BERT HELLER

(Aachen 1912 - 1970 Berlin)

Refugees

Signed and dated lower right Bert Heller 46

Oil on canvas laid to panel

24 x 28 1/2 inches (62 x 73 cm)

Bert Heller was born in Aachen in 1912 and began his studies there in 1927 at the Fine Arts Academy under the instruction of the famous expressionist stained-glass artist Anton Wendling. This education was highly influential throughout Heller’s career and the elements of storytelling and self-reflection employed in stained-glass can be seen throughout Heller’s work. In 1946 Heller continued his studies and teachings in Wernigerode at the academy while the area was under Soviet occupation.  "Heller was the leading figure in the Wernigerode artist colony from 1945 to 1949. He created beautiful watercolors of the city that was in the shelter." (from Gerd Ilte: "Kunst und Künstler in Wernigerode zwischen 1945 und 1950") Wernigerode honored Bert Heller’s contributions to art and his teaching by naming a street after him in the 1950s; Bert-Heller-Strauße. Bert Heller’s contributions to the early GDR can be seen around Wernigerode in the form of mosaics and another mural technique involving colored plaster called sgraffito. Heller’s monumental mural in the Wernigerode town hall from 1948 was restored in 2015. 

Heller’s work is characterized by its documentarian, almost photographic, approach, but utilizes images that send the viewer into deep contemplation. Starkly contrasting the usual GDR’s propagandistic approach to the visual arts, the 1946 composition Refugees Heller has captured a family displaced by the events of World War 2. It is unknown as to whether the child clutched in the father’s arms is alive, however this mystery unveils Heller’s subtle intention of the painting. Mimicking the composition of Michelangelo’s famous Pieta, the emotional toll is echoed here by the literal death toll. This highlights one of the saddest and most detrimental losses during the war; innocence. This composition allows us to understand the immediate past, though the father figure, as well as anticipate the future, through the woman in the background. Heller has removed any indication of space and geography, suggestive that this scene can be seen everywhere. Heller was sensitive to his uses of color and has chosen to mute his palette to highlight the somber nature of the composition. The narrative was all too familiar to anyone who viewed this painting and would have been met with excruciating memories. Though this composition is a little more literal and confronting than much of the rest of his work, it is characteristic of Heller’s post-war oeuvre.