Life and Artistic Journey
Born in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, Else Wex Cleemann was a German painter and etcher. After her family moved to Hamburg, she studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, eventually qualifying as a drawing teacher. Her formal training continued in Berlin at the art school of Arthur Lewin-Funcke, where she studied under Lovis Corinth, and later in Hamburg, where she studied graphics with Fritz Behnke. Following a period in Paris, she became active in the artistic circles of Hamburg and Lübeck.
Her work during the 1920s was characterized by a style influenced by New Objectivity, noted for its luminous color and the sharpness and clarity of external forms. Her subjects included portraits and landscapes, often inspired by travels to Italy, Munich, Norway, Denmark, Holland, and France. In 1933, she married Jan Cleemann.
Exhibitions and Legacy
The career of Else Wex Cleemann was marked by significant historical complexities. In 1937, her oil painting Old Factory (Factory Courtyard) was confiscated by the Kunsthalle zu Kiel as degenerate art. During the same period, her portrait of Hermann Behme was exhibited in the Great German Art Exhibition. Her 1937 self-portrait, Self-Portrait as Eva, reflects the ambivalence of both rejection and success during the National Socialist era.
In the years following the Second World War, she participated in numerous exhibitions, though she lived a more withdrawn life in her later years due to a lack of acceptance for her work. Recently, her work has undergone a positive re-evaluation, with pieces featured in exhibitions such as Spannungsfeld Weimar. Kunst und Gesellschaft 1919-1933 and Kunst in „Dritten Reich“.
