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Heinrich Campendonk

    Heinrich Campendonk was born in Krefeld, Germany of November 3, 1889. From an early age, hs showed promise as an artist and trained at the Fachschule fur Textilindustire and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Krefeld. His teacher, Johan Thorn Prikker, showed Campendonk the works of van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. Prikker also showed the young Campendonk the power that lines and colour could have in his art work. By the time Campendonk was 22, more famous artists like Franz Marc and Vasily Kandinsky knew of him. Campendonk’s friend, Helmut, was a cousin of August Macke, another well-known artist of the day. Marc and Kandinsky invited Campendonk to Sindelsdorf in Upper Bavaria in 1911.

    The Fauvists artists Robert and Sonia Delaunay and the Expressionist artists Macke and Marc influenced Campendonk’s style. The Delaunays and Macke gave Campendonk the inspiration to use magnificent colours in both transparent and corresponding ways, whereas Campendonk followed Marc’s use of geometrical style in composition. Leaping Horse is one of the first paintings that show Campendonk’s new style. It was exhibited in the first Der Blaue Reiter exhibition in 1911-12 and was illustrated in the almanac, Der Blaue Reiter. Campendonk had his own ideas about painting that seperated him from the others. He often included human figures in his mystical portrayals of animals. Campendonk also woked in styles other than Expressionism. He experimented with styles like Cubism, Futurism, and Orphism.

    Campendonk served in World War I until 1916. After the war and the deaths of Marc and Macke, he moved to Seeshaput, where his work changed. Upon moving, Campendonk destroyed much of his earlier work and looked at the work of Marc Chagall. He began drawing representational fantasies, such as the painting entitled, The Poor. At the same time, Campendonk began to experiment with woodcuts. These woodcuts became widely known throughout Europe. They represented such things as fishes, cats, goats, cows, human figures, and profuse vegetation. The woodcuts styles were influenced by African tribal art, Egyptian shade art, and Russian folk prints. It is believed that Campendonk produced 77 woodcuts, mainly done after completing highly detailed sketches of the images he wanted to portray on the wood. The woodcuts often have black backgrounds with bright accompanying watercolour markings. These watercolour markings give the woodcuts the brillance of stained glass making the images seem even more symbolic.

    In the early 1920s, Campendonk went to study the various forms of architectural art, like the frescoes of Giotto and Fra Angelico in Italy. While in Italy, he also studied the Early Christian mosaics in Ravenna. In 1922, the architecture that he studied began to show up in his paintings. The space in his paintings became more structured. An example of this new style is the painting, The Interior. He also moved back to his hometown of Krefeld and started painting in a more abstract, yet still decorative style. By 1923, he returned to stain glass painting and design. In 1925, he had his first show filled with only his works in the Societe Anonyme in New York. His former teacher, Thorn Prikker left his position at the Kunstakademie in Dusseldorf and Campendonk accepted it. It was during this time period that Campendonk began focusing his work toward public art. He took on many commissions for his stained glass work and he left off doing his woodcuts. In 1933, his position in Dusseldorf was eliminated and he moved to Belgium. While in Belgium, he worked on a stained glass series entitled, Stations of the Cross, which he never completed. In 1935, he accepted a position at the Rijksakademie van beeldende Kunsten in Amersterdam. During the latter part of the 1930s and the 1940s, he took commissions and worked primarily with stained glass. In 1937, his stained glass entitled, Passion Window, won him the Grand Prix award when it was displayed at the Dutch Pavilion at the Exposition Universelle. After World War II, Campendonk started painting again and continued taking commissions for his stained glass, although he was a bit more reclusive. Heinrich Campendonk died in Amsterdam on May 9, 1957.