Wenzel Hablik

Wenzel August Hablik, also known as Wenceslav Hablik and Wilhelm August Hablik (4 August 1881 – 23 March 1934), was a painter, graphic artist, architect, designer, and craftsman of the early twentieth century, associated with German Expressionism.

Some of his paintings include ''Where from? Where to?'', ''Starry Sky, Attempt'', and ''Utopian Buildings''.

Early life and education

Hablik was born in Brüx, Bohemia (now the city of Most in the Czech Republic). In later life he recalled that at the age of six, he found a specimen of crystal, and saw in it "magical castles and mountains" that would later appear in his art.

More pragmatically, he trained as a master cabinetmaker in bums. Teplitz, Vienna, and Prague.

Career

He settled in Itzehoe, Germany in 1907, where he pursued architectural and interior design projects. Hablik produced designs for furniture, textiles, tapestries, jewelry, cutlery, and wallpapers. In 1917, he married German weaver and textile designer, Elisabeth Lindemann (1879–1960); they shared a workshop and studio in Itzehoe.

Hablik, a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, became best known, however, for his etchings and paintings and his links with major German Expressionist figures and movements, including the Arbeitsrat für Kunst (English: ''Workers Council for Art'') and the Glass Chain movement. Hablik maintained a strong lifelong interest in crystals and geological forms generally. His visual art is notable for its highly imaginative and fanciful aspects; he created depictions of temples, flying cities, and crystal chasms.

In 1909, Hablik published his ''Creative Forces'' ("Schaffende Kräfte"), "a portfolio of twenty etchings portraying a voyage through an imaginary universe of crystalline structures" that "represents the most significant accomplishment of his career." Hablik also published other portfolios of his etchings, ''The Sea'' ("Das Meer", 1918) and ''Architectural Cycle — Utopia'' ("Cyklus Architektur — Utopie," 1925). Some of Hablik's designs, particularly of lamps and small sculptures, relate to and express the "utopian crystalline" forms of his etchings.

A catalogue in the artist's autograph lists some 600 artworks; about 250 oil paintings by Hablik are known at present. He produced portraits, landscapes, nude figures, and pictures showing Symbolist influences. A tour of South America in 1925 to 1926 inspired him to create paintings of cactuses and flowers.

Hablik died at Itzehoe in 1934. The Wenzel Hablik Museum was established in the city of Itzehoe in 1995. The museum contains much of his art, as well as his collections of crystals and minerals, seashells and snails.

File:Wenzel Hablik Sylt Sonnenuntergang Dünen 1912.jpg, ''Sylt, Sunset, Dunes'', (1912)
File:Wenzel Hablik, Křišťálový zámek v moři, 1914, Národní galerie v Praze.jpg, ''Crystal Castle in the Sea'', (1914)
File:Wenzel Hablik Der Weg des Genius.jpg, ''The Path of the Genius'', (1918)
File:Wenzel Hablik.jpg, ''Cycle's Utopian Architectures. Airplane Towers, Silos, Artist Apartments'', (1921)
File:Wenzel Hablik Große bunte utopische Bauten.jpg, ''Big Colorful Utopian Constructions'', (1922)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hablik, Wenzel
1881 births
1934 deaths
People from Most (city)
People from the Kingdom of Bohemia
German Bohemian people
19th-century German painters
19th-century German male artists
German male painters
20th-century German painters
20th-century German male artists
German Expressionist painters
Austro-Hungarian emigrants to Germany