Fritz Kuhr / Ute Famulla

Show notes

This brand-new episode of "bauhaus faces" is about a rather unknown Bauhausler: Fritz Kuhr. Although he was at the Bauhaus for roughly 7 years he is widely unknown. Kuhr was the student spokesperson of the Bauhaus Master Council, part of the infamous Bauhaus band, helped edit and produce the Bauhaus publications with Ernst Kállai and had a connection to the communists at the Bauhaus. After leaving the Bauhaus in 1930 Kuhr moved to Berlin and tried to make a living as a freelance artist. He was internationally represented by the gallery Ferdinand Möller and though he seemingly was a rising star in the vibrant art scene of the 1930s, this all came to an abrupt end when the Nazis defamed him as a degenerated artist in 1937.

Kuhr stayed in Berlin during World War 2. His atelier was bombed twice and many of his works were partly or completely destroyed. After the second bombing in 1944 Kuhr was drafted into military service and became a Soviet prisoner of war. On his return to Berlin, he was a „bird-free painter in berlin. no studio. no light. no paper. hardly any canvases and oil colours. nevertheless. a new beginning. made possible by the comradeship of colleagues who are also suffering. “

In 1948 Kuhr was appointed as university teacher at the Hochschule der Bildenden Künste in Berlin (today UdK Berlin). From now on, he fully concentrated on his art students. Fritz Kuhr died in 1975.

For this episode fellow art-historian Ute Famulla tells Kuhr’s story. Her family has clos ties with Kuhr and today owns his estate.

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SHOW NOTES

https://www.bauhausfaces.com | @bauhausfacespodcast

COLLECTIONS WITH FRITZ KUHR's ART

Website of the Fritz Kuhr Estate https://fritz-kuhr-bauhausler.de

Bauhaus Dessau Foundation https://dam.bauhaus-dessau.de/portals/bilddatenbank/#search/basic/fritz%20kuhr

Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin https://open-archive.bauhaus.de

Städelmuseum https://sammlung.staedelmuseum.de/de/person/kuhr-fritz

Harvard Art Museums https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections

PUBLICATIONS ABOUT FRITZ KUHR

Fritz Kuhr: Bauhaus-Erinnerungen: Meine Meister, Team Kommunikation, Frankfurt am Main 1993

Hermann Famulla: Laternenlicht-Komposition. Fotos von Fritz Kuhr, Team Kommunikation Verlag, Berlin 2015

Fritz Kuhr (illustrator) Hermann & Ute Famulla (eds.): _"also wird gemalt" der bauhäusler fritz kuhr, Kunstmuseum Ahrenshoop, Ahrenshoop 2019

COVER PHOTO Fritz Kuhr, Self-portrait III, 1926, Courtesy Fritz Kuhr Estate