Carlo Mense (May 13, 1886 – August 11, 1965) was a German

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating the work of art. The most common usage (in both everyday speech and academic discourse) refers to a practitioner in the visual arts o ...

, associated at various times with the

Düsseldorf school of painting Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

, Rhenish Expressionism and

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' ...

. Mense was born in

Rheine Rheine () is a city in the district of Steinfurt (district), Steinfurt in Westphalia, Germany. It is the largest city in the district and the location of Rheine Air Base. Geography Rheine is on the river Ems (river), Ems, about north of Münster ...

. He studied with Peter Janssen at the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Ma ...

from 1906 to 1908, and then with

Lovis Corinth Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Secessio ...

at the

Prussian Academy of Arts The Prussian Academy of Arts () was a state arts academy first established in 1694 by prince-elector Frederick III of Electorate of Brandenburg, Brandenburg in Berlin, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Kingdom of ...

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

in 1909. In 1913, he co-organized (with

August Macke August Robert Ludwig Macke (3 January 1887 – 26 September 1914) was a German Expressionist painter. He was one of the leading members of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He lived during a particularly activ ...

) the first exhibition of the Rhenish Expressionists in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. In 1914, he spent some time at the artists' colony at

Ascona 300px, Ascona Ascona ( ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yearly Ascona Jazz Festival. ...

, where he met

Georg Schrimpf Georg Schrimpf (13 February 1889 – 19 April 1938) was a German painter and graphic artist. Along with Otto Dix, George Grosz and Christian Schad, Schrimpf is broadly acknowledged as a main representative of the art movement ''Neue Sachlichkei ...

and

Heinrich Maria Davringhausen Heinrich Maria Davringhausen (21 October 1894 – 13 December 1970) was a German painter associated with the New Objectivity. Davringhausen was born in Aachen. Mostly self-taught as a painter, he began as a sculptor, studying briefly a ...

. From 1921 to 1925, Mense lived in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, where he became associated with the New Objectivity style, in particular being heavily influenced by Schrimpf, as well as by the Italian

Valori Plastici ''Valori plastici'' () was an Italian magazine published in Rome in Italian and French. The magazines existed between 1918 and 1922. History and profile ''Valori plastici'' was established in Rome by the painter and art collector Mario Broglio ...

group, with whom he exhibited in

Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...

in 1922. In 1925, he was appointed professor at the Kunstakademie Breslau.

Alexander Kanoldt Alexander Kanoldt (29 September 1881 – 24 January 1939) was a German Magic realism, magic realist painter and one of the artists of the New Objectivity. Early life and education Alexander Kanoldt was born on 29 September 1881 in Karlsruhe i ...

, also associated with New Objectivity, was appointed professor at the same time, and the two attempted to establish a center of New Objectivity there, but came into conflict with the mainly

avant garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

circle centered on Oskar Moll. Mense remained a professor at Breslau until 1932; soon thereafter, his works were branded degenerate art by the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

, and 34 works were seized and destroyed. He lived from 1945 in

Bad Honnef Bad Honnef () is a spa town in Germany near Bonn in the Rhein-Sieg district, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the border of the neighbouring state Rhineland-Palatinate. To the north it lies on the slopes of the Drachenfels (Siebengebirge), ...

, and died in 1965 in

Königswinter Königswinter (; ; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at the foot of the ...

. He was awarded the ''

Bundesverdienstkreuz The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first President of the Federal Republic ...

'' in 1961.

References

Homepage of Carlo Mense
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mense, Carlo 1886 births 1965 deaths People from Rheine People from the Province of Westphalia 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters German modern painters Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Düsseldorf school of painting