Harald Metzkes: Difference between revisions

| occupation = Painter<br>, graphic artist

'''Harald Metzkes''' (born 23 January 1929) is a German painter and [[graphic artist]].<ref name=BiographischeDatenbankenHM>{{cite web |url=http://bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=2303|author2=|author1=Anke Scharnhorst|title=Metzkes, Harald * 23.1.1929 Maler, Grafiker|publisher= Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken |language= German| accessdate= 25 June 2015}}</ref>

Harald Metzkes was born and grew up in [[Bautzen]], a long-established mid-sized town in eastern [[Saxony]]. His father was a doctor. In 1945 he undertook war service, but he was able to pass his [[Abitur|school leaving exams]] in 1945/46 at the local secondary school, and progress to the study of art. In 1946 he studied [[watercolor painting]] under Alfred Herzog. Between 1947 and 1949 he was apprenticed as a [[stonemason]]<ref name=BiographischeDatenbankenHM/> with the [[Bautzen]] sculptor Max Rothe.<ref name=HMlautHM>{{cite web |url=http://www.harald-metzkes.de/Biographie/biographie.html|title=Harald Metzkes Biographie|date=|author=Dr. Jörg Makarinus (website administration)|publisher=Harald Metzkes|accessdate=27 June 2015}}</ref> After that, between 1949 and 1953, he studied painting at the [[Dresden Academy of Fine Arts]] where his teachers included [[Wilhelm Lachnit]] and [[Rudolf Bergander]]. From 1953 till 1955 he worked as a freelance artist in [[Bautzen]].<ref name=BiographischeDatenbankenHM/> Between 1955 and 1958 he was a {{Interlanguage link multi|Meisterschüler (literally "Master student")|de|3=Meisterschüler}}, studying under [[Otto Nagel]], at the [[Academy of Arts, Berlin|Arts Academy]] in Berlin. In 1957, with [[Werner Stötzer]], along with [[John Heartfield|John]] and Gertrud Heartfield, he undertook a three-month study trip to China.<ref name=HMlautHM/>

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]]". 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 (writer)|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]], [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]], [[Franz Fühmann]], [[Christa Wolf]], [[Hermann Bang]], [[August Strindberg]] and even [[Theodor Fontane]].<ref name=HMlautHM/>

In 1976 he won the [[KätheAkademie Kollwitzder Prize]]Künste fromder the {{Interlanguage link multiDDR|Arts Academy of East Germany|de|3=Akademie]]'s der[[Käthe KünsteKollwitz der DDR}}Prize]], and state-level official recognition in the form of the [[Banner of Labor]].<ref name=HMlautHM/> In 1976 he was also awarded the [[National Prize of East Germany]] for illustrations and graphic art. The next year his work was the focus of an exhibition at the [[National Gallery (Berlin)|National Gallery]] in (East) Berlin]], "Harald Metzkes – Two decades of Pictures". 1976 was also the year in which he was a recipient of the [[National Prize of East Germany]] for illustrations and graphic art. In 1984 and 1988 Metzkes participated in the [[Venice Biennale]]. Some years after [[Die Wende|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 (Berlin)|National Gallery]]. Another of the numerous exhibitions in which he was featured, in 2006, was "Bilanz des Malers" at [[Gottorf Castle]] in the extreme north of the country.

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[[Category:20th-century illustratorsIllustrators of fairy tales]]