WOLF, GUSTAV

WOLF, GUSTAV (1887–1947), German artist. Wolf began his artistic training at the private school of Hans Thoma (1839–1924), who wanted to promote Wolf's talent and encouraged him in his own style of art. Wolf's paintings belong to symbolism, including motifs of his own experiences, imagination, and visions, such as mythical creatures, as do his woodcuts Zehn Holzschnitte i–x from 1910. Wolf served as professor of graphic arts at Karlsruhe until the Nazis came to power. In 1938, Wolf emigrated to the United States. Living in exile, horrified and frustrated by the Holocaust, Wolf created in 1945 several expressionistic paintings with illustrations of the Jewish victims in the concentration camps. He was primarily a printmaker. His publications include Die Schoepfungstage (seven lithographs, with the biblical texts on the creation of the world), color woodcuts for a novel by Jacob Picard, and a portfolio of etchings, Vision of Manhattan. His work is characterized by vivid imagination and emotional intensity. Most of his artistic works are exhibited at the Gustav-Wolf-Kunstgalerie in Oestringen, Germany.

add. bibliography:

J.E. von Borries, Gustav Wolf: Das druckgraphische Werk (1982); B. Brähler, Gustav Wolf (1887 – 1947). Eine Weltanschauung in Bildern. Registry of artistic heritage in Oestringen (2000; Catalogue raisonné); Gustav-Wolf-Kunstgalerie Oestringen, Gustav Wolf. Schöpfer visionärer Kunst (1995).

[Jihan Radjai-Ordoubadi (2^nd ed.)]