HEINRICH NÜSSLEIN

b. 1879 Nuremberg, Germany
d. 1947 Ruhpolding, Germany

WORKS   |   BIOGRAPHY   |   EXHIBITIONS    |   PUBLICATIONS

SELECTED WORKS

BIOGRAPHY

Heinrich Nüsslein from Nuremberg is one of the most famous mediumistic artists. He grew up in modest circumstances and had to quit the Kunstgewerbeschule (school for arts and crafts) in Nuremberg for financial reasons and because of his severely restricted vision. For some time, he worked as a photographer and sales representative for the Dr. Trenkler & Co. art institute in Leipzig, Germany. Just before World War I he started a very successful career as an antiques dealer in Nuremberg. Nüsslein made a considerable fortune, which he invested in representative estates, such as the castle of Kornburg near Nuremberg.

After participating in spiritual séances in 1923, he spontaneously discovered his ability to write and draw automatically. Soon he developed a special technique to apply oil paints in thin glazes with large brushes and subsequently to work out the motifs from the wet color layers with a cloth and especially with his fingers in a gestural painting style. He usually did not take longer than 15 minutes to finish a painting. Nüsslein mostly painted in a darkened room, when the colors on the palette could hardly be distinguished. Thus, he created thousands of extraordinary, impressive and very distinct paintings: landscapes of alien planets, of unknown and sunken peoples, portraits of "beings", fantastic structures of a personal mythology. He also produced so-called "contact paintings", in which he translated either the essence of a piece of music into a vibrant visual language or the essence of a certain person. Nüsslein also produced series of paintings for his clients, which he called “karmic vision” (Karmaschau).

Heinrich Nüsslein preferred to refer to himself as a "picture-writer" (Bilderschreiber), and believed that deceased artists such as Albrecht Dürer guided his hand. The fantastic buildings in his paintings are reminiscent of stage sets. Exotic or architectural elements composed of different styles seem to float in an indeterminate space, that appears to be flat yet at the same time of immeasurable depth. Groups of ciphers-like figures gather like waves the foreground.
His castle Kornburg served Nüsslein for a permanent exhibition of his works. Heinrich Nüsslein sympathized with National Socialism, but since 1936 his works have been classified as “degenerate art”. His possessions were confiscated, but it could never be clearly explained why his paintings escaped total destruction.

In 1937, Nüsslein retired to his country house in Ruhpolding, Bavaria, where he died in 1947. Heinrich Nüsslein wrote several texts and books on his art, and numerous articles on him were published. Already at the end of the 1920s, exhibitions at home and abroad had made him famous far beyond the borders of Germany.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2019 “Where higher beings commanded, …“ - Heinrich Nüsslein & Friends, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin, Germany, 3/7 - 4/13/2019
2018 Galerie Jean-Pierre Ritsch-Fisch, Strasbourg, France, 3/8/2018 – 3/28/2018
2002 Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne, Germany 2/5/2002 – 3/7/2002
2001 Obsession – Sammlung Klewan. Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover, Germany, 8/18/2001 - 10/14/2001
1999 Art spirite, médiumnique et visionnaire, messages d'outre monde. Halle-Saint-Pierre, Paris, France, 9/13/1999 – 2/27/2000
1994 Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne, Germany 9/9/1994 – 10/11/1994
1994 Galerie Klewan, Munich, Germany, 5/3/1994 – 6/25/1994
1982 Swiss Society for Parapsychology, Zurich, 6/11/1982 – 6/13/1982
1977 Mediumistische Kunst. Petersen Gallery, Berlin
1970 Schulung Aryana, Riazzino, Switzerland
1946 Zurich Conservatory, Zurich, Switzerland 2/17/1946 – 3/3/1946
1932 Gallery of the Museum of Art, Geneva, Switzerland
1932 Salon des Tuileries, Paris, France
1932 Jean Charpentier Gallery, Paris, France 3/3/1932 – 4/13/1932
1932 Munich Art Association, Munich, Germany
1931 International Art Center of the Roerich Museum, New York, 2/1931
1930 Hamburg Art Association, Hamburg, Germany 10/1/1930 – 10/5/1920
1928 Chester Gallery, London, England
1927 Alpine Club Gallery, London, England

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Badelt, Elsie Jona, Das Mal-Phänomen Heinr. Nüßlein. Magdeburg: Self-published; 1930.
Böhm, Joseph, "Das 'mediumistische' Malen des Nürnbergers Heinrich Nüßlein." Zeitschrift für Parapsychologie, 1928, 616-621.
Ehrngruber, H. W., "Das Phänomen Heinrich Nüßlein." Das Wunder: Zeitschrift für Astrologie, Okkultismus, Magie, Spiritismus und verwandte Gebiete. 2, 1928, pp. 17–22.
Fekl, Franz Karl, "Heinrich Nüßlein, der okkulte Maler von Nürnberg." Zentralblatt für Okkultismus, 21, 1928, pp. 368-72.
Giovetti, Paola, Arte medianica. Pitture e disegni dei sensitivi. Roma: Edizioni Mediterranee, 1982, pp. 39-46.
Grieb, Manfred (ed.), Das Nürnberger Künstlerlexikon. Vol. 2, Munich: K. G. Saur, 2007, p. 1087.
Hempel, Bruno, "Heinrich Nüsslein, Malphänomen und Multimillionär." Die andere Welt. 14, 1963.
Marcellus, Ralph, "Heinrich Nüßlein, ein Gestalter des Übersinnlichen." Der Türmer. Monatsschrift für Gemüt und Geist. 32, 11, August 1930.
Müller, Nadine, Mediale Malerei: Zum Werk von Heinrich Nüsslein. M.A. Thesis. Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf, 2003.
Nüßlein, Heinrich, Der Schicksalsweg einer Seele. Nuremberg: Self-published, 1936.
Nüßlein, Heinrich (Hrsg.), Das Geheimnis der Inspiration. Aus dem Wunderreiche der schöpferischen Kraft. Nuremberg: Self-published, 1932.
Nusslein (Heinrich), Catalogue of an Exhibition of Occult Paintings [by H. Nüsslein]. Foreword by Ivan Baker. London, 1927.
Nüßlein, Wilhelm, Metaphysische Malerei. Dem Lebenswerk meines Vaters Prof Dr. h.c. Heinrich Nüßlein gewidmet. Munich: Drei Eichen, 1947.
Rausch, Mechthild, Heinrich Nüsslein. Mediale Malerei. Munich: Galerie Klewan, 1994.
Schulung Aryana, Kunstausstellung. 200 mediale Ölgemälde von Heinrich Nüßlein im Lichte der Schulung Aryana. Heiden: Karl Schönenberger, 1970.