Interesting artist, interesting life, interesting works.
Moosinning - "When I was standing on the dung heap as a boy at home, I never thought that I would one day become a professor in Berlin," says Hannes Döllel and has to laugh.
“But as life goes.” The 72-year-old artist, who is at home in Aufkirchen, is currently exhibiting part of his works for three months in Moosinningen's town hall, replacing Silvia Pitz from Erdingen.
“I'm actually an art bogeyman, but the faces - I find this expressiveness impressive,” says Moosinnings Mayor Georg Nagler, who officially opened the exhibition together with 3rd Mayor Andreas Wachinger. In addition to faces, you can also admire landscapes and, above all, flowers. “There are thousands of flowers, all of them have their charm and their beauty,” says Döllel. "What matters to me is what I like personally - it should make me happy."
The life story of the 72-year-old, who was born in Aufkirchen and grew up on the local farm, is also impressive - as a second born. “The first-born gets the farm, the second has to see where he is,” he says with a smile and about what his everyday life at home was like back then: field work, stable work, ministerial - and drawing in between, which he soon mastered very well. “It is one of my qualities that I am hardworking,” says Döllel. "I've never seen work as a curse, but as a pleasure."
After leaving secondary school, he trained as a reproduction photographer, followed by 18 months of military service - and the idea of a Bundeswehr specialist to open a fashion boutique for women in Munich: “I had no idea about fashion and went to the master school for Fashion in Munich. ”At some point, Döllel got out and started his own business.
Gradually, orders came in, he should illustrate children's books, design front covers of games, and finally he should design textiles and create fashion graphics. Word got around about the professionalism of the drawings, “and suddenly there were customers queuing up,” says Döllel with a laugh and adds, shaking his head: “Customers from London, Paris, Amsterdam and New York came to see me in Aufkirchen and wanted my drawings.” For a For a well-known department store in Berlin, he illustrated four to five full-page pages a week in daily newspapers. “I was fully covered with work,” reports Döllel. He was busy 365 days a year. Hobbies? Nothing. “When you turn your hobby into your job, you no longer have a hobby,” he says with a laugh.
At some point, however, Döllel wanted to get out of the everyday grind, and he accepted teaching positions at German universities, in Stuttgart, Munich, and Trier. On the side, he continued to carry out fashion drawing assignments at home. “Life often writes the strangest stories,” says the 72-year-old. And so he was appointed professor for design at the University of the Arts in Berlin. “So my life consisted of four days of drawing in Aufkirchen and three days of lectures in Berlin,” he says with a laugh. In the meantime, Döllel, who still lives in Aufkirchen with his wife and two sons, is taking things a little easier and works as a lecturer at various adult education centers. "It's just more fun to be with people than to stand alone in front of the screen."
“It was a wonderful time,” says Döllel, but now he is happy that he can do what he wants and that he is not tied to any gallery owner.
That he wants to stay active for a long time is out of the question for the Aufkirchener.
“I would need three lives to paint everything I have in my head,” emphasizes Döllel.
"I just want to make the world a little more beautiful."
Mayor Nagler thanks the 72-year-old for the exhibition and says in his closing remarks: "In any case, you have made our town hall more beautiful."