Munich: visit to the studio of Katharina von Werz - art that makes you happy

Created: 03/04/2022, 18:54

By: Katja Kraft

Her eyes shine as blue as the colors on her painting table: Katharina von Werz in the studio.

©Oliver Bodmer

The Buchheim Museum of Fantasy in Bernried am Starnberger See is currently showing fantastic works by the Munich artist Katharina von Werz.

We visited the great painter and sculptress in her house in Munich.

A total work of art.

And all of a sudden you believe in the good in the world again.

A visit to the artist Katharina von Werz in Bogenhausen.

Her husband Franz Moll opens the garden door.

The two have been married for 60 years.

It must have been 60 years full of laughter, life, love.

The memory of it is captured in the laugh lines that play around her eyes - and in Katharina von Werz' art.

It can currently be seen in the Buchheim Museum in Bernried on Lake Starnberg.

The house celebrates the painter and sculptor with a retrospective.

The Museum of Imagination - there couldn't be a more appropriate place for von Werz' fantastic oeuvre.

Because she is a master at setting the viewer's imagination in motion.

Married for 60 years: Katharina von Werz and Franz Moll in their living room.

©Oliver Bodmer

Sometimes more, sometimes less clearly, she allows figures to shimmer through in her often colorful pictures.

And it is a great pleasure to fully engage in it.

To puzzle: What is the story behind the colors?

For example, the dynamic whirlwind on four legs in front of a city silhouette: like a man and woman turning in circles at insane speed;

escape from the world together.

A look at the picture title: "Dance in front of the city I" (2010).

That is thrilling.

You meet the artist for the first time in front of pictures like this one in the Buchheim Museum.

Then she talks about home.

That since the three children – two sons, one daughter – left the house, she has spread her art more and more.

That the family is already teasing mom that she is an "art messie".

"You're welcome to look at it and judge for yourself," she says - and of course the invitation is accepted immediately.

The next day, then, the visit to Munich.

In this house full of life.

"Villa" sounds so stiff and feudal.

Picked up.

But the only thing that stands out here are the creative thoughts.

They fly through the rooms and immediately spread to everyone who enters.

In Katharina von Werz' exhibition at the Buchheim Museum Bernried: the artist and culture editor Katja Kraft.

© kjk

The parquet floor is reminiscent of the children who “for a while used to rush through the living room on roller skates”.

The furniture and works tell of the people who have come and gone here.

What fabulous celebrations that must have been!

"Sometimes with up to 100 people," remembers Franz Moll, smiling as he looks at the large living area on the ground floor.

Inside: photographs by Stefan Moses (1928-2018), pictures by Rupprecht Geiger (1908-2009), sculptures by Lothar Fischer (1933-2004).

All friends of the couple.

All colleagues of Katharina von Werz.

Their pictures and sculptures hang, stand and lie everywhere.

Mixed together from all creative phases.

The curator was coincidence – and he secretly created an excellent show here.

Anyone who walks through the hallway and studio, living and dining room, garden house and cellar will discover the different styles that von Werz masters.

She was inspired - by the view of nature, directly in front of the large studio windows, and by her "heroes".

Veronese, Titian, Delacroix, Willem de Kooning, Frank Auerbach.

Or an important woman: Gabriele Münter.

The Expressionist died in 1962. Katharina von Werz got to know her personally.

It's one of the many anecdotes that she and her husband can tell - and with each one you think: how much you would have liked to have been there.

Gabriele Münter once gave this picture to Katharina von Werz.

And thanked her in her dedication for "a stimulating visit".

©Oliver Bodmer

"That was in 1960, when I was a young girl," the now 82-year-old recalls meeting Münter.

“My older half-brother inherited 500 marks from his father.

And he now wanted to use it to buy a work by Gabriele Münter.

Together with a friend of his he decided to go to her in the country.

And I was allowed to come along.” She remembers the little house very well, the entrance of which was so beautifully painted.

"So we went into the attic room and she spread out a whole heap of pictures in front of my brother." The purchase was a success, and we had lively conversations with the lady, who was a bit older at the time than Katharina von Werz is today.

And a little later she received a package from the artist.

Inside, a picture the same size and format as the one her brother had bought.

And then the dedication:

"For Catherine von Werz.

After an inspiring visit, March 29, 1960. With greetings from Gabriele Münter.” Von Werz tells the story with sparkling eyes. And you can see the young girl in her.

Katharina von Werz has always gone her own way

She always knew that she wanted to be an artist one day.

It was in her blood: her maternal grandfather was one of the well-known salon painters and portraitists in Munich.

Her father Helmut von Werz made a name for himself as an architect.

Her mother was a doctor and operated on herself – unusual for a woman at the beginning of the 20th century.

The brothers and other relatives were also all academics - most doctors and architects.

"But that wasn't for me.

My parents have always supported me in my own career.

praised me a lot.

Praise and encouragement is so important!

You shouldn't underestimate that," she says.

Von Werz learned her trade at the Academy for Graphic Arts in Munich and then at the École des beaux-arts in Geneva.

And has been working every day since then.

Sometimes she just wants to let the colors flow.

Without concept.

Every form that emerges on the canvas, on cardboard, on wood ("I'll take whatever I can get my hands on") inspires her to continue in these abstract works.

Like a garden in which it sprout.

He's colorful.

And those who go in will come out a little happier at the end.

Until April 24, “Katharina von Werz.

Tanz vor der Stadt” can be seen in the Buchheim Museum, Am Hirschgarten 1, Bernried.

Tue-Sun: 10am-5pm.

More information is available here