966, he experimented with Georg Muche on Helio-Klischographs in Kassel with the aim of manufacturing electrically controlled prints. The quiet images were succeeded by intensively coloured ones. In 1967, he travelled to Argentina, Brazil and Senegal. He had a solo exhibition in the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg. In 1968 he made LSD painting experiments with Dr. Hartmann, Munich. He was made an honorary member of the Accademia Internazionale Tommaso Campanella di Lettere-Arti-Scienze, Rome.

From 1968 to 1970, 64 colour miniatures for the eight-volume complete edition of the Crébillon. In 1969, he travelled to Cuba and Denmark, in 1970 to Ethiopia, Ankara and Anatolia. 1971 Multicoloured and often large format pictures succeeded by two-colour, smaller formats. Trökes undertook his second Ethiopia and second South America journeys to Bolivia, Peru, Panama, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico. In 1972, he headed a seminar for free painting at the International Summer Academy of Fine Arts Salzburg. Travels to Tunisia, Algeria, central Sahara. Black-and-white collages, China ink drawings and several sketchbooks were produced as of 1973.

Experiments with gold followed in 1974 and 1975. Four-month travels in Asia: Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran. 1976– 1977 China ink drawings, colour etchings and primarily watercolours. Four-month world tour: Israel, Thailand, Bali, Australia, South Pacific, Chile and Argentina. Lectures in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on Art in Germany under Hitler and After. Travel to South Yemen and to the clay skyscrapers in the Wadi Hadhramaut. In 1978, three tapestry designs were completed; executed by the Fränkische Gobelin-Manufaktur. New oil paintings produced on Ibiza and more sketchbooks in Berlin. Concluding of teaching activity at the Hochschule der Künste Berlin. Egypt trip.

As of 1981, numerous square paintings with wiped and varnished backgrounds were produced. As of approx. 1990, Trökes painted lively 50 × 50 cm paintings in this format, which once again bundle his entire drawing and painting experience and express great freedom of form. On 15 August 1993, Trökes was presented with the Mercatormedallion on his eightieth birthday by Mayor Josef Krings of the city of Duisburg.

Heinz Trökes died in Berlin on 22 April 1997. His wife Renée predeceased him by three weeks. They were laid to rest together in the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf (Zehlendorf cemetery).

Selected works

Glass mosaic from Heinz Trökes at Katharinenschule Hamburg

• Die Mondkanone (Moon Cannon) (Berlin, Berlinische Galerie – Museum for Modern Art, Photography and Architecture), 1946; oil on canvas
• Sphärische Kontraste (Spheric Contrasts), 1948; oil on canvas, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
• Am Mars (On Mars), 1948; oil on canvas, Neues Museum, Weimar
• In der Luft und im Wasser (In the Air and in the Water), 1950; oil on canvas, The Busch-Reisinger Museum/Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, USA
• Zwischen Wolken und Kristallen (Between Clouds and Crystals), 1951; oil on canvas. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, USA
• Echo, 1954; oil on canvas, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
• Für Artisten (For Artists), 1954; oil on canvas, Sprengel Museum Hannover
• Wunschbild für Geologen (Ideal for Geologists) 1956; oil on canvas, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
• Glass mosaic in the Katharinenschule, Hamburg-Hafencity. Production: Puhl & Wagner. Originally for the XI Triennale, Milan. Acquired in 1958/59 by the Hamburg Senate and restored and realised in 2009/10 by the Münchner Hofmanufaktur. Former location: Volksschule an der Katharinenkirche (primary school at St. Catherine’s Church).
• Lettern einer Schrift (Letters of a Document); etching on laid paper, 1960. Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
• Goldadern (Gold Veins), 1961; oil on canvas, Wallraf–Richartz Museum, Cologne(Museum Ludwig)
• Tage Nacht Buch (Day Night Book); 1963; Verlag der Spiegel, Cologne, lim. edition
• Augenreise (Eye Journey), 1968; Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin - Library of Congress, Washington

