Anatol Herzfeld

Anatol Herzfeld (born Karl-Heinz Herzfeld; 21 January 1931 – 10 May 2019)[1] was a German sculptor and mixed-media artist, and also a policeman. A student of Joseph Beuys, he primarily used wood, iron and stone as materials. As an artist, he simply signed Anatol. He received attention for a happening, crossing the Rhine in a boat he created with Beuys, after Beuys had been expelled from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Anatol Herzfeld
Anatol's house and studio on the Museum Insel Hombroich
Born
Karl-Heinz Herzfeld

(1931-01-21)21 January 1931
Insterburg, East Prussia
Died10 May 2019(2019-05-10) (aged 88)
Moers, Germany
Other namesAnatol
EducationKunstakademie Düsseldorf
Occupation
  • Policeman
  • Sculptor
  • Mixed-media artist
  • Academic teacher
Organization
Awards

Anatol lived and worked on the Museum Insel Hombroich. His monumental sculptures were presented at the documenta in Kassel several times, and at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, among others. Some of them are at international locations such as the National Assembly in Paramaribo, Suriname. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, two exhibitions were staged in his honour, one about him as an artist, the other as a policeman.

Life and work

Herzfeld was born in Insterburg, East Prussia (now Chernyakhovsk, Russia). During World War II, he and his family escaped to the Rhineland, where he first was a blacksmith, then a policeman.[1][2] Teaching traffic rules to school children using puppets was one of his specialties.[3]

He studied sculpture at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Joseph Beuys from 1964 to 1972.[1] He was influenced by his professor's ideas, especially by the concept of "social sculpture". Therefore, telling stories, talking about current political themes, and working with his own hands became the basis of his artistic work.[4] He chose his name as an artist, Anatol, after Anatole Kuragin from Tolstoy's War and Peace.[3]

Anatol also created happenings together with Beuys.[5] An action by Beuys and Anatol took place in the pub Creamcheese in Düsseldorf in 1968. Three of Beuys's students, Joachim Duckwitz, Ulrich Meister and Johannes Stüttgen, were shown handcuffed to a steel table made by Anatol and sitting on steel chairs. Red and green signals, operated by Anatol from a corner of the room, directed each sitter as to when they could speak. Beuys stood in the opposite corner of the room, silently making different gestures.[6] After Beuys was expelled from the Kunstakademie in 1972, Anatol protested in an action the following year. On 20 July 1973, he placed Beuys in a dugout canoe that he had built, and they crossed the Rhine from Oberkassel, where Beuys lived, to the Akademie,[1][7][8] in a symbolic journey of a return of his master titled Die Heimholung des Joseph Beuys.[3]

For two years, Anatol was also a student of architect Karl Wimmenauer.[9] Furthermore, he regularly participated in ring talks (Ringgespräche) about art theory.[1]

In 1975, he founded the Freie Akademie Oldenburg.[10][11] From 1979 to 1981, he taught art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. In 1982, he settled on the Museum Insel Hombroich, running a studio in a former barn.[12] In 1996, he was appointed honorary professor of fine arts by the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.[13][14]

He died in Moers on 10 May 2019 at age 88 after a short illness.[3][15]

Exhibitions

Anatol's art was presented in exhibitions including:[16]

Works

Awards
  • Parlament, Museum Insel Hombroich
  • Osterei, Museum Insel Hombroich
  • Die Wächter der Kinder, Viersen
  • Traumschiff Tante Olga, Kassel
  • Wachstation des Denkens gegen illegale Gewalt, Kassel
  • Head of Joseph Beuys, Meerbusch-Büderich

