Harald Metzkes (born 23 January 1929) is a German painter and

graphic artist A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming l ...

Life

Harald Metzkes was born and grew up in

Bautzen Bautzen () or Budyšin (), until 1868 ''Budissin'' in German, is a town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and the administrative centre of the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen. It is located on the Spree (river), Spree river, is the eighth most ...

, a long-established mid-sized town in eastern

Saxony Saxony, officially the Free State of Saxony, is a landlocked state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Thuringia, and Bavaria, as well as the countries of Poland and the Czech Republic. Its capital is Dresden, and ...

. His father was a doctor. In 1945 he undertook war service, but he was able to pass his school leaving exams in 1945/46 at the local secondary school, and progress to the study of art. In 1946 he studied

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

under Alfred Herzog. Between 1947 and 1949 he was apprenticed as a

stonemason Stonemasonry or stonecraft is the creation of buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone as the primary material. Stonemasonry is the craft of shaping and arranging stones, often together with mortar and even the ancient lime mortar ...

with the

sculptor Max Rothe. After that, between 1949 and 1953, he studied painting at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

where his teachers included

Wilhelm Lachnit Wilhelm Lachnit (12 November 1899, , near Dresden — 14 November 1962, Dresden) was a German painter who was primarily active in Dresden. Life Lachnit was born in the small town of Gittersee; his family moved to Dresden in 1906. He studied at t ...

and Rudolf Bergander. From 1953 till 1955 he worked as a freelance artist in

. Between 1955 and 1958 he was a , studying under Otto Nagel, at the Arts Academy in Berlin. In 1957, with Werner Stötzer, along with

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

and Gertrud Heartfield, he undertook a three-month study trip to China. In 1959 Metzkes settled on the southside of Berlin, moving into a studio-workshop apartment in 1960: he embarked on a career as a free-lance artist, identified in some quarters by the soubriquet "The Cézannist of

Prenzlauer Berg Prenzlauer Berg () is a Boroughs and localities of Berlin, locality of Berlin, forming the southerly and most urban district of the borough of Pankow. From its founding in 1920 until 2001, Prenzlauer Berg was a district of Berlin in its own right ...

". The first exhibition devoted to his work took place in Berlin in 1963. 1963 was also the year in which he contributed illustrations for a book by Vladimir Pozner, "The enchanted one". During the ensuing 27 years he contributed illustrations for a further fifteen books, mostly by high-profile authors, including Marino Moretti,

William Heinesen Andreas William Heinesen (15 January 1900 – 12 March 1991) was a poet, writer, composer and painter from the Faroe Islands. His writing The Faroese capital Tórshavn is always the centre of Heinesen's writing and he is famous for having onc ...

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, film director, writer, actor and playwright. He is considered one of the defining public intellectuals in 20th-century Italian history, influential both as an artist ...

Franz Fühmann Franz Fühmann (15 January 1922 – 8 July 1984) was a German writer who lived and worked in East Germany. He wrote in a variety of formats, including short stories, essays, screenplays and children's books. Influenced by Nazism in his yout ...

Christa Wolf Christa Wolf (; Ihlenfeld; 18 March 1929 – 1 December 2011) was a German novelist and essayist. She is considered one of the most important writers to emerge from the former East Germany.Hermann Bang,

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...

and even

Theodor Fontane Theodor Fontane (; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language Literary realism, realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he i ...

. In 1976 he won the Arts Academy of East Germany's

Käthe Kollwitz Prize The Käthe Kollwitz Prize () is a German art award named after artist Käthe Kollwitz. Established in 1960 by the then-Academy of Arts of the German Democratic Republic (nowadays the Academy of Arts, Berlin), the prize is awarded annually by a j ...

, and state-level official recognition in the form of the

Banner of Labor The Banner of Labor () was an order issued in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was given for "excellent and long-standing service in strengthening and consolidating the GDR, especially for achieving outstanding results for the national ec ...

. In 1976 he was also awarded the

National Prize of East Germany The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) () was an award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement. With scientific achievem ...

for illustrations and graphic art. The next year his work was the focus of an exhibition at the National Gallery in (East) Berlin, "Harald Metzkes – Two decades of Pictures". In 1984 and 1988 Metzkes participated in the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. Some years after the end of the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet-sponsored one-party state of which he had been a citizen throughout its politically and socially troubled existence, Metzkes took part in the "Arts in the German Democratic Republic" exhibition staged in 1997/98 at the National Gallery. Another of the numerous exhibitions in which he was featured, in 2006, was "Bilanz des Malers" at

Gottorf Castle Gottorf Castle (, , Low German: ''Slott Gottorp'') is a castle and estate in the city of Schleswig, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is one of the most important secular buildings in Schleswig-Holstein, and has been rebuilt and expanded severa ...

in the extreme north of the country.

References

1929 births Living people People from Bautzen German children's book illustrators German fantasy artists Illustrators of fairy tales 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters Stonemasons Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Recipients of the Banner of Labor German military personnel of World War II 20th-century German illustrators {{Germany-painter-stub