Gerhard Wendland, (born October 29, 1910 in Hanover; † July 23, 1986 in Nuremberg) was a German painter and graphic artist. He was an important representative of abstract art after the Second World War, but always opened up to new styles and directions.
LIFE:
Gerhard Wendland studied at the art college in Hanover. He undertook numerous study trips to Holland, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary and Yugoslavia. After his military service in the Second World War, he was taken prisoner by the English in Egypt.
In 1953, Wendland received a scholarship from the German Business Cultural Group in the Federal Association of German Industry. In 1955 he became a member of the German Artists' Association, in whose annual exhibitions he took part a total of sixteen times between 1952 (in the Cologne State House at Rheinpark) and 1985 (in the Sprengel Museum, Hanover). In 1959 Gerhard Wendland took part in documenta II in Kassel.
In 1956 he took over the management of the free painting department at the Hanover Werkkunstschule. In 1960 he was appointed professor of painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg (where he worked until 1978) and as a lecturer at the seminar for humanities in Nuremberg.
Wendland was a co-founder of Group N and a member of the Albrecht Dürer Society.
In 1981, the Kunsthalle Nuremberg held a major retrospective of his art. The Kunsthaus Nürnberg honored his 80th birthday in 1990 with a solo exhibition, and in 2010, for his 100th birthday, the Kunstvilla in the KunstKulturQuartier (in close cooperation with the New Museum in Nuremberg) presented works from the estate and from city property.
His abstract painting and graphic work was strongly influenced by the work of Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. His work was characterized by frequent changes in style. He experimented among other things. with informal and op art elements as well as lyrical and expressive abstraction.
STUDENTS:
His well known students are:
- Peter Angermann
- Alexej Iljitsch Baschlakow
- Alf Schuler
- Rainer Zitta