By Joe F. Bodenstein
By Joe F. Bodenstein
The German president Johannes Rau listens carefully to the explanations of the artist about painting in the present and future. The head of state appreciates the art of Wendehals.
Berlin/Düsseldorf (bpb) The impressionistic painter August Alexander Wendehals has created his latest work--the oil painting "Protecting Europe". It was commissioned by the European Art Foundation. The painting shows the national flags of the uniting Europe in a whirlwind . The calm pole of the composition is represented by the Nörvenich Castle between Köln and Aachen, the seat of the foundation.
The 68-year old artist has a large circle of art collectors and admirers. The German president Johannes Rau values Wendehals as an "impressionistic renewer" of a "blooming painting", which is not stingy with colors. Wendehals was born in Warburg-Ossendorf in 1934. In 1949 he began his artistic education with Anton Plass and Gottfried Beyer. "But already as a child I used to like painting more than school", remembers the artist with the French barret.
The art historian Dr. Ulrich Gehre says about Wendehals: "Stylistically, the artist turns out to be a late follower of the great Maurice Utrillo, as well as of the impressionists in general. Like these and Manet, Monet, Sosley, Pissarro and last but not least Max Liebermann, who carried over the achievements of the French impressionism into the austere speech of North Germany, Wendehals successfully makes use of the medium of the style of the impressionists.
The president of the European Art Foundation, John G. Bodenstein said at the handing over ceremony: "Art professor Wendehals is a master of the spatula in painting. A brush is not his main tool, but the slim metal spatula. He handles it like musical instrument and draws on the canvas first the contours, and then the architecture, landscape and life arise."
To a special strength of Wendehals belong views of cities. Motivs from the capital Berlin, München, Leipzig and Dresden are especially in demand. The Galery Mensing, called "the gretest house of art in Europe" with its mother-house in Hamm-Rhymen carry as constant stock-in-trade works of Wendehals as well as of the last European painter-prince Ernst Fuchs, a friend of Arno Breker and Salvador Dali. In the depiction of the pastoral landscapes, of hunting scenes, still lifes, landscapes and pictures of cities is Wendehals unmistakeable, says the art-publisher Marco Bodenstein from the Galery Marco, Bonn. No wonder that the painter has had exhibitions already since the 1970's in numerous European countries, England, France, Austria, as well as Canada and USA.
Wendehals is among others a co-founder of the European Sculpture Park in Willebadessen, which is essentially attributed to the initiative of the couple Maria and Johannes Saggel, who are engaged for the classical tradition. In addition to numerous awards, Wendehals, as a member of the International Art Academy in Florence, received the honorary title of professor.
Copyright 2002 West Art, Prometheus 84/2002