Alfred Thiele


Alfred Thiele was a German sculptor.

Life

Provenance and training

Alfred Thiele was born in Leipzig. Carl Thiele, his father, was a book dealer. Alfred's initial training was in stonework and wood carving. Then between 1903 and 1908, he attended the Arts Academy in Leipzig. His teachers included Adolf Lehnert and :fr:Bruno Héroux|Bruno Héroux.

Artist

After a short stay in Munich Thiele returned to Leipzig and embarked on a career as a freelance artist. Starting in 1910, his work involved medallions and wall-mounted plaques. From 1911 he became more focused on figurines and participation in exhibitions. His early style reflected the :de:Naturalismus |naturalist and Jugendstil influences of the time, but during the 1920s he moved on through expressionism to so-called :de:Neue Sachlichkeit |new realism. Influenced by Aristide Maillol and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, his artistic interest turned towards the presentation of physical movement and expressions of the human body. By 1928 he had become sufficiently well known to justify a newspaper headline that read "There is only one sculptor in Leipzig: Alfred Thiele!". During the 1930s he began to apply the skills acquired working on small figures to much larger figures. Thiele applies his outstanding powers of observation, his sense for movement and other specialist abilities to developing a mastery of animal sculptures. Some of his designs were reproduced on an industrial scale by the :de:Heinz Schaubach|Schaubach firm, offered as both glazed and unglazed porcelain figures. He also applied himself to statues other adornments for monumental grave stones.

Teacher

As a teacher, and later as director for sculpture classes at the Leipzig Arts Academy between 1921 and 1953, Thiele exercised a great influence. One example was setting up a close collaborative relationship between the academy and the city zoo which created a tradition of animal sculpture in Leipzig which endures to this day.
His pupils, in both a narrow and a broader sense, included :de:Max Alfred Brumme|Max Alfred Brumme, :de:Hellmuth Chemnitz|Hellmuth Chemnitz, :de:Kurt Kluge|Kurt Kluge, :de:Rudolf Oelzner|Rudolf Oelzner, :de:Alfred Sabisch|Alfred Sabisch, :de:Fritz Zalisz|Fritz Zalisz, Walter Arnold, :de:Elfriede Ducke|Elfriede Ducke, Gisela Richter-Thiele, Hans-Joachim Förster, :de:Bruno Kubas|Bruno Kubas, Gunter Morgner, Rolf Nagel and :de:Rolf Szymanski|Rolf Szymanski.

Output (selection)