Selected exhibitions

• 1949 Solo exhibition in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Museum, Krefeld. Participation in the Kunst in Deutschland 1930-1949 (Art in Germany 1930-1949) exhibition, Zurich
• 1952 Solo exhibition in the Galerie Jeanne Boucher, Paris
• 1953 Solo exhibitions in the Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal, and in the Städtisches Museum (Municipal museum), Braunschweig, participation in the 2nd São Paulo Art Biennial
• 1954 Exhibition participation: duitse kunst na 1945 (German Art after 1945), Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum
• 1955 Solo exhibitions in the Städtisches Kunstmuseum (Municipal art museum), Duisburg and in the Galerie Buchholz, Madrid.
• 1955 Participation in documenta I, Kassel
• 1956 Solo exhibitions in Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, and in the Kunstverein Hamburg
• 1959 Participation in documenta II, Kassel
• 1964 Participation in documenta III, Kassel
• 1965 Solo exhibitions in the Kunstvereinen (art associations] of Pforzheim, Mannheim and Oldenburg
• 1966 Solo exhibition in the Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro
• 1972 Participation in Continental Painting and Sculpture, 1942–72 in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery[5]
• 1979 Solo exhibitions in the Akademie der Künste (Academy of arts), Berlin, and in the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
• 1981 Solo exhibition in the Herford Kunstverein (art association)
• 1983 Solo exhibition in the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin (sketchbooks presented by Trökes to the Nationalgalerie on the occasion of his 70th birthday)
• 1985 Exhibition participation in the Nationalgalerie in Berlin: Kunst in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945–1985 (Art in the Federal Republic of Germany 1945–1985)
• 1988 Solo exhibition for his 75th birthday in the Galerie Pels-Leusden/Villa Grisebach, Berlin. Early and late works. Catalogue with 18 colour illustrations.
• 1991 Solo exhibition in the Fritz-Winter-Haus, Ahlen
• 1995 Solo exhibition in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) (gift of the sketchbooks 1984–1994)
• 1997 Solo exhibition in the Galerie Pels-Leusden, Berlin (memorial exhibition shortly following his death)
• 2003 Solo exhibition and presentation of the catalogue raisonné – ed. Dr. Markus Krause – Galerie Jörg Maaß; fanfold with 10 colour Illustrations. The catalogue raisonné of the paintings was published by Prestel Verlag for the memorial exhibition on the occasion of his 90th birthday in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg in 2003.
• 2003 Werke und Dokumente (Works and documents) – Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg. A catalogue with 122 pages and numerous colors and black-and-white illustrations appeared for the exhibition.
• 2003 Über dem Realen, Werke und Dokumente aus fünfzig Jahren (Above the real, works and documents from fifty years - major monographic show); Neues Museum Weimar
• 2003–2004 Malerei, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik und Dokumente aus fünfzig Jahren(Paintings, drawings, prints and documents from fifty years); Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
• 2005 Participation: 50 Jahre / Years documenta 1955–2005 ; Kassel, Kunsthalle Fridericianum
• 2008 Heinz Trökes – Ölbilder und Aquarelle 1950–1993 (Heinz Trökes - Oil paintings and watercolours 1950-1993); Ahlen, Fritz-Winter-Haus
• 2009 Participation: Art of Two Germanys/Cold War Cultures; Los Angeles County Museum of Arts - LACAMA; Kunst und Kalter Krieg; Deutsche Positionen 1945– 1989(Art and Cold War; German positions 1945-1989), Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg. Then: Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
• 2010 Participation: Das Jahr 1950 – Brennpunkte deutscher Kunst der Nachkriegszeit.(The year 1950 - Flashpoints of German art of the post-war period) Landesmuseum Schleswig, Schloss Gottdorf
• 2013 Heinz Trökes – die frühen Jahre (Heinz Trökes - the early years). Haus am Horn, Weimar
• 2013 ELDORADO. Zum 100. Geburtstag von Heinz Trökes (On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Heinz Trökes) , Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
• 2017 Heinz Trökes, Surrealismus in Berlin 1945-1950 (Heinz Trökes, Surrealism in Berlin 1945-1950), Galerie Derda, Berlin
• 2018 Participation: INVENTUR - ART IN GERMANY 1943-1955, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA, USA

Works in public collections, incl. in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Kassel, Düsseldorf, Wuppertal, Hannover, Gelsenkirchen, Bremen, Duisburg, Witten, Bochum, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Darmstadt, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Copenhagen and Buenos Aires.

Legacy

The written legacy, including the journals, was endowed to the Deutsches Kunstarchiv (German art archive) in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. The sketchbooks were donated to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Berlin State Museums), the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin (Museum of Prints and Drawings).

Further reading

• Marion Bornscheuer: Trökes, Heinz in: Neue Deutsche Biographie (New German Biography) 26 (2017), S. 429-431 (Online-Version)
• Will Grohmann: Heinz Trökes, art series of the Safari-Verlag Berlin, Berlin 1959
• Lothar Romain: Heinz Trökes. Die Lichtaugen zwischen Schlaf und Traum [The light eyes between sleep and dream], in: Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwart Artists. Critical encyclopaedia of the present. Munich 1993
• Irmtraud von Andrian-Werburg: Heinz Trökes. Werke und Dokumente, (exhibition Catalogue), Germanisches National Museum, Nuremberg 2003; Neues Museum, Weimar; Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
• Siebenbrodt, Michael/Trökes, Manuel and others: Heinz Trökes. Die frühen Jahre (the early years). Weimar 2013
• See more literature under German National Library, search for: Heinz Trökes at Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek

Catalogues raisonnés

• Markus Krause: Heinz Trökes. Werkverzeichnis (Catalogue raisonné of the oil-paintings). Prestel Verlag, Munich/Berlin/London/New York 2003, ISBN 3-7913-2869-7 Search this book on ..
• Online catalogue raisonné on the official website of Trökes-Archive

External links

• Literature by and about Heinz Trökes in the catalogue of the German National Library
• Official website of Heinz Trökes (english)
• Heinz Trökes on Oxford Art Online
• by and about Heinz Trökes at the documenta archives library catalogue
• Heinz Trökes on European Art Net
• Heinz Trökes at the Berlinische Galerie
• City in Ruins at Berlinische Gallery
• Heinz Trökes in the pages of the virtual exhibition of the German National Library "Künste im Exil” (Arts in Exile)
• Heinz Trökes at Ask Art
• Heinz Trökes on artnet.com
• Heinz Trökes at Mutual Art
• Heinz Trökes on IFAR (International Foundation for Art Research)

References

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