Guido Brink, German, b.1913
Guido Brink grew up in Düsseldorf, Germany between World War I and World War II. He lived through multiple crises of European culture centering in both these catastrophic eras. Economic and political instability on the Continent and the rise of Fascist and Communist ideologies presented a new challenge to world order. From the perspective of twentieth century developments in the arts, Brink was born into a time of pivotal changes in the art world embodied in Dada, German Expressionism, Neue Sachlichkeit, and Surrealism. Dada's anti-art theme and Surrealism's retreat into the inner world of dreams, though prominent forces during Brink's early life, did not notably affect his artistic development.
Brink vividly recalls his experience as a young art student compelled by Hitler, along with other art students, to view the famous 1937 exhibition of "Degenerate Art," organized at the former Munich Architectural Institute. Contrary to Hitler's intentions, the young artists were excited by the so-called degenerate art and would in time develop new directions in their own work inspired by the modern art of the condemned artists. Perhaps then too young to consider joining the generation of exiled artists who fled Hitler's regime, Brink was conscripted into the German army. As a German soldier, he witnessed the invasion and eventual retreat of the German army from the Russian front. Memories of the battle of Stalingrad appear repeatedly in his paintings, as in War and Peace: (Encirclement of Stalingrad), 1965.
