etching | gouache | unique piece | signed
The artist Alfred Kettmann had extensive knowledge of all the principles of craftsmanship and graphic design. In almost 100 years he created graphic art, the “art of the line” in the form of linocuts and woodcuts, etchings, metal and material prints, drawings in wax crayon and ink, gouaches, watercolors, oil and acrylic paintings.
Over the years, his figurative depictions gave way to an increasingly reduced formal language. In the last years of his life, Alfred Kettmann devoted himself to Eastern-inspired calligraphy. His many years of experience enabled him to use this form of expression to create highly concentrated signs and symbols, which can no longer be corrected using this technique and can therefore only be executed with the utmost mastery.
Eva Mueller | Art Consultant
Curator of the Koenigshof Collection
VITA ALFRED KETTMANN (short form)
1912 born in Annaberg/Erzgebirge | 1932-36 trainee and graphic designer in Chemnitz | 1936-38 graphic designer in Munich, further artistic training | 1938-45 industrial graphic designer in Brandenburg a.d. Havel | since 1945 freelance graphic designer and artist | 1950-79 lecturer at the Bamberg adult education center | 1984 work at Studio Lacourière, Paris, France | 2010 died in Crailsheim
AWARDS, EXHIBITIONS, AND WORKS IN PUBLIC SPACE (selection)
1974 Arts et Lettres, Paris-Sud | 1997 Biennale Schloß Pommersfelden, Recognition Prize | 2007 Berganza Prize of the Bamberg Art Association
From 1946 Exhibitions and participations in Bayreuth | Berlin | Bonn | Coburg | Munich | Nuremberg | Pommersfelden | Würzburg | Bologna | Bedford | Eskilstuna, Sweden | Graz, Austria | Hämeenlinna, Finland | Montreal, France | Paris, France | Rennes, France | Salzburg, Austria | San Francisco, USA | Stockholm, Sweden | Vicenza, Italy | and Vladimir, Russia
1976 Albrecht Dürer Gesellschaft, Nuremberg | 1984 Retrospective Kunstverein Erlangen, Palais Stutterheim | 1985 “Farbradierungen”, Dürerhaus, Nuremberg | 1985/86 Mini-Gravat International Cadaqués, Spain | 1988 Villa Dessauer, Bamberg | 1996 Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg | 2012 “Alfred Heinz Kettmann – 100 Jahre”, Staatsbibliothek Bamberg in der Neuen Residenz
Kunstmuseum Bayreuth | Design for a tapestry, burial hall of the Bamberg cemetery, realized by the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Sepulchre | Since 2009 estate in the Bamberg State Library