KLEIN, Synold (1920 – 1994) Für George zum fubushftag 1987 Etching

Description

Synold Klein

(1920 Pradocin/Poland – 1994 Stade)

Synold Klein was born in 1920 in what was then Rodenthal in the Landsberg an der Warthe district (today Pradocin in Poland) as the son of a customs officer. At the request of his family, he initially completed an apprenticeship as a banker, but after the end of the Second World War, influenced by the events of the war, he turned entirely to art.

In 1945 he came to the Altes Land and settled with his wife in Grünendeich. In 1952 he began studying graphic design at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, which he completed in 1956. After he was offered the honorary position of managing the local history and open-air museum in 1953, he moved to Stade and was involved in museum work and as a freelance artist for more than 40 years. As early as 1951 he was a co-founder of the Stade-Cuxhaven district group of the Association of Visual Artists (BBK).

Synold Klein is present in public spaces in Northern Germany with numerous works, such as murals, sgraffitti and mosaics on and in buildings or bronze works and stained glass windows in churches. He also dealt with the theme of “stele” and created large-format works made of stone and concrete. The last public work was the three steles made of Anröchter dolomite in Diercke Park in Stade in 1987.

In his extensive graphic work – woodcuts and linocuts, lithographs and etchings – he explored the effects of light and shadow. He also opened his workshop to artist friends and his students. From 1963 to 1985 he taught etching at the Armgartstrasse University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg and from 1972 to 1994 at the University of Lüneburg. He also painted  watercolours , which he sometimes did using a complex dipping technique.

In 1990 the artist was honored with a major retrospective of his work at the Schwedenspeicher Museum in Stade.

Literature/Information: Ina Busch, Art. Synold Klein, in: CVs between the Elbe and Weser. A biographical lexicon, vol. 3, ed. by Heike Schlichting, Stade 2018, pp. 165-169