Lecture on the topic: Johannes Niemeyer – A multi-talent in the force field of BURG and Bauhaus
Johannes Niemeyer (1889 to 1980) possessed many artistic talents. He worked as an architect, sculptor, designer, painter and musician and was the older brother of the painter Otto Niemeyer-Holstein. Johannes Niemeyer first came to public attention in 1920 at the Leipzig Trade Fair with his small sculptures. A year later, he was appointed head of the interior design and architecture class at the Burg Giebichenstein art school in Halle (Saale). Gerhard Marks, with whom Niemeyer had a lifelong friendship, later described his own house, built here in 1924/25, as “the most modern at the time” in the city on the Saale. Niemeyer maintained contacts with the Bauhaus and used the most diverse stylistic means of expression of the time in a wide range of creative fields, from urban planning to teapots. He designed the name of the famous Berlin shoe store Leiser, which remained in use until 2012. After 1945, Niemeyer became a painter and chronicler of the ruined landscapes and the reconstruction of Berlin and Potsdam. From then on, he devoted himself exclusively to painting – his pictures show a confidently constructed representationalism reduced to the essentials and are painted stillness. He played the piano all his life and music resonates in all his works.