WERNER SCHÖN
b. 1893, Berlin, Germany
d. 1970, Marquartstein, Germany
WORKS | BIOGRAPHY | EXHIBITIONS
SELECTED WORKS
BIOGRAPHY
Werner Schön experienced a difficult childhood, marked by a mother suffering from severe depression. At the age of 16, his mother died, which triggered a psychological crisis in Werner Schön and he refused to eat. In 1910, he defied his father's ban on studying art and obtained an apprenticeship at the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin (KPM) as a porcelain painter. He learned the art of porcelain painting under the artistic director Theodor Schmuz-Baudiss in which the typical design of the late stage of Art Nouveau prevailed at that time. In 1914 he was permanently employed by KPM as a porcelain painter. His teacher was Franz Türcke (1877-1957), a very busy artist of the Porcelain Factory, whose works had a determining influence on Werner Schön's development.
Again and again Werner Schön was afflicted by depressive phases in which he stopped eating again. During these periods he experienced altered states of consciousness and experienced himself transported, as it were, into a visionary land of tiny elemental beings that was a healing retreat for him. As a draftsman and painter, he had mostly depicted landscapes with skill and influenced by late Art Nouveau, but only in a conventional manner, without displaying any particular individuality. The works from his phases of psychological crisis, on the other hand, sparkle with a breathtaking ingenuity, a clarity, accuracy and beauty of composition and coloring, and captivate with their unique individual character.
After World War I he again went through a profound psychological crisis and had mystical experiences. The fruit of this period were novel paintings and motifs that departed from his training, and were no longer influenced by the aesthetics of Art Nouveau. They were oil paintings with expressive figures in search of a spiritual goal, located in an undefined realm or sphere between the earthly and the heavenly.
SELECTED EXHBITIONS
2016 Gallery Cebulla, Eichstädt, German, 17 February – 15 April 2016
1980 Werner Schön (1893 – 1970). Der zeichnerische und druckgraphische Nachlass. Kunstkabinett Dagmar Fleischmann, Munich, Germany, 1980.
1919 Ausstellung des Verbandes Deutscher Illustratoren, Berlin, Germany.
