Louis Christian Hess
Louis Christian Hess, artistic name of Alois Anton Hess, known also as Christian Hess (Bozen, December 24, 1895 – Schwaz, November 26, 1944) was an Austrian painter and sculptor of the German Neue Sachlichkeit (New objectivity) during the 1920s.
Early years
In 1915 Hess exhibited his first works, drawings, tempera and engravings, at the "Turn und Taxishof Galerie” in Innsbruck. During World War One Hess fought on the French front at the Somme and Ardennes. After the war, from 1919 since 1924 he attended the Munich Bayerische Akademie der Bildenden Künste in the class of Prof. C. Becker-Gundhal. In 1920 Hess attended the first collective exhibition “Ausstellung Junger Münchner - Graphische Kunstwerkstätten” in Munich presented by George Jacob Wolf. In the following 1921 exhibition "Ausstellung Junger Münchner” at Gemälde Galerie Sct. Martinus, also in Munich, he exhibits works alongside pieces from Florian Bosch, Adolf Hartmann, Siegfried Kühnel, Georg Liebhardt, Josef Nickl, Eugen Siegler, Bernhard Therhorst and the sculptors Lothar Dietz and Benno Miller. After his sister Emma moves to Sicily in 1924, Hess makes frequent trips to Italy, getting inspiration from the color and mediterranean light that he pours into his art.
Christian Hess and the Juryfreie
In 1928 he became close to Max Beckmann until his exile. Hess participates to the “Sommer Ausstellung des Deutschen Künstler Verbandes AUFBAU - E. V.” in Munich and some of his paintings are shown in Berlin. In 1929 he join the "Juryfreie” movement becoming leader until his ban in 1933 by NS regime. In "Aus meinem Künstnotizbuch”, the art critic Wilhelm Hausenstein writes: “Juryfreie reveal itself as a prominent artistic group... I notice, Christian Hess, Josef Scharl, Fritz Burkhardt, Grassmann, Panizza and sculptors as Spengler e Zeh”. Art magazines publish Christian Hess works: the Lipsian "Cicerone” the painting "Am strand” (On the beach); the Munich magazine "Jugend”, official voice of the "Jugendstil” movement, publish on the cover of the April 1930 issue the oil painting "Fischer mit roter Weste” (Fischerman with the red jacket), central part of a trypthic shown at the Secession exhibition. The same year the catalogue “Zweijahrbuch” (1929–30) presented by the critic Hans Eckstein, with essays of Franz Rho, Oskar Maria Graf e Wolfang Petzet publish the paintings “Neptun” e “Matrosen” realized in Messina. He frescoed the thermal bath in Oeynhausen (Westfalia). "Jugend” reproduce “Am Wasser” central part of a tryptic shown at June Secession exhibition. On the June 6, 1931, in the Munich Glaspalast fire Hess and more other artist's works burn. For the "Juryfreie" artists is organized an extraordinary exhibition in the German Museum. The same year Hess is in Rome with the friend Karl Hofer. Back to Germany starts a movement of painter, sculptors and architechts and in the exhibition "Bildhauer Maler Architekt” Hess presents cartoons for the frescoes of a "Ton film theater” in Breslavia. 1932 is still a year of great artistic vitality. With the "Juryfreie” presents the painting "Wartesaal III klasse in Bologna” (Monspreis London - Opus 30) and sculptures in Munich "Lenbach Galerie” and in Düsseldorf. A season of exhibitions with the Deutscher Künstlerbund: Berlin, Nurberg, Koenigsberg, Danzica, Rostock.
The years of exile
The artistic ostracism carried on by nazism moves Hess to a voluntary exile. In 1933, after the dissolution of Jurifreie, believed by the regime as a “bolscevic cultural union”, he moves to Sicily. The following year he marries the elvetic Cecile Faesy with whom leave to Switzerland. There he can work in difficult conditions because since 1935 Germans are not wellcome. He runs some theatre direction, scenography and make some puppet engravings. Through some friends he can sell some unsigned painting but in 1936 go back to Sicily with the wife that divorce some months later. From friends still in Germany and Austria knows that the political situation is worsening. He studies new techniques but depression brings him on the edge of suicide. Supported by the sister Emma he find the energies to go back to north. In 1938 is in Switzerland again in Liestal in the house of the close friend Jurg Spiller but he did not receive the residence permit. Then he moves to Germany where the cultural and artistic life is under the strict regime control. In 1939 is hosted in Chiemsee by his friend Franz Saverius Gebhardt-Westerbuchberg. There he can paint and model sculptures. In Oberwössen, Bayern, he frescoes the walls of a restaurant owned by the wife of his friend, the sculptor Oskar Zeh, suicide in 1935 in Munich. His health conditions are worse. Seriously ill, spend 1941 in the Schwabing Hospital, then in Planneg Asylum. Discharged, he goes to Tyrol, first to Axams and Innsbruck then in Grinzens and to Zirl where apply frescos in the municipality building. In 1942 is back in Innsbruck. The Tyrolean Artistic Union (Der Landsleiter der Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste beim Landskulturwalter Gau Tirol Voralberg) provide him an atelier. After the last hospitalization he dies on the November 26, 1944, under a bomb attack on Innsbruck. There he lies, buried in the Westfriedhof.
Bibliography
- Zweijharebuch (1929–30) - Deutscher Künstlerverband die Juryfreien - München E.V. - 1930
- Christian Hess - Exhibition catalog - Palermo - 1974
- Christoph Stolzl, Die Zwanziger Jahre in München, München, Münchner Stadtmuseums, 1979
- Abbild und Emotion - österreicher Realismus -1914 1944 - Manfred Wagner et al. - Edition Tusch Wien - 1984 ISBN 978-3-85063-151-8
- Im Spiegel der Wirklichkeit - Matthias Boeckl - Museumsverein Bruneck - 2007
- Christian Hess 1895 1944 - Museum Rabalderhaus Schwatz - Stadtmuseum Bozen - Athesia BZ - 2008 - ISBN 978-88-8266-414-5
- Christian Hess - Ein Tiroler in Sizilien - Edition Schütz - Wien - 2012 - ISBN 978-3-9501052-7-8