Galerie Koch Hannover | Galerie Koch

Fritz Klimsch is born Georg Friedrich Klimsch in Frankfurt am Main. Coming from a family of artists in Frankfurt, Klimsch receives his first lessons from his father, the painter and illustrator Eugen Johann Klimsch, who teaches at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Frankfurt/Main.

Studied at the Königliche Akademische Hochschule für die bildenden Künste, Berlin, with Ernst Hanke (drawing class), Albert Wolff (modelling class) and Fritz Schaper (sculpture class). From 1887, he created his first independent sculptures (e.g. "Achilles on the corpse of Patroclus", 1887, plaster relief). Klimsch was given his own studio at the academy for this purpose.

Klimsch was honoured with the Grand State Prize (1894) for his sculpture "Gefesselter" (1891-91, plaster), which he exhibited at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1893. Establishes his own studio in Berlin-Charlottenburg (1884), where he works as a freelance sculptor. Married Irma Lauter in the same year and travelled to Paris, where he became acquainted with the original works of Auguste Rodin.

Study trip to Italy. Klimsch visits Florence, Rome, Naples and other cities.

The Berlin National Gallery buys his "Dancer" (1898, bronze). Klimsch is a founding member of the Berlin Secession, to whose exhibitions he subsequently contributes regularly (until 1913).

Klimsch achieved greater public recognition through the competition he won in 1906 for the "Monument to Rudolf Virchow" (1906-10; Berlin, Karlsplatz). During these years, however, his work consisted primarily of portrait busts (e.g. "Lovis Corinth", 1906, bronze, Berlin, SPKM National Gallery) and statuettes (e.g. "Nelly Herz with her daughter Marta", 1902, bronze, private collection), tombs and female nude figures ("Badende", 1907, marble, Frankfurt a.M., Städel Museum). 1909 Study trip to Greece.

His appointment as a full professor (1910) was followed by his election as a member of the Royal Academy of Arts (later the Prussian Academy of Arts) in Berlin in 1912 and his election to its senate in 1916. From the end of 1911 Klimsch was in contact with Carl Duisburg, director of Bayer AG, Leverkusen, who became his most important patron during these years (e.g. "Flora", 1919-20, marble, Leverkusen, Bayer AG Collection). Klimsch left the Berlin Secession in 1913 and became a member of the Freie Secession, Berlin, which organised a special exhibition for him in 1920.

Despite his appointment to the Vereinigte Staatsschulen für freie und angewandte Kunst (Berlin/Charlottenburg) in 1921 and his appointment as head of a master studio at the Akademische Hochschule für die bildenden Künste, Berlin, in 1934, Klimsch's financial situation remained strained. The sculptor unsuccessfully appealed against his retirement in 1935. Nevertheless, Klimsch enjoyed state recognition in the Third Reich. Klimsch received commissions from the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (8 figures for the ballroom and staircase of the Prinz-Friedrich-Karl-Palais, Berlin, 1936-1939, bronze and marble, some lost), his work was honoured in solo exhibitions (e.g. 1942 Berlin, Prussian Academy of Arts); Klimsch also regularly exhibited at the Great German Art Exhibition (Munich). Awarded the Goethe Medal for Art and Science in 1940. After his Berlin flat is damaged (1943), Klimsch and his family move to Salzburg.

In 1946, all Germans were forced to leave Salzburg, including Klimsch and his family. The sculptor finally settles in Saig in the Black Forest, where he lives and works until the end of his life (1960). 1960 Klimsch is awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

1894

"Großer Staatspreis", Königliche Akafemie der Künste zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1910

"Verleihung des Professorentitel", Preußerischer Kultusminister, Berlin, Germany

1911

"Ernennung zum Mitglied der Königlichen Akademie der Künste zu Berlin", Königliche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1916

"Ernennung zum Senator der Königlichen Akademie der Künste zu Berlin", Königliche Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1940

"Verleihung der Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft", Berlin, Germany

1955

"Ehrenbürger von Saig", Germany

1960

"Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz", Germany

1920

"Sonderausstellung Fritz Klimsch", Freie Secession Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1926

"Frühjahrs-Ausstellung: Fritz Klimsch, Kollektivausstellung", Preußische Akademie der Künste zu Berlin,, Berlin, Germany

1930

"Frühjahrs-Ausstellung: Fritz Klimsch, Kollektivausstellung", Preußische Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1938

"Sonderausstellung Fritz Klimsch. Plastik", Ausstellungsgebäude Tiergartenstraße, Berlin, Germany

1939

"Fritz Klimsch", Städtisches Moritzburgmuseum, Halle, Germany

1940

"Fritz Klimsch. Kollektivausstellung", Haus der Ehemaligen Secession Wien, Wien, Austria

1941

"Fritz Klimsch", Stadtmuseum Danzig, Danzig, Poland

1942

"Frühjahrs-Ausstellung: Fritz Klimsch. Sonderausstellung", Preußische Akademie der Künste zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

1958

"Fritz Klimsch", Galerie Aenne Abels, Köln, Germany

1958

"Fritz Klimsch – Plastiken", Kunstsalon Fischer, Bielefeld, Germany

1963

"Fritz Klimsch", Galerie Aenne Abels, Köln, Germany

1970

"Fritz Klimsch", Galerie Aenne Abels, Köln, Germany

1980

"Fritz Klimsch. Werke. Ausstellung anläßlich des 20. Todestages von Fritz Klimsch", Galerie Koch, Hannover, Germany

2010

"Die Bildhauer August Gaul – Fritz Klimsch", Museum Giersch, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

SMPK Altes Museum, Berlin, Germany

SMPK Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany

Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin, Germany

Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany

SMPK Bode Museum, Berlin, Germany

Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, Germany

Museum Giersch, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

Von-der-Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal, Germany

Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, Germany

Uffizien, Florenz, Italy

Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteburg, Sweden

Leopold-Museum, Wien, Austria

Fritz Klimsch

Selected Works

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Awards

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