Gerd Arntz - From industrialist's son to left-wing activist and painter
Gerd Arntz was born in Remscheid on 11th December 1900. As the second child of a factory owner, he grew up in affluent circumstances, but nevertheless had to serve in the field artillery in the last year of the First World War. He survived the war and then worked for a short time as a milling cutter in his father's machine tool factory before beginning to study art with Lothar von Kunowksi in Düsseldorf in 1919. That same year, Arntz was able to exhibit for the first time in a hat shop in Remscheid. The 1920s were initially characterised by contact with left-wing revolutionary circles, which gave the artist, who had previously been inclined towards nationalism and militarism, new impetus and a new direction in his life. Arntz became loosely involved in politics, took part in left-wing demonstrations, and finally made the acquaintance of the painter Jankel Adler in the Düsseldorf Aktivistenbund (activist organization), who introduced him to the Cologne group stupid. There he socialised with the leading figures of political constructivism in Germany: Marta Hegemann, Heinrich Hoerle, Anton Räderscheidt and Franz Wilhelm Seiwert.
Successful graphic designer and pioneer of the pictogram
With the prospect of starting a family with Agnes Thubeauville, Gerd Arntz wanted a secure job and began an apprenticeship as a bookseller in Hagen in 1922. Although he successfully completed this, he and his wife were subsequently drawn back to Düsseldorf, where he once again worked as an artist and took over Otto Dix's studio. Arntz gradually developed his own style of expression, which was characterised by a highly simplified figurative depiction of social milieus in black and white. The artist's solidarity was clearly directed towards the working class, while he criticised the rampant militarism, nationalism and capitalism. Arntz found a great admirer in the Viennese economist Otto Neurath, who is considered the father of the pictogram. Neurath brought Arntz to Vienna, and together they succeeded in shaping a new direction in applied art and heralding the triumph of pictograms. A trip to Moscow led to disillusionment for Gerd Arntz, as he was critical of the methods of Socialist Realism in force there.
Emigration to the Netherlands; forced conscription into the Wehrmacht
Gerd Arntz's return to Vienna brought him into conflict with the authorities, who closed the museum of his friend and patron Neurath and banned all left-wing organisations. Arntz was able to flee to the Netherlands, where he found work at the Mundaneum Institute in The Hague. Artistically, he repeatedly spoke out against the political developments in Germany, and in 1934, created his famous woodcut The Third Reich. The cultural freedom of the Netherlands, which Arntz greatly enjoyed, came to an abrupt end when he was conscripted into military service. In 1944, the artist surrendered to the Resistance in Paris; after being released as a prisoner of war, he worked for a time as a dock labourer before returning to The Hague in 1946, where he worked for Unesco as an image statistician, among other things.
Staunch loner; friendship with M. C. Escher
Gerd Arntz worked alone throughout his life and refused to join existing artist groups. However, he formed a deep friendship with his fellow artist Maurits Cornelis Escher, which lasted until Escher's death in 1972. While Arntz saw great success in numerous exhibitions in the Netherlands immediately after the end of the war, interest in Germany only awoke in the 1960s. In particular, a joint exhibition of The Hague artists at the famous Malkasten in Düsseldorf brought him great renown in the Federal Republic of Germany.
Gerd Arntz died in The Hague on 4th December 1988.
Gerd Arntz - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
