Lothar Fischer was one of the most renowned German sculptors after 1945.
Lothar Fischer’s artistic development
He was born on 08 November 1933 in Germersheim (Palatinate), the son of art teachers Rosa and Max Fischer. The artist was the eldest of three sons. In 1934 the family moved to Neumarkt, where Lothar Fischer attended primary school and graduated from high school in 1952. After his Abitur, Fischer successfully applied to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He began to study art education in the class of Anton Marxmüller, but after only one year he changed to the subject of sculpture in the class of Heinrich Kirchner. In 1955, he was appointed a master student by Kirchner.
Lothar Fischer and the artist group SPUR
Together with the painters Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, and Hans Peter Zimmer, he founded the artists’ group “SPUR” in 1957. The artists were concerned with painting as well as with socio-political issues, which for them stood firmly together. Through their art-politically provocative activities, the distribution of leaflets, and manifestos, and the publication of their seven magazines, the artists caused the state and the judiciary to react violently. Thus, Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, and HP Zimmer were given suspended sentences for disseminating lewd writings.
In 1961 Fischer received the Villa Massimo scholarship and went to Rome for nine months. After returning from Rome, the sculptor received his first public commissions and designed, among other things, the fish fountain in Neumarkt and the Chinese fountain in Dietfurt. In 1964, Lothar Fischer was invited to documenta III. In 1966, the artists’ collective “GEFLECHT”, of which Lothar Fischer was briefly a member, was founded out of the collaboration between the artists’ groups “SPUR” and “WIR”.
The formal language of Lothar Fischer
Artistically independent now, the sculptor dealt with the concept of the shell as a pictorial form. Lothar Fischer’s basic theme is the human being in his basic postures, but conceived as a stretched and seeming artistic figure, far removed from a naturalistic representation. Female figures dominate. In addition to the female art figures, male sculptures were also created, mostly in connection with a riding theme or horses. The artist works mainly with clay but also likes to experiment with other materials such as terracotta, wax, bronze, or iron. In addition to his sculptural work, he created numerous watercolours and ink drawings.
Significant stages in the life of Lothar Fischer
In 1975 Fischer received a professorship at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin. In 1990, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate awarded the artist its Art Prize, still considered the state’s highest artistic distinction. A year later, he joined the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In 1997 Fischer ended his teaching career in Berlin and moved to Baierbrunn.
His native town of Neumarkt awarded him the Culture Prize in 2000. At the suggestion of the poet Margret Hölle, the idea was initiated to open a museum for the sculptor’s life’s work in the same town. On 15 June 2004, Lothar Fischer died in Baierbrunn near Munich. Shortly afterward, on 19 June 2004, the Museum Lothar Fischer was opened in Neumarkt.
