Emil Schumacher

Zargala

1976, Mixed Media/Canvas, 103 x 156 cm (SOLD)

Riva

1994, Oil/Canvas, 80,5 x 96 cm (SOLD)

Dolobo

1984, Mixed Media/Wood, 84,5 x 125,5 cm (SOLD)

Nefas

1959, Oil/Canvas, 65 x 50 cm

Untitled

1984, Gouache/newspaper, 41 x 58 cm

Schumacher_Gouache_1984_40,5x57,5cm001 — Untitled,
1984, Gouache/newspaper, 41 x 58 cm

G-50

1986, Gouache/Sketchbook paper, 31 x 21,5 cm

Schumacher_G-50-1986_Gouache_31x21,5cm — G-50,
1986, Gouache/Sketchbook paper, 31 x 21,5 cm

Biography

Born 1912 in Hagen
1931-34 Studies free graphics at the Kunstgewerbeschule Dortmund
1934-39 Freelance painter without participating in exhibitions
1939-45 Compulsory service as a technical draughtsman at the Akkumulatoren-Werke, an armaments factory in Hagen
1947 First solo exhibition in the "Studio für neue Kunst" (Studio for New Art) set up by the architect Rasch in Wuppertal
1947 Co-founder of the artists' association "junger westen
1954 Participates in the exhibition "German Art after 45" organised by Willem Sandberg in the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
1955 Participation in the exhibition "Peintres et sculpteurs non-figuratifs en Allemagne d'aujourd-hui" in Paris
1958 Participation in the XXIX Biennale di Venezia. Karl-Ernst-Osthaus Prize, Hagen. Guggenheim Award (National Section), New York
1958-60 Professorship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg
1959 Participation in documenta 2, Kassel, as well as in the V. "Biennale de São Paulo". First solo exhibition at the Samuel M. Kootz Gallery, New York. Award of the Japanese Minister of Culture on the occasion of the V. "International Art Exhibition", Tokyo
1962 Trip to Libya and Tunisia. Premio Cardazzo, on the occasion of the XXX. Biennale di Venezia. "First prize silver medal, Bang Danh-Du Award" on the occasion of the 1st "International Arts Exhibition", Saigon
1963 Solo exhibition as German contribution to the VII "Biennale de São Paulo". Travels to various countries in South America. Grand Art Prize of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf
1964 Participation in documenta 3, Kassel
1966-77 Professorship at the State Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe
1967-68 Visiting professor at the Minneapolis School of Art, Minneapolis
1968 Member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
since 1971 regular stays on Ibiza
1975 First solo exhibition at the Galerie Georg Nothelfer
1978 August Macke Prize of the city of Meschede
1982 Member of the Order "Pour le mérite" for Sciences and Arts. Rubens Prize of the city of Siegen. Ring of Honour of the City of Hagen
1985 Guest of Honour of the German Academy Rome, Villa Massimo
1987 Prize of the European Academy of Fine Arts, Trier
1988 Silver Medal on the occasion of the 2nd "International Biennale in Baghdad", Iraq
1990 Herbert Boeckl Prize for Modern European Painting, Salzburg
1996 Design of a 20 m long and 3 m high mosaic wall for the metro station Colosseo, Rome
1998 Commissioned to paint a mural in the Reichstag building, Berlin
1999 Member of the Saxon Academy of Arts, Dresden. Retrospective at the Haus der Kunst, Munich
Died 1999 in San José/Ibiza

Emil Schumacher is also highly regarded internationally as one of the most important representatives of German Informel. As early as the 1950s, influenced by French Tachism and American Action Painting, he developed an independent abstract painting style. In his painting, he traced matter and colour to a particular extent. He applied paint thickly as a layer of material to the picture support, into which he drew flowing line scaffolds of trenches and furrows that flow through the picture like wild rivers through the soil, tearing open the earth's crust and lending the pictures eruptive power, but also vulnerability. However, everyday materials such as wire mesh, crumpled paper, stones, straw, metal or sand were also used as poetic pictorial substance. Thus Schumacher's pictures repeatedly recall the history of the earth, primeval geological conditions of the cooled earth, volcanic incrustations with uplifted horizons. In the mid-1970s, he began to smash chunks of asphalt, softening them with heat in order to bend them with a hammer and merge them with the picture ground. His late work is characterised on the one hand by increasing formal sparseness, but also by powerful, luminous colour fields and disruptive lines of movement. The Emil Schumacher Museum opened in Hagen in 2009.

Exhibitions

Editions

O.T./Untitled, 1991, Facsimile print after gouache GE1/1990, signed by the artist on verso, 76 x 56,5 cm, Copies: 100

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O.T./Untitled, 1991, Facsimile print of the gouache GE-1/1989, sheet 62/100, signed on verso, 55,5 x 75,5 cm, Copies: 100

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O.T./Untitled, 1991, Faksimiledruck der Gouache GG-19/1990, Blatt 40/100, verso signiert, 55,5 x 75,5 cm, Copies: 100

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Publications

Das Erlebnis des Unbekannten, 2012, Published by Ulrich Schumacher and Ernst-Gerhard Güse for the Emil Schumacher Stiftung, Text byErnst-Gerhard Güse , Hatje Cantz Verlag, 508 Pages, 418 Pages, ISBN 978-3-7757-2082-3, EUR 50

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Malerei ist gesteigertes Leben, 2012, Emil Schumacher in international Context, Published by Ulrich Schumacher and Rouven Lotz for the Emil Schumacher Foundation, Text by Norbert Lammert, Ulrich Schumacher, Rouven Lotz, Susanne Rennert, Jens Christian Jensen, Erich Franz, Hirmer Verlag, 160 Pages, 55 Color Diagrams, 20 Pictures, ISBN 978-3-7774-5801-4, EUR 35

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