Grethe Jürgens (February 15, 1899 – May 8, 1981) was a German painter associated with the

New Objectivity The New Objectivity (in ) was a movement in German art that arose during the 1920s as a reaction against German Expressionism, expressionism. The term was coined by Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, the director of the ''Kunsthalle Mannheim, Kunsthalle' ...

. Jürgens was born in Holzhausen and grew up in

Wilhelmshaven Wilhelmshaven (, ''Wilhelm's Harbour''; Northern Low Saxon: ''Willemshaven'') is a coastal town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the western side of the Jade Bight, a bay of the North Sea, and has a population of 76,089. Wilhelmsha ...

.Schmied 1978, p. 127. In 1918 she enrolled in the

Technische Hochschule A ''Technische Hochschule'' (, plural: ''Technische Hochschulen'', abbreviated ''TH'') is a type of university focusing on engineering sciences in Germany. Previously, it also existed in Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands (), and Finland (, ) ...

in Berlin (now

Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin; also known as Berlin Institute of Technology and Technical University of Berlin, although officially the name should not be translated) is a public university, public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was the first ...

), where she studied architecture.Michalski 1994, p. 213. From 1919 until 1922 she studied at the Hanover School of Arts and Crafts under Fritz Burgr-Mühlfeld.Schmied 1978, p. 128. She was employed in advertising as a draftswoman for the Hackethal Wire Company in Hanover from 1923 to 1927, and continued afterward to work as a freelance commercial artist. Her paintings from this period, such as ''Garden Picture'' (1928) and ''Employment Exchange'' (1929), show the influence of French artists such as

Henri Rousseau Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Gug ...

and

Auguste Herbin Auguste Herbin (29 April 1882 – 31 January 1960) was a French Painting, painter of modern art. He is best known for his Cubism, Cubist and abstract art, abstract paintings consisting of colorful Geometry, geometric figures. He co-founded the gr ...

. From 1931 to 1932, Jürgens edited the 12-issue run of the magazine ''Der Wachsbogen'', which served as a theoretical organ of the Hanover artists of the New Objectivity movement. In an essay she published in the magazine, she described the group's artistic approach:

One paints a landscape, trees, houses, vehicles, and sees the world in a new way. Unemployed people, tramps, or beggars are painted, not because they are "interesting characters" ... or through a desire to appeal to the sympathy of society, but because one suddenly realizes that it is in these people that the most powerful expression of the present time is to be found.Michalski 1994, p. 136.

In 1932, she participated in the exhibition "Neue Sachlichkeit in Hanover" ("New Objectivity in Hanover") at the

Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) is an art museum in the German city of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. History Founded in 1754, the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum is one of the oldest museums in Europe. The museum has its origins in the art and nat ...

in Brunswick. In 1933 she had a solo exhibition in

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

. After 1933, she worked extensively as an illustrator and designer of book covers. In 1951, the

Wilhelm Busch Museum The Wilhelm Busch Museum (, "Wilhelm Busch - German Museum of Caricature and Drawings") is a museum in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. It features the world's largest collection of works by Wilhelm Busch, as well as contemporary comic art, illust ...

in Hanover presented a retrospective exhition of her works. Jürgens died in 1981 in Hanover.

Notes

References

* Michalski, Sergiusz (1994). ''New Objectivity''. Cologne: Benedikt Taschen. * Schmied, Wieland (1978). ''Neue Sachlichkeit and German Realism of the Twenties''. London: Arts Council of Great Britain. {{DEFAULTSORT:Jurgens, Grethe 1899 births 1981 deaths 20th-century German painters 20th-century German women artists