Monday, February 15, 2021

Emil Holzhauer: The Portrait of an Artist and my own art critic

 

 Maurice asks himself the burning question:  But is it art?


 Listening to the Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 5 played by Alfred Brendel,  an Austrian artist who played every. single. work. written by Beethoven for the piano, both solo and ensemble by the ripe old age of twenty-eight.




 As I mentioned in a previous post, I happen to be friends with the woman who is the present curator of Holzhaur's works.  If you'd like to see his work you can go to this link.

 This book is written in the style called, "creative non fiction". I'm not quite sure what that means other than that I suppose the essential people and events in this book are true, while the actual conversations, facial expressions etc. are a product of the author's imagination, albeit, I'm sure Edwards did her utmost to maintain biographical integrity.

As she could well do since she was a neighbor of the author in his latter years.

Emil Holzhauer was a member of the "Ashcan" school of art. While it was popular at the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th century to create pretty, ornate paintings, pleasing to the eye, the Ashcan School, founded by Robert Henri, went in the opposite direction. They painted gritty scenes in the New York Bowery, the segregated shanty towns where the black community lived. They did not limit themselves to the rich and decorous, but also painted the poor and pungent.

Edwards' biography traces Holzhauer's life from his harsh upbringing by an alcoholic father and loving, but passive mother in Germany, to immigrating to New York City as a young man still in his teens who spoke no English. There he worked in factories, using his skills as an engraver, while attending Henri's school at night.

During WW's I and II, he faced severe discrimination as a German. Nevertheless, he managed to slowly over his lifetime achieve his own style and taught at different art schools, even though he himself lacked a college education.

By the time he was in his fifties, he had finally achieved national fame and his paintings have hung in the Art Institute of Chicago, New York Galleries as well as in the galleries of various colleges.

The University of Northwest Florida in Niceville, Florida has been the fortunate recipient of many of his works because that is where he settled in his old age having by this time tired of the fast paced, glitzy culture of the northeast.

Anyone interested in art and artists will enjoy this book as a source of inspiration to how one man with self-discipline and determination cut his own way through life and left the rest of us a priceless legacy. 

 

I bought my copy of the book on eBay and found this inscription inside.

 


 


16 comments:

mudpuddle said...

i just ordered 3 books on EBAY re Elizabethan lit. because i suddenly discovered they have books... Holzhauer's style is a lot like one of the French painters whose name i can't recall: of pink houses and tantalizing streets... i like the ones i saw on the link: sort of deep they were, i thought, like you could see through them to a series of real-time excisions, like going back through time, if that makes any sense whatsoever, haha... Beethoven's 5 is one of my all time favorites: tx...

RTD said...

Creative nonfiction is a slippery slope .... subjectivity eats away at objectivity .... readers beware ....

RTD said...

Beethoven rocks but Mozart moves me.

Brian Joseph said...

Hi Sharon - The life stories of artists are interesting as is how they navigate the creative process.

I Googled Holzhauer. I like his work. I am going to need to give it a closer look.

I love Beethoven's piano concertos.

Have a nice day!

Sharon Wilfong said...

HI mudpuddle,

eBay has my middle name. They're constantly sending me notifications of books I might like to have. And of course they're right.

I wonder what French artist his art reminds you of. Cezanne, maybe?

Beethoven's 5th piano concerto is one of my all time favorites as well.

Hope you all are warm. It's unbelievably cold and snowing here.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Brian!

I'm glad you liked the music and the art. Always a nice combination. Hope it's not too cold where you all are. As the joke goes, your weather got drunk and is passed out in my back yard. Come take it back.

mudpuddle said...

LOL! never heard that before!

Sharon Wilfong said...

Oh, mudpuddle, I wish I made it up. It's ridiculous, right now. We can't even leave the house because we're snowed in.

mudpuddle said...

Texas is having a bad time of it according to the news... i hope you're not out of heat!

Sharon Wilfong said...

Luckily we have power, but presently we're out of water. We've been bringing in buckets of snow for the commodes. Thanks for asking.

mudpuddle said...

brother!! we were out for a week once so i know how tough it can be... hang in there, we're thinking about you all...

Debbie Nolan said...

Sharon thank you for your visit and kind words - we are sharing at this time the loss of our dear mom's. For us though we celebrate the fact that they are exploring heaven and waiting for us to join them. Hugs! I am not familiar with this artist. The book sounds so interesting.

Sharon Wilfong said...

Hi Debbie,

I'm trying to focus on my mom's happiness. But, as you know, little things come out such as, "Oh, I need to tell my mom that...oh wait..."
We have to focus on our hope, but there's nothing wrong with missing someone.

All the best and prayers for you!

Sharon Wilfong said...

HI mudpuddle!

I really appreciate your checking in on us. We now have water back, but we are asked to use it as little as possible so the pressure can build back up. It's taking a little longer than it needs to, because some people are not depriving themselves of showers just a little longer.

That's what baby wipes and dry shampoo are for.

It is wonderful to be able to flush the toilet again, though.

mudpuddle said...

great!

Sharon Wilfong said...

Thanks, mudpuddle.(smile)