Max Ackermann

Vita

05.10.1887 1891 1906/07 1908/09 1909/10 1912/13 1912 seit 1913 1915 - 1917 um 1920 1924 um 1926 seit 1930 1936 1937 seit 1941 1943 1950 1955 1956 1957 1967 1972 1975

Awards

Solo exhibitions (selection)

Group exhibitions (selection)

Collections

Max Ackermann was born in Berlin in 1887 and grew up in Ilmenau (Thuringia) from 1891. Studies: 1906-1907 Weimar School of Arts and Crafts under Henry van de Velde, 1908-1909 Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, 1909-1910 Munich Academy of Fine Arts under Franz von Stuck, 1912-1913 Stuttgart Academy of Fine Arts under Richard Pötzelberger. In Stuttgart, acquaintance with Adolf Hölzel, through whom he received his first impulses in the direction of non-objectivity. Worked as a freelance artist in Stuttgart from 1913. 1915-1917 Drafted into military service as a Landsturmmann. Due to his war experiences and his socio-political stance, he turned to a critical realism. From around 1920 he also became involved with Constructivism, and in 1926 with the geometrically stylised figures of Fernand Léger. Development of typified dance and gymnastics depictions. First solo exhibition at the Württembergischer Kunstverein in Stuttgart in 1924. From around 1930, in addition to abstract-figurative works, increasingly purely abstract form and colour compositions. Due to National Socialist art policy, he and his wife moved back to Hornstaad on Lake Constance in 1936. In 1937, Ackermann was discredited as "degenerate" and banned from his profession. From 1941, dissatisfied with the "encoding of abstraction and subject matter", he increasingly created abstract works and gradually abandoned the subject matter with the aim of "absolute painting". In 1943, Ackermann's studio in Stuttgart was destroyed and with it the majority of his early works. Increasingly recognised after the Second World War. In 1950, Ackermann became a member of the "Deutscher Künstlerbund" and the "Sezession Oberschwaben-Bodensee", in whose exhibitions he regularly took part. He finally decided in favour of abstraction. In 1955, the first monograph on Max Ackermann is published, written by Will Grohmann. The following year, a major exhibition of his work at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and in 1957 he was awarded the title of professor. 1967 First retrospective (with stops at the Mittelrhein-Museum, Koblenz, Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, among others). Increasing health problems in the following years. In 1972 he moved to Oberlengenhardt, in March 1975 to Unterlengenhardt together with his second wife and their son Peter. Max Ackermann dies on 14 November 1975. In December 1975-February 1976, the Stuttgart City Gallery honours him with a memorial exhibition.