“Father of the Young Wild Ones” – painter Hödicke died
Published: Friday, Feb 9th 2024, 12:10
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The German painter Karl Horst (K.H.) Hödicke, also known as the "Father of the Young Wild Ones", is dead. The neo-expressionist died on Thursday at the age of 85 surrounded by his family in Berlin, as Galerie König announced on Friday in Berlin, citing the family.
Born in Nuremberg, Hödicke developed individual forms of neo-expressionist painting in the 1960s alongside painters such as Markus Lüpertz and Georg Baselitz. The style was referred to as "Junge Wilde", "Neue Wilde" or "Neue Heftige" in reference to the expressionists of classical modernism.
In Berlin in 1977, he was part of a group that presented itself in an exhibition as "Die Neuen Wilden" (The New Wild Ones), alongside Helmut Middendorf, Elvira Bach, Ina Barfuss and Salomé, among others. Alongside others, Middendorf and Salomé were later part of Hödicke's painting class as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts.
His early paintings on large-format canvases reflected the coldness and anonymity of the metropolis. Sculptures, films and videos also shaped his work. Echoes of Max Beckmann or Piet Mondrian can be found in some of his works.
Hödicke worked in his adopted home of Berlin from a studio near Potsdamer Platz. This resulted in martial motifs such as "Ministry of War" (1977) or night scenes in the dull headlights of cars near the wall in "Black Gobi" (1982).
His works have been exhibited at the documenta in Kassel as well as in the Chancellery in Berlin. Hödicke's works can be found in important public and private collections.
©Keystone/SDA
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