Fleischer, Heinz: The Coalface Worker
£350.00
From a series recording the coal mining industry in the former East Germany, a powerful signed woodcut on handmade paper in excellent condition, the print is unframed. More images can be provided on request.
Artist: Heinz Fleischer, (1920-1975)
Title and date: The Coalface Worker, 1950s
Size: 32.0 x 26.0 cm.
Description
Artist description:
A German painter, graphic artist and textile designer, Heinz Fleischer was born in Zwickau in the south west German region of Saxony. He began an apprenticeship as a locksmith in 1934 but was conscripted into the army in 1939. He was severely wounded on the eastern front in 1944 and was taken prisoner. He was interned as a prisoner of war in Doncaster and began work as a self-taught artist. He returned to Zwickau in 1946 and worked as a freelance artist, especially his distinctive woodcuts. His first exhibition was the second German Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1949 and he took part in many exhibitions in the former East Germany including in Berlin, Chemnitz, Dresden, Halle and Stuttgart. He developed a strong reputation in the GDR for his expressive woodcuts, textile wall hangings and murals. He died after a long illness in 1975.
Heinz Fleischer’s work is underappreciated and, having lived most of his adult life in the former East Germany, his reputation was confined to that country. His woodcuts are simple, powerful and were used to great effect on subjects ranging from the serious, such as the experience of work and political expression, to the playful.