German painter of the 20th century, born in 1897 and died in 1974. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf and worked with Heinrich Nauen and Otto Dix. His artistic work explores the movements of naturalistic, abstract, expressionist, and surrealist art.
WILL HALL
Career
Education and study
Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts
Under Heinrich Nauen and Walter Kaesbach alongside Otto Dix
Naturalistic Art, Abstract Art, Expressionism, Surrealism
In search of "The Absolute Painting"
1897 - 1974
Biography
1897
Born on February 10th in Berlin, raised in Neuss and Karst.
Around 1912
Begins painting scenes of horse races, shooting contests, and St. Martin's Day processions in an abstract visual language. Early expressionist works and initial experiments with non-figurative and non-objective paintings.
1914 – 1916
Scholarship at the School of Arts and Crafts in Düsseldorf under Professor Kreis.
First encounter with the painter and later friend and biographer Paul Loskill (* 1899).
1916
Hall becomes a soldier in Russia and the Baltic countries.
1918
The first supposed work of "absolute painting," the oil painting "Reiterlied" (The Riders' Song), which translates acoustic events into abstract, colorful rhythmic patterns, is created.
1920 – 1927
Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf, apprentice of Professor Heupel-Siegen with his own studio. Studies with Heinrich Nauen. Fellow students include Otto Dix, Herbert Bötger, Will Küpper, Jupp Rubsam, and many others.
Since the 1920s, Will Hall has been part of a circle of friends around the priest Hubert Mennicken in Neuss, along with painters Paul Loskill, Will Küpper, and writer Karl Schorn.
After 1933, Mennicken provides him with commissions. After the priest's move to Vennhausen (1935), Will Hall works on mosaics and facades for St. Katharina's Church. The priest's death certificate (+ 1938) reproduces the mosaic of the head of Christ.
In the 1920s, Will Hall also generates the idea in the circle of friends of the "non-deified glance," in which the gods and the sons of the gods of idealistic and humanitarian formation collapse. After the Second World War, Will Hall revisits this theme in a series of demonic charcoal and chalk drawings.
1932
Hall wins the competition for the memorial monument in Büttgen, which is realized with the help of Paul Loskill's mosaic workshop.
1934
Inauguration of the memorial monument.
1943
Destruction of his work by bombs falling on Hall's studio in Düsseldorf.
Since 1944
Starts a new creation. Hall recalls his experiences from the time spent in the Baltic countries. He creates a series of pastels called "Russia," memories of people, landscapes, and experiences in the Baltic countries, simultaneously serving as folk song folklore.
Hall returns to the principles of abstract art creation. Surrealist nature compositions are created concurrently, with the subject of metamorphosis being particularly important to him.
In the 1970s, abstract geometric charcoal drawings are created, echoing his earlier work in non-figurative art.
1974
Retired in Neuss, Will Hall dies on March 22nd.
Source : Translation from the exhibition catalogue: "WILL HALL 1897 – 1974," Clemens-Sels-Museum Neuss, October 6th – November 10th, 1991.
