Heinrich Nauen

* 1880, Krefeld 1940, Kalkar

Biography

* 1880, Krefeld, 1940, Kalkar

Heinrich Nauen undertook artistic training between 1898–1902 in Düsseldorf, Munich, and Stuttgart. In April 1905 he began a study trip for a number of months to Paris. In 1906 he moved to Berlin where he joined the “Berlin Secession”. He had an exhibition in Paris in 1910. In the following year Nauen moved back close to Brüggen. His participation in a number of important exhibitions followed: In 1912 the legendary special exhibition in Cologne, and in 1913, in the exhibition initiated by August Macke and entitled “The Rhine Expressionists” which took place in Bonn. His first solo exhibition was organized by the gallerist Alfred Flechtheim in 1914 in Düsseldorf. During the First World War Nauen was conscripted as a soldier. In 1917 he was awarded the Iron Cross. After the war ended, Heinrich Nauen co-founded the artist group “The Young Rhineland”. Between 1921 and 1937 he taught at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art, which he directed from 1924 until 1933. 1937 his works were defamed as “Degenerate Art” and he was forced into retirement. After his death his tombstone was made by Joseph Beuys according to a design by Ewald Mataré.

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