References
  1. "Kunstwelt trauert um Bildhauer Anatol". Rheinische Post (in German). 12 May 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
  2. Anatol Herzfeld – Künstler und Schutzmann: Ausstellung zum 80sten Geburtstag. Polizeipräsidium Düsseldorf. Düsseldorf 2011.
  3. "Beuys-Schüler Anatol Herzfeld ist tot" (in German). BR. 13 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  4. "Künstler / Beuys-Schüler Anatol Herzfeld ist gestorben". Neue Rhein-Zeitung (in German). 12 May 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  5. Eva Beuys, Joseph Beuys: Handaktion 1968 & Anatol Herzfeld: Der Tisch 1968. Göttingen 2009.
  6. Der Tisch (motion picture). Film- und Tonaufzeichnung einer gemeinsamen öffentlichen Aktion von Joseph Beuys mit seinen Schülern Anatol Herzfeld, Ulrich Meister, Joachim Duckwitz und Johannes Stüttgen am 23.1.1969 im Creamcheese, Düsseldorf.
  7. Hakendahl, Jörg (13 May 2012). "Zeitzeuge Anatol (81): 'So fuhr ich mit Beuys im Einbaum über den Rhein'". Bild (in German). Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  8. Johannes Stüttgen, Der ganze Riemen. Der Auftritt von Joseph Beuys als Lehrer. Die Chronologie der Ereignisse an der Staatlichen Kunstakademie Düsseldorf 1966–1972. Cologne: König, 2008, p. 1012.
  9. "Anatol Herzfeld: 'Ergebnisse 64–78' ". In Das Kunstwerk, vol. 32, 1979, p. 181.
  10. Freie Akademie Oldenburg.
  11. Helga Meister, "Anatol", In Die Kunstszene Düsseldorf. Recklinghausen 1979, p.33.
  12. Udo Weilacher, In Gardens: Profiles of Contemporary European Landscape Architecture (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2005), p. 76.
  13. Kunstforum International, No. 136, 1997, p. 18.
  14. "Ämter und Würden". Art: Das Kunstmagazin (12): 133. 1996. Der Düsseldorfer Künstler Anatol Herzfeld ist zum Honorarprofessor der Universität von South Dakota sowie zum Ehrenbürger des amerikanischen Bundesstaats ernannt worden.
  15. "Bildhauer Anatol Herzfeld mit 88 Jahren in Moers gestorben". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Essen. 13 May 2019. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  16. Anatol Herzfeld Kunstaspekte
  17. "Anatol" (in German). documenta. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  18. Frankfurter Kunstverein: Amboß für Frau Maos Messer Frankfurter Stadtanzeiger, 4 November 1976
  19. Boebers-Süßmann, Jürgen (20 January 2011). "Museum Bochum ehrt Anatol Herzfeld mit Sonderausstellung". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Essen. Retrieved 19 May 2019.
  20. "Anatol. Arbeiten aus der Sammlung Gertz". Ratingen (in German). 2014. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
  21. "Matinee "NEU GIER" Anatol Herzfeld". artopening.de (in German). 2007. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  22. Ulbrich, Olaf (27 March 2019). "Die grüne Nackte steht seit 40 Jahren am Busen der Jade". Nordwest-Zeitung (in German). Oldenburg. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  23. Rehnolt, Andreas (21 January 2016). "Anatol Herzfeld zum 85. Geburtstag". Musenblätter (in German). Wuppertal. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  24. Köhler, Marlene; Krziwanie, Ernst (2018). DuMont Reise-Taschenbuch Reiseführer Sachsen-Anhalt. Dumont Reiseverlag. p. 49. ISBN 9783616421063.
  25. Busan Biennale 2004
  26. LKH-Univ.Klinikum Graz / Skulpturengruppe "Heilkunst"
  27. von Looz-Corswarem, Clemens; Purpar, Rolf (2018). "Denkmäler und Kunstwerke in Düsseldorf, Eine Einführung". Kunststadt Düsseldorf (PDF). Düsseldorf: Grupello Verlag. p. 14. ISBN 9783899780444.
  28. "Fünf Meter hohe Stahlfigur : Anatols "Wächter": Ein Kunstwerk für die Polizei". Rheinische Post (in German). Düsseldorf. 15 June 2011. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  29. Pogorzalek, Josef (21 April 2016). "Moerser auf Kunstreise in Surinam". Rheinische Post (in German). Düsseldorf. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  30. Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg: Lovis-Corinth-Preisträger

Further reading
  • Anatol: Besuch bei Tante Olga in Dangast. Oldenburger Kunstverein, 14 February – 2 March 1975.
  • Gerd Winkler: "Alle Lieben Anatol". In pardon, no. 3, March 1976, pp. 114–120.
  • Helga Meister: "Anatol", In Die Kunstszene Düsseldorf. Recklinghausen 1979, pp. 32–34.
  • Anatol – Ausstellung im Kunstforum Rottweil. Exh. cat., Rottweil 1980.
  • Manfred Boetzkes (ed.): Anatol: Bilder 1979–1984. Exh. cat., Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum, Hildesheim 1984.
  • Karl-Heinz Hering, Anatol – Bilder u. Plastiken 1965–1985; Arbeitszeit. Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, 20 April – 2 June 1985, Düsseldorf 1985.
  • Anatol: Mein Leben; neue Bilder auf Blei. 14 March – 30 April 1986. Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf 1986.
  • Friedhelm Mennekes: "Aus dieser Fremde mache ich Bilder: Anatol im Gespräch mit Friedhelm Mennekes". In Kunst und Kirche, 49, 1986, pp. 154–158.
  • Michel Ruepp: Anatol – Natur und Technik. Museum Bochum, 21 March – 3 May 1987, Bochum 1987.
  • Anatol: Arbeitszeit "Das Bleihaus". Ausstellung "Blei-Arbeiten", 23 April – 31 May 1987. Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg 1987.
  • Jacek Barski (ed.): Lovis-Corinth-Preis 1992 der Künstlergilde: Karl Heinz Herzfeld – Anatol, Friedrich Sieber, Ursula Doerk. Ausstellung der Preisträger, Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, 14 November 1992 – 10 January 1993, Regensburg 1992.
  • Anatol: Arbeiten 1983 bis 1993 – Jesus Christus muß uns zu Freunden machen. Exh. cat., Gerhard-Hauptmann-Haus, Düsseldorf 1994.
  • Anatol – Memento mori – Bilder, Skulpturen, Objekte und Arbeiten auf Papier und Pappe. Exh. cat., Stadtmuseum Ratingen. 11 June – 20 August 1995. Ratingen 1995.
  • Marie-Luise Otten and Ursula Mildner, "Anatol und Ratingen – ein Gespräch". In: Die Quecke, 65, 1995, pp. 82–87.
  • ANATOL, 17 March – 6 May 2001. Stiftung Insel Hombroich, Neuss 2001.
  • Christiane Dressler: "Anatol, der Mann, der aus dem Osten kam – zum 70. Geburtstag des Künstlers". In Kunstzeit. 1. Schuffelen, Pulheim 2001, pp. 64–73.
  • Anatol zum 75. Geburtstag. 28 April – 30 June 2006. Galerie Alex Vömel, Düsseldorf 2006.
  • Eva Beuys: Joseph Beuys: Handaktion 1968 & Anatol Herzfeld: Der Tisch 1968. Göttingen 2009.
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