|
| 1950 in Willem Grimm's painting class |
| In 1948 Hanno Edelmann begins his art studies at the `Hochschule für Bildende Künste Hamburg` with Prof. Willem Grimm, Ivo Hauptmann and Werner Haftmann. In Prof. Grimm's painting class roughly twenty students stand at their easels and paint with egg tempera (an emulsion of turpentine, egg yolk, water and pigments), mostly still life. The classroom is cramped and smells of turpentine. The teacher goes, sometimes too often, through the class - evaluates, corrects, encourages. Class evaluations take place each week. All the pictures are hung next to each other, and sometimes the best picture of the week is selected. Nude figure drawing takes place twice a week; other professors come to these sessions, examine the drawings over the students' shoulders, and comment - often differing strikingly from one another. In order to finance his studies, Edelmann drew book illustrations in the evenings. |
 |
| 1953 Erika Edelmann on a study trip / in the studio |
| During his studies Hanno Edelmann meets Erika Estag. She studies in Prof. Alfred Mahlau's graphics class. They marry in 1952. The time following Hanno's studies is a time of hardship. Paints are purchased with the little money that book illustrations bring. A studio is sought - a salon in an old villa, an old attic, through whose walls the winter snow blows - living space is extremely scarce in postwar Hamburg. "The main thing is that Hanno can paint." |
 |
| 1956 Before the painting "Spanischer Klostergarten" |
| Hanno and Erika Edelmann take a study journey together to Barcelona. Here are created - on the spot - large-format oil pantings that are only transported home with considerable difficulty. The trip to Spain has a great influence on the work in the atelier. Pictures with dark, intensive colours result. |
 |
| 1959 Exhibition at the Völkerkundemuseum Hamburg |
The first big solo exhibition in the Oberlichtsaal of Hamburg's Völkerkundemuseum is well received, although representational painting meets with scant recognition in 'official' art circles. Most artists in postwar Germany orient themselves towards non-representational art and other influences emanating from the USA. |