Biography – Personal Data Sheet
28thNov.1925 Born in Dresden – Mickten; Mother: Leonore Guenther, née Uhle, born 1896 in Manchester/GB (gesch. Luther), died in 1976; Father: Wilhelm Luther (1893- 1959), he was an engineer M. Luther was brought up with his brother Siegfried Luther (1922-2006), he was a car mechanic, constructor, and his brother Wolfram A. Guenther, ( 1929- 2020)
1932-1940 M.L. attended the Volksschule (Primary School) in Dresden – Trachau
1940-1943 apprenticeship as an engineering draughtsman with Ihagee – Camera Factory at Dresden – Striesen
1943-1944 military service in WW II on the Western Front
1944 military hospital stay in Annaberg (Saxony)
1945-1949 prisoner of war in Southern France; after that return to Germany
1952-1955 constructor/designer with VEB Elektroschaltgeräte Dresden (devices for electrical engineering); lived at Dresden-Radebeul
1954 marriage with the painter Ingrid Luther, widowed Hennig, née Lamprecht (Born 1926 / Klein-Stirlack, died 2005 / Dresden); both of them living at Dresden-Oberloschwitz together with Fritz Hennig (born 1949). A son from Ingrid`s first marriage; his wife teaches him the first techniques in art painting (charcoal drawing and oil painting); M.L. became a free-lance artist and began to study the human anatomy as an autodidact.
1975 as a member of a senior team (BSG Lokomotive Dresden) he played chess in league games
1993 move to Dresden-Weißig, atelier in the basement room (23 sq.m.)
1999/2000 first health problems that decisively affected his creative process; retreat to the private sphere of his family and his works
11thJan. 2004 M. Luther died at Dresden – Weißig; buried at Heidefriedhof (Heath Cemetry) Dresden
Contemporary Witnesses: Christa Kittel, Heinz Rasser, Wolfram A. Guenther and Fritz Hennig
Translator: A good friends. Think you.
Development of the Different Subjects
1954-1959 Early works (sketches, human beings, faces), realistic drawings
Since 1955 Free-lance painter and graphic artist
1956–1962 M. Luther took drawing lessons; in this period the maturing process of his graphic oevre “Idee Konkrete Zeichnungen” (Idea Concrete Drawings) – a series of 24 geometric basic forms can be placed
1962–1966 Studies at Prof. Ernst Hassebrauk; since the beginnings of the 1960`s “Idea Concrete Drawings” – as far as its artistic-philosophical core and impetus are concerned – has been experienced, contemplated and fragmentarily worked on
1965 First contacts with Karl-Heinz Adler, Fritz Löffler and Hermann Glöckner
1968 Completion of the 24 Black Ink Drawing Pieces for “Idea Concrete Drawings”
1970 The following group of works, called “Paraphrases” and produced as silk screen prints and ink-drawings, is added to “Idea Concrete Drawings”, demonstrating the infinite variety and possibilities to combine his geometric forms. Parallel to these works there are sketch-like, didactic publications on the “Paraphrases” and written accounts as independent contributions interpreting and completing the work on “Idea Concrete Drawings”
1976–1985 artistic realization of the concrete figures 1 -24 (black ink-drawings) in another group of works, the Black/White/Grey silk-screen prints.
1980–1991 developing phase of the larger series “Ab ovo – Vom Uranfang an” (From the very First Beginnings) – the so -called spiral – made in varnish color.
1980–1994 formation process of the series “Cogito, ergo sum”– “Ohne Anfang, ohne Ende” (“No Beginning – No End”) depicting circular pictures, furthermore “Asche zu Asche” (“Ashes to Ashes”), which are made in different techniques (oil-chalk and silk-screen painting); since then participation in numerous individual and group exhibition
1980–1998 development of “Ab origine – Vom Uranfang an” as a subgroup and in addition to the series “Ab ovo”, primarily produced in lacquer paints;
1982 first personal exhibition in the “Central Institute for Nuclear Research” in Rossendorf / Dresden, recommended by a cultural committee under the leadership of Dr. Reinhard Koch
1980`s Despite Karl-Heinz Adler`s, Fritz Loffler’s and Werner Schmidt`s recommendation his request for admission into the “Verband Bildender Künstler der DDR” (Association of Visual Artists in East Germany) was rejected.
1983-1986 Implementation of the 24 Concrete Figures in color; silk-screen print cycle “Farbiger Epilog auf die Erdentage” (Colored Epilogue – On Earthly Days)
1991 Personal exhibition in the Kupferstich-Kabinett (Copper-plate engraving gallery) Dresden; publication of the catalogue “Idee Konkrete Zeichnungen”
1991 Working vacation at the studio of Jürgen Blum in Hünfeld (Hessia)
1992 Member of the Association of German Artists (Deutscher Künstlerbund)
1993 Move to Dresden – Weißig; some more “circle” pictures, spirals and color mixtures are produced here
2014 On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his death the so far biggest personal exhibition takes place at the Städtische Gallerie Dresden (Municipal Gallery Dresden); entitled: ”Manfred Luther, Der lange Weg zum Kreis” (The Long Way to the Circle); for this purpose a second, comprehensive catalogue (160 pages) has been published
Texts: Ingrid Adler, Carolin Quermann, Fritz Hennig
PS: Besonderer Dank geht an ungenannten Freunden für die freundliche Unterstützung (Übersetzung). Mai 2015