Wols

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Wols ( Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) (1913–1951). German-born painter, graphic artist, and photographer, active mainly in France. He was born in Berlin, the son of a distinguished lawyer, and grew up in Dresden, where his father was appointed head of the Saxon State Chancellory in 1919. His interests included music and he considered a career as a violinist. He also showed a talent for drawing from early childhood, but it was not until 1932, when he studied briefly at the Bauhaus in Berlin, that he was converted to a serious interest in art. On Moholy-Nagy's advice he moved to Paris in that year. He met leading artists such as Arp, Giacometti, and Léger, but earned his living as a photographer, working under the name Wols. In 1933 he moved to Spain, and his refusal to return to Germany for labour service resulted in lifelong expatriation. After being imprisoned in Barcelona in 1935 for political activities, he returned to France, where he was official photographer to the 1937 International Exhibition. As a German citizen, he was interned at the outbreak of the Second World War but liberated in 1940 and lived in poverty in the South of France. At the end of the war he returned to Paris, where he had his first one-man show (of drawings) at the Galerie René Drouin in 1945. He was befriended by the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, for whose books he did illustrations, and by the late 1940s he was beginning to make a name for himself as a painter ( Drouin had persuaded him to take up oils), but his irregular life, poverty, and excessive drinking had undermined his health and he died aged only 38. His posthumous fame far outstripped his reputation during his lifetime and he came to be regarded as the ‘primitive’ of Art Informel and one of the most original masters of expressive abstraction. His output included a large number of drawings, many finely executed watercolours, and a comparatively small number of oils.

Wols ( Wolfgang Schulze) (b Berlin, 27 May 1913; d Champigny-sur-Marne, nr. Paris, 1 Sept. 1951). German-born painter active mainly in France; he adopted the pseudonym Wols in 1937 from fragments of his name on a torn telegram. In 1932 he studied briefly at the Bauhaus, then moved to Paris, where he worked as a photographer. He lived in Spain 1933–5, but after being imprisoned for political activities he returned to Paris. As a German citizen he was interned at the outbreak of war, but he was liberated in 1940 and lived in poverty in the south of France. At the end of the war he returned to Paris and was befriended by the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, for whose books he did illustrations. In the late 1940s he began to make a name for himself as a painter, but his irregular life, poverty, and excessive drinking undermined his health and he died aged only 38. His posthumous fame far outstripped his reputation during his lifetime and he came to be regarded as the ‘primitive’ of Art Informel and one of the most original masters of expressive abstraction.

Wols ( Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) (1913–51). German-born painter active mainly in France; he adopted the pseudonym Wols in 1937 from fragments of his name on a torn telegram. In 1932 he studied briefly at the Bauhaus, then moved to Paris, where he worked as a photographer. He lived in Spain 1933–5, but after being imprisoned for political activities he returned to Paris. As a German citizen he was interned at the outbreak of war, but he was liberated in 1940 and lived in poverty in the south of France. At the end of the war he returned to Paris and was befriended by the writers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, for whose books he did illustrations. In the late 1940s he began to make a name for himself as a painter, but his irregular life, poverty, and excessive drinking undermined his health and he died aged only 38. His posthumous fame far outstripped his reputation during his lifetime and he came to be regarded as the ‘primitive’ of Art Informel and one of the most original masters of expressive abstraction.