Erich Heckel
curriculum vitae
| 1883 | born in Döbeln |
| 1897-1904 | During his school visit to the Realgymnasium in Chemnitz, begins his friendship with Karl Schmidt-Rottluff |
| 1904/1905 | Studied architecture at the Technical University in Dresden, where he met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Fritz Bleyl |
| 1905 | works as a draughtsman in the architectural office of Wilhelm Kreis |
| Founding of the Brücke artists' association together with Fritz Bleyl, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff | |
| 1906 | Renting a shoemaker's shop in Dresden-Friedrichstadt, where the artist friends set up a studio together |
| 1907 | Summer stay with Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in Dangast and Dangastermoor |
| 1909 | Trip to Italy |
| 1909-1911 | in summer with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Pechstein at the Moritzburg lakes |
| 1911 | Marriage to Milda Frieda Georgi in Berlin |
| 1912 | Participates with the other Brücke artists in the Internationale Sonderbund Ausstellung in Cologne |
| Friendship to Lyonel Feininger, Franz Marc und August Macke | |
| 1913 | Dissolution of the Brücke artists' group |
| First solo exhibition at Fritz Gurlitt's gallery in Berlin | |
| Beginning of a lifelong friendship with the art historian, collector and patron of the arts Walter Kaesbach | |
| 1913-1944 | Regular summer stays in Osterholz on the Flensburg Fjord, where he buys a little farmhouse in 1919 |
| 1915-1918 | During World War I, trained as a nurse, then served as a medic in Flanders (Ostend), where he met Max Beckmann and James Ensor |
| 1918 | Return to Berlin |
| 1919 | Exhibition at the Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hanover |
| 1919-1921 | Intensive landscape painting in the Röhn, Eichsfeld, Allgäu, Erzgebirge, Black Forest and Lake Constance |
| 1922 | Commission for the mural cycle ″Lebensstufen″ in the Angermuseum in Erfurt |
| 1923 | Exhibition at the Städtisches Museum in Gdansk |
| 1925 | Exhibition at the Richter Gallery in Dresden and the Nierendorf Gallery in Düsseldorf |
| 1931 | Large retrospective at the Kunsthütte in Chemnitz |
| 1937 | Defamation as a ″degenerate artist″, exhibition ban and confiscation of numerous works from museum collections |
| 1944 | Loss of the Berlin studio due to bombing |
| Relocation in Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance | |
| 1949-1955 | Teaching at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe |
| 1953 | To celebrate his 70th birthday, exhibition at the Folkwang-Museum Essen and the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe |
| 1963 | To celebrate his 80th birthday, exhibition at the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart |
| 1970 | died in Radolfzell on Lake Constance |
Everything pushed towards clarification and condensation, and at the same time the line became more important. Heckel had such a pronounced feeling for the line that it is not surprising how strongly this artist was able to realise his unconventional pictorial ideas in graphic art. This applies in particular to the woodcut, which most clearly reveals the lasting influence it had on his painting. (...) The creative struggle for convincing simplification and suggestive rigour found the decisive means of expression in rough wood.
Künstlergruppe Brücke, Berlin: Henschelverlag 1984
