Christoph Meckel

Yesterday evening: Entrance to Freiburg's Grafische Sammlung

Yesterday evening, Red Baron had a special invitation to the opening of an exhibition at the House of the Graphic Arts Collection of Freiburg's Augustinum Museum. The exhibited woodcuts were created by Christoph Meckel, born in Berlin on June 12, 1935, just three days later than me. When he died in 2020, a significant part of his work was donated to Freiburg.

Like Günter Grass, Meckel was a well-known poet and prose writer, but both frequently turned to the visual arts, although Meckel did not like the notion of "double talent." 

 

His affinity for woodcuts, he expressed in his own words, "Black - my great old intoxication - overwhelms me anew - in wood."

Christoph Meckel has extended articles in Wikipedia in German and in English. So I invite you to look up details about his life.

Meckel's foci

In his graphic work, Meckel focused on three main themes:

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1973

My article 1

The Rights of the Child in 1993/94, and

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his personal struggle with the well-known maxim "Be yourself" throughout his life.

Man with knife, 1961
A nightmare in Meckel's childhood?

Man with mask, 1961.
For me, it looks like tortured nature.
A chimpanzee wears a mask during an experiment.

Some of his most disturbing graphics are of frightful actuality.

19. 1994. War is presented on television and now on social media.

1973. Today's March for Peace in Freiburg?

In the end, Red Baron participated in the discussion of some of Meckel's enigmatic woodcuts.

B. with Companion 1961

Here the interpretations ranged from a courtroom to a church, a trial to a wedding ceremony, a judge to a pastor, a hooker to a bride, and a chalice to a champagne glass. Or is the woodcut just the psychological assimilation of sexual trauma from Meckel's past?

The Meckel exhibition is indeed worth a visit.

N.B.:All woodcuts are copyrighted by Augustinermuseum Freiburg.

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