3801 - Kurt Bunge, "Artemis"

Kurt Bunge, "Artemis" the goddess of the hunt, animals and the forest depicted as a stylised female head, green linocut, signed and dated "K. Bunge (19)58", minor imperfections, framed with a passe-partout and behind glass, image dimensions approx. 53 x 39 cm. Artist’s biography: also known as Curt Bunge, German painter, graphic artist and restorer (1911, Bitterfeld - 1998, Kassel); initially trained as a decorative painter and decorator from 1925 to 1928, with artistic guidance from Hermann Schiebel; 1928-31: a pupil of Charles Crodel and Gerhard Marcks at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Applied Arts in Halle; later received further tuition from Charles Crodel; undertook study trips to Italy, Austria and the Czech Republic; member of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts; 1931-40: worked as a restorer for the State Conservator for the Preservation of Historical Monuments; in 1936, with the support of Carl Georg Heise from Hamburg, undertook a study trip to Italy; 1940-45: served in the Second World War; thereafter, until 1950, head of the restoration workshops at the State Conservator’s Office for the Preservation of Historic Monuments in Saxony-Anhalt; from 1950 a lecturer and, from 1957, a professor at the Burg Giebichenstein College of Art; worked in woodcut, 1950-59: Member of the VBK (Association of Visual Artists) of the GDR; from 1953, together with Willi Sitte, a member of the ‘Halle Painters’ Brigade’; following cultural-political hostility in early 1959, moved to Kassel; exhibited, amongst others, in 1946, 1949 and 1958-59 at the Dresden Art Exhibition and in 1947 at the ‘Contemporary Painting’ exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig; member of the German Artists’ Association and participant in its annual exhibitions from 1952 to 1973; from 1976 a member of the Darmstadt Secession; source: Vollmer, AKL, Saur’s *Bio-Bibliographical Artists’ Encyclopaedia*, Eisold’s *Artists in the GDR*, Offner/Schroeder’s *Confined - Marginalised*, Werner Schmidt, *Ausgebürgert*; Schmaling, *Künstlerlexikon Hessen-Cassel 1777-2000*; and Wikipedia.