(Boppard, 30.9.1859 - Bad Godesberg 12.8.1917)
Gustav Kampmann was a German painter and graphic artist who was primarily interested in depicting landscapes. He received his first serious education between 1878 and 1883 in Karlsruhe, where he specialized in academic realism. After completing his studies, he embarked on several study trips to observe and sketch nature. He visited the area around Lake Constance, southern Germany, Tyrol and Bavaria, and sailed along the coast of the Baltic Sea.
In 1891, he married Anna Roth. Together they traveled to Belgium and the Netherlands, and at the turn of the century, to Morocco. In 1896, he founded an artists' association in Karlsruhe with twenty-three other artists. They mainly dealt with graphics, which were affordable and provided the creators with a regular income. During this time, Kampmann collaborated with the avant-garde magazine Pan, and at the request of Duke Friedrich I, he directed visual artists to Karlsruhe. Later, he moved with his mother and sister to the old castle in Grötzingen. There, in 1890, they formed an art colony, led by his sister's husband, Otto Fikentscher. In the early 1890s, the principles of the Impressionists entered Kampmann's artistic expression. These modernized his style and brought him closer to contemporary painting techniques.
Throughout his life, he remained between traditional realism and the freshness of Impressionism. With the help of this, he recorded fleeting and changing moments in nature. His art is timeless and has a contemporary feel. In his mature years, he began to experiment with colour and texture. He was primarily interested in the beauty of the world that he experienced in his surroundings and on his travels. There is almost no figuration in his works of art. Only architectural elements that are reminiscent of the romantic past appear occasionally. In his paintings, he used harmonious colours, which he only occasionally enlivened with a contrasting or more vivid silhouette. He layered them side by side, which seemingly created depth in his works of art. He was a skilled draftsman and a good painter, who achieved vividness of images through shading and lighting.
His compositions are quite asymmetrical and point in the direction of abstraction. Although he was in contact with the leading artists of the time, he remained committed to landscape painting. In the eyes of his contemporaries, he was considered a more traditional artist who strove for the aesthetics of pure forms. He first exhibited his works in 1886 at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, and from then on he often participated in several exhibitions in Germany. In 1901, he was awarded an honorary distinction for his work, and in 1904 he received a gold plaque in Dresden. He painted 446 works of art. Most of them are owned by private collectors. Before the start of World War I, Kampmann moved to Switzerland. There he joined a military expedition, but was soon placed in a health resort in Bad Godesberg due to injuries, where he died.
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Gustav Kampmann je bil nemški slikar in grafik, ki se je zanimal predvsem za upodabljanje krajine. Prvo resno izobrazbo je prejel med 1878 in 1883 v Karlsruhe, kjer se je izpopolnjeval v akademskem realizmu. Po koncu študija se je podal na več študijskih potovanj, da bi opazoval in skiciral naravo. Obiskal je okolico Bodenskega jezera, južno Nemčijo, Tirolsko in Bavarsko ter obplul obale Baltskega morja.
Leta 1891 se je poročil z Anno Roth. Skupaj sta se odpravila v Belgijo in na Nizozemsko, na prelomu stoletja pa še v Maroko. Leta 1896 je v Karlsruhe skupaj s triindvajsetimi drugimi umetniki ustanovil društvo umetnikov. Ukvarjali so se predvsem z grafiko, ki je bila cenovno dostopna in je ustvarjalcem zagotovila redni dohodek. V tem času je Kampmann sodeloval z avantgardno revijo Pan, na željo vojvode Friedricha I. pa je usmerjal likovne umetnike v Karlsruhe. Kasneje se je skupaj z mamo in sestro preselil v stari grad v Grötzingen. Tam so leta 1890 izoblikovali likovno kolonijo, ki jo je vodil sestrin mož Otto Fikentscher. V zgodnjih 90ih letih 19. stoletja so v Kampmannov likovni izraz vstopila načela impresionistov. Ta so modernizirala njegov slog in ga približala sodobnim slikarskimi prijemom.
Skozi vse življenje je ostal med tradicionalnim realizmom in impresionistično svežino. S pomočjo te je v naravi beležil minljive in spreminjajoče se trenutke. Njegova umetnost je brezčasna in deluje sodobno. V zrelem obdobju je pričel eksperimentirati z barvo in teksturo. Zanimala ga je predvsem lepota sveta, ki jo je spoznaval v svoji okolici in na potovanjih. V njegovih likovnih delih skoraj ni figuralike. Občasno se pojavijo le arhitekturni elementi, ki spominjajo na romantično preteklost. Pri slikanju je uporabljal harmonične barve, ki jih je le občasno poživel s kontrastno ali bolj živo silhueto. Plastil jih je drugo ob drugo s čimer je v umetninah navidezno ustvaril globino. Bil je spreten risar in dober slikar, ki je s pomočjo senčenja in svetlenja dosegel živost podob.
Njegove kompozicije so precej asimetrične in kažejo v smer proti abstrakciji. Čeprav je bil v stiku z vodilnimi likovnimi umetniki tistega časa je ostal zavezan h krajinarstvu. V očeh sodobnikov je veljal za bolj tradicionalnega umetnika, ki je stremel k estetiki čistih oblik. Svoja dela je prvič razstavil 1886 na Kraljevi akademiji umetnosti v Berlinu, od tedaj dalje pa je pogosto sodeloval na več razstaviščih v nemškem prostoru. Leta 1901 so mu za delo podelili častno priznanje, leta 1904 je v Dresdnu prejel zlato plaketo. Naslikal je 446 umetnin. Večinoma jih imajo zasebni zbiratelji. Pred začetkom 1. svetovne vojne se je Kampmann preselil v Švico. Tam se je pridružil vojaški odpravi, a so ga kmalu zaradi poškodb namestili v zdravilišče v Bad Godesberg. Tam je tudi umrl.
Besedilo je za galerijo Porta Alpina pripravila Pia Župevec, dipl. um. zgod.
The text was prepared for the Porta Alpina gallery by Pia Župevec, B.Sc. art history
SOURCES/VIRI:
Edith AMMANN, Das Graphische Werk von Gustav Kampmann Schriften der Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe 1944.
Gerlinde BRANDENBURGER, Gustav Kaupmann (1859-1917) Ein Beitrag zur deutschen Landschaftskunst um 1900, Frankfurt am Main 1988.
Hans LINDE, Gustav Kaumpmann (1859-1917), Karlsruhe 1990.
Erika RÖDIGER DIRUF, Zu Form und Inhalt in Gustav Kampmanns Malerei, Karlsruhe 1990.
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