Curt Querner

Curt Querner loves the changing moods and whims of nature, especially the month of March, which he calls the »winter killer«. He lends every season, every portrait and every nude painting powerful, earthy tones with bright counterpoints. Querner described his understanding of truthful realism in painting in his diary in 1946 as follows: »The essential! Seeing things as they really are and taking them into account.«

Curt Querner

curriculum vitae

1904 born on the 7th of April in Börnchen near Freital
1918 apprenticeship as a locksmith, attends vocational school in the evening
first attempts at drawing and aquarelle painting
1925 acquaintance with the painter Hermann Lange from Freital, encouragement to study at the Dresden Academy of Art
1926 student at the Dresden Academy of Art under Richard Müller and Hermann Dittrich
1927 beginning of the friendship with Wilhelm Dodel
1928/29 travels to Prague, Vienna, southern Germany, visit to the Dürer exhibition at the Germanic National Museum in Nuremberg
certificates of recognition from the Dresden Academy of Art
1929/30 working in the painting studio with Otto Dix and Richard Lührig
graduation from the Dresden Academy of Art
1930 work as a freelance artist begins, joins the newly founded Dresden local group »Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands« (ASSO) and the KPD
1932 membership of the »Neue Dresdner Sezession«
1933 marriage to Regina Dodel, birth of daughter Yvonne
1936 travel through Franconia and Swabia to Colmar/Alsace, visit to the Isenheim Altarpiece
1938 commission to design the Dresden Air District Command in nowadays August-Bebel-Straße
1939 hike across Salzburg to Carinthia
1940 conscription for military service, also working as a painter in a construction company
1943-1945 located in Norway (Skedsmo and Kolnes)
1944 brother-in-law Wilhelm Dodel dies
1945 destruction of his studio and apartment during the bombing raids in Dresden, a large part of his early work is destroyed in the fire
1945-1947 captivity in France
1949-1953 teaching of drawing courses at the district elementary school in Dippoldiswalde
1950 design of murals in schools and public buildings
1955 mural on the Zellescher Weg hall of residence at the Technische Universität (TU) Dresden
1959 Art Prize of the city of Freital
1971 Käthe-Kollwitz-Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR
1972 National Prize of the GDR II. Class
1974 film about Querner made by GDR television on the occasion of his 70th birthday
1976 died on the 10th of March in Kreischa

further exhibitions

1931 Galerie Sandel, Dresden
1940 Kunsthütte Chemnitz (with Johannes Ufer and Hans Spank)
1948 Stadt- und Bergbaumuseum, Freiberg: »3. Ausstellung Erzgebirgischer Kuenstler 1948« (participation)
1956/1957 Haus der Heimat, Schloss Burgk, Freital (with Hans Koernig, Rolf Krause, Fritz Troeger and Willy Wolff)
1964 Kulturhistorisches Museum, Magdeburg
1969 Kunstausstellung Kuehl, Dresden (with Erich Hering)
1972 Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden
1973 Galerie Zentralbuchhandlung, Wien
1974 Staatliches Museum Schwerin: »Ausstellung anlaesslich seines 70. Geburtstages«
Haus der Heimat, Schloss Burgk, Freital
1978 Galerie Nord, Dresden
1979/1980 Kuenstlerhaus Wien
1982 Haus der Kultur und Bildung, Neubrandenburg
1983 Galerie A, Berlin/Ost
1984 Galerie am Sachsenplatz, Leipzig
Galerie Raehnitzgasse, Dresden
1986 Centre Culturel de la R.D.A., Paris
1987 Zentralinstitut für Kernforschung, Dresden-Rossendorf
1988 Staudenhofgalerie, Potsdam
1992 Galerie Doebele, Stuttgart (with Josef Hegenbarth, Hans Theo Richter, Wilhelm Rudolph, Helmut Schmidt-Kirstein and Paul Wilhelm)
1996 Kunsthandel & Edition Fischer, Berlin
1999 Galerie BASF, Schwarzheide
Otto-Dix-Haus, Gera
Otto-Dix-Haus, Hemmenhofen
2000 Museum Osterzgebirgsgalerie, Schloss Dippoldiswalde
2004 Kunsthandel & Edition Fischer, Berlin: »Curt Querner. Zum hundertsten Geburtstag«
2009 Kunsthandel & Edition Fischer, Berlin
Gemaeldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden
2005 Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle/Saale
2012 Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden
2016 GALERIE HIMMEL, Dresden: »Curt Querner. Scharf gesehen«
2025 Kunstausstellung Kuehl, Dresden (with Hans Jüchser and Ingo Kraft)