Carlfriedrich Claus
With his works, which are primarily calligraphic in form and philosophical in content, the writer and artist Carlfriedrich Claus occupies an important place in the avant-garde art scene.
curriculum vitae
| 1930 | born in Annaberg |
| 1941 | since then occupation with art (Picasso, Legér, Schmidt-Rottluff, Klee, Kandinsky, Lissitzky) and philosophy (Marx, Steiner, Kropotkin, Bloch) |
| acquisition of the Hebrew and Cyrillic alphabet through self-study | |
| 1944 | death of the father |
| 1945-1948 | apprenticeship as a retail / art salesman |
| worked in his parents' paper workshop and art gallery | |
| 1950 | since then regular trips to West Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig |
| acquaintance with the art historian Will Grohmann in West Berlin | |
| Letter exchange with Hans Arp, Fritz Winter and Bernard Schultze | |
| 1951 | since then, poems (″sound formations″); examination of 20th century art theory and Jewish religious philosophy |
| 1953-1954 | collaboration with the ″Volksstimme″ newspaper in Karl-Marx-Stadt |
| 1956 | aesthetic texts on contemporary art and music |
| ″Picasso und die Frage der Verständlichkeit″ appears in the magazine ″Bildende Kunst″ | |
| 1957-1958 | work on gestural notation, automatic diary, and paper collages |
| 1959 | termination of the family business |
| first acoustic works using a reel-to-reel tape recorder (speech exercises: constellative articulations and dynamic coarticulations) | |
| letter constellations on the typewriter (letter fields, phase models) and gestural writing works (circles, vibration texts) | |
| beginning of a lifelong friendship with the poet Franz Mon | |
| 1960 | intense letter exchange with the Dadaist Raoul Hausmann |
| since then, friendship with Werner Schmidt, director of the Kupferstich-Kabinett of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) | |
| letter exchange with french artist couples Ilse and Pierre Garnier and Nela and Alain Arias-Misson | |
| begin of work on the so-called ″Sprachblättern″ | |
| 1961 | restriction of his freedom of movement due to the construction of the Berlin Wall |
| first attempts at double-sided writing (transparent paper written and labeled on both sides) | |
| 1962 | since then first exhibition successes in Western Europe ″Skripturale Malerei″ |
| 1963 | cycle ″Geschichtsphilosophisches Kombinat″ |
| 1964 | publication of the fundamental theoretical text ″Notizen zwischen der experimentellen Arbeit – zu ihr″ in Frankfurt am Main |
| increasing restrictions imposed by the GDR authorities | |
| 1966 | since then in contact with Berlin art critic Lothar Lang |
| 1968 | exploration of lithography |
| 1969 | death of the mother |
| Verband Bildender Künstler in Karl-Marx-Stadt classifies his Sprachblätter as “anti-socialist” and “anti-humanist” | |
| 1972 | begin of the friendship with Christa and Gerhard Wolf |
| begin of work on transparents and double-sided offset lithographs | |
| 1977 | collaboration with the nonconformist artist group and producer gallery ″Clara Mosch″ in Karl-Marx-Stadt / Adelsberg |
| influenced by Thomas Ranft work with etching; ″Aurora-Mappe″ is published by Verlag der Kunst Dresden | |
| 1978 | 2nd prize at the Graphic Arts Biennial in Krakow |
| 1980 | since then, renewed focus on acoustic works |
| 1982 | alongside visual art, work with speech operations and sound processes, Russian Futurism (Chlebnikov, Krutschonych), and shamanism |
| 1988 | Graphic portfolio ″Aggregat K″ published by Verlag der Kunst Dresden |
| 1989 | since the political reunification, Claus' work has received great public acclaim and recognition |
| Max-Pechstein-Award of the city of Zwickau | |
| 1991 | member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin |
| honorary professorship of the federal state of Saxony | |
| 1993 | relocation from Annaberg to Chemnitz |
| Radio productions (Lautaggregat, WDR 1993; Basale Sprech-Operationsräume, BR 1996) | |
| Jerg-Ratgeb-Award | |
| 1994 | becomes an honorary citizen of Annaberg-Buchholz |
| 1997 | Cross of Merit on Ribbon of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany |
| 1998 | commission to design the lobby of the German Bundestag in the Reichstag building in Berlin |
| Gerhard-Altenbourg-Award | |
| dies on May 22 in Chemnitz | |
| at his request, his estate is transferred to the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz | |
| 1999 | Establishment of the Carlfriedrich Claus Archive Foundation in the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz |
