Tomas Kurth (born 22 July 1955 in Stuttgart, Germany),[1] also known as vanderkurth (sometimes van der kurth), is a Germanartist. He is active as a painter, sculptor, musician, and designer, among other fields.[2] His works have been presented at numerous exhibitions and in a feature-film portrait.
Kurth's artistic oeuvre spans various genres and styles. As of 2024, he has created several hundred paintings and a large number of drawings and etchings.[2] Since 1976, Kurth has been working as a freelance artist, having studios in Stuttgart and Ulm since 1992.[3] Starting in the 1970s, his works have been displayed at exhibitions[4][5][6] primarily in Southern Germany.[7] In Stuttgart-West, Kurth operates the Bildbar, his own gallery for his works. It has been called a "popular art meeting place".[8]
Biography
Tomas Kurth attended Dillmann-Gymnasium in Stuttgart.[3] He held his first public exhibit while still a pupil.[9] From the mid 1970s, Kurth studied graphics design in Stuttgart under Robert Förch,[10] and started working as a conservationist, restoring artworks in churches and castles in Southwestern Germany.[9] In the late 1970s, Kurth started living in Bad Liebenzell-Monakam an alternative commune, creating art of various styles.[2] At an exhibit in Calw in 1978, Kurth displayed etchings and pencil drawings, showing predominantly landscapes and still lifes. It was noted that some etchings showed anthropomorphisms of items like an alarm clock that bites a pencil. Press reviews were positive, and Kurth's technique was called "virtuoso", with one article predicting that his "success would not be long in coming".[9] During that time, Kurth additionally produced and performed on the underground album Picknick im Neanderthal with his band Flick Flack Huckepack. The album was produced on music cassette.[2]
Self portrait, around 1978 in Bad Liebenzell-Monakam.
Between 1980-1986, Kurth studied art at ABK Stuttgart under Peter Grau and Wolfgang Gäfgen.[3][11] In the 1980s, he designed and painted photo backgrounds for advertising campaigns commissioned by Porsche, Lancia and Fiat.[12] Kurth also worked in various creative positions on advertising photo shoots produced by Scholz & Friends, Springer & Jacoby and other agencies for Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar and Bosch.[13] From the 1980s, Kurth starting realising various murals in collaboration with their designers, such as Tomi Ungerer's les toilettes in Plochingen.[14] In Augsburg, he was involved in the restoration of parts of the gallery of the church St Anna,[15] and in 1991, Kurth's interior design and restoration work at Bebenhausen Abbey was discussed and illustrated in German magazine Schöner Wohnen.[16]
In November 1991, Kurth spent several months on Taprobane Island in Sri Lanka. During this time, he painted only islands.[17] At an exhibition in Reutlingen from 30 April - 30 June 1994, it was noted that Kurth at that point specialised in "classical landscape paintings with a touch of humour".[18] The exhibit showed 85 works by four artists and received positive reviews. In one report, Kurth's oil painting "Hirsch mit Röhren" was the one work singled out and analysed, being called a "humorous variant of classical animal portaits".[19] In the late 1990s, Kurth did several works that focused on cubism, while retaining his humorous approach. He presented them at a solo exhibition in Reutlingen in 1999, which got positive reviews.[20] Kurth himself mentioned that he addressed cubism in an ironic way. While some paintings at the exhibit were directly referencing that style, Susanne Till mentions that the majority could be classified to contain elements of magical realism.[11] In October 1999, Kurth created an online presence for his Bildbar gallery, featuring virtual exhibitions and a virtual meeting place to exchange thoughts and ideas.[21] For the 2002 re-release of several albums by Fred Frith, Kurth designed the album covers.[1]
Around 2004, Kurth started a series of more than one hundred paintings depicting islands, inspired by the idea he had in 1991 on Taprobane Island. While promoting this series in 2010, Kurth gave his gallery Bildbar the subtitle "Manufaktur für einsame Inseln" ("Workshop for Lonely Islands").[17] Shortly afterward, he created a humorous series of large-size paintings called "Portemonnaie d'artist" depicting empty wallets.[22] On occasion of an exhibit featuring paintings from this series, Harald Amelung stated:
Tomas Kurth studied at Stuttgart Art Academy at a time when concept art and abstraction were very much in vogue, and he opposed these trends: He always painted in an expressionist, figurative style. In his works, he portrays contemporary trends in a critical manner.
Throughout the 2000s until the 2010s, Kurth drew several hundred, often humorous drawings depicting ouzo glasses in various settings and styles, drawn on bar tabs. He called them "Ouzographien".[2] Between 2014 and 2019, Kurth's gallery Bildbar participated in five editions of Stuttgart's "Lange Nacht der Museen" ("Long Night of the Museums").[23]
From 2020, with his "Denkmäler" ("Monuments") series, Kurth for a while specialised in statues. By the summer of 2021, the series comprised around 40 sculptures.[24] According to Kurth, these monuments are "not intended for famous personalities as usual, but for 'ordinary people'."[25]
Tomas Kurth in April 2021, surrounded by some of his paintings.
As the intended main work of his "Monuments" series, Kurth unveiled the larger-than-life "Statue of Liberty of Stuttgart" in his home town on 26 June 2021.[26] According to his own statement at the occasion, this was intended to "symbolise overcoming the most difficult phase of the coronavirus pandemic."[27] The statue's unveiling was reported on TV[27] and in the press,[24] and its creation as well as Kurth's life and work were documented in the feature-length film "Statue of Liberty" by Alexander Tuschinski.[28][25] The film had its premiere on 2 July 2022 at Delphi Arthaus Kino in Stuttgart.[29][30] After winning awards in Tokyo[31] and screening in Portland, Oregon[32] the film competed for the 2022 Baden-Württembergischer Filmpreis.[33][34] Eugen Zentner considers the film to be part of German counter-culture of the 2020s.[35] On 23 September 2022, Kurth opened a sculpture garden next to his Bildbar gallery where he displays his statues.[36]
In 2023, Theaterhaus Stuttgart exhibited a retrospective of Kurth's oeuvre, displaying works from various stages of his career in the theatre's public spaces on multiple floors.[37] The next year, Kurth published his book "Secret of Pisa", which features humorous drawings, etchings and paintings involving the Leaning Tower of Pisa.[38]
Beside visual arts, Kurth additionally performs as a musician and plays his own compositions on ukulele and harmonica at various venues, appearing in several music videos since 2021.
Style
Tomas Kurth's style is often satirical and characterised by a humorous view of the world and society. His paintings have been described as "humorous, enigmatic and extremely entertaining".[39] Kurth often works with tongue-in-cheek references to visual styles from different eras and cultures.[22] He usually works in series, processing one idea in several works of a similar style.[17] Christine Wawra mentions that some of Kurth's paintings are stylistically close to caricatures.[20]
All his work shares a subtle sense of humour and an often ironic view of society.
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↑ "Über der Schnapsidee residiert die Kunst" (in German). Cannstatter Zeitung. 1 March 1976. On the picture printed in the article, Tomas Kurth is the second person to the right.
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