MANFRED
SCHATZ
(1925
- 2004)
Manfred Schatz was born in 1925
in Stettin, Germany. He attended the School of Arts and Crafts
in Stettin and the Academy of Pictoral Arts, Berlin-Charlottenburg.
He has had exhibitions in over a dozen more cities of the
world including Hamburg, Munich, London, Dallas, New York,
and Las Vegas. In 1964 he won a Silver Medal for his painting,
ELK ON THE MOVE, in Florence, Italy, and a Gold Medal for
FLEEING LYNX in Dusseldorf, Germany. In 1975 The Royal Ontario
Museum in Toronto held an international exhibition, ANIMALS
IN ART. Twenty-five nations submitted art from a total of
143 artists (both past and present). Manfred Schatz was judged
the most significant artist of the exhibition. He has received
every award that can be bestowed by the Republic of Germany
on any artist - living or deceased. Twice the President of
West Germany personally presented him awards. He holds a full,
lifetime professorship at St. Ambrose University, Davenport,
Iowa, and accepts students from St. Ambrose University during
summer months for a fully accredited art course.
The magic of Professor Schatz's
paintings lies in his uncanny ability to capture movement.
His brush strokes are bold and are set to canvas with a certainty
that many artists never acquire. He does not lose himself
in the details of the marginal things, but forces the viewer's
attention on the main motif as he proposes to express it.
He portrays wildlife as most
of us see it - in quick, often shadowy glimpses rather than
sharp, bright portraits. He uses the viewers mind as an extension
of his brush to supply needed details, and avoids them where
they're not needed and never seen. His work is inevitably
real and alive and the viewer cannot help but react. At one
of the exhibitions of his paintings a spectator summed it
up best when he turned to his companion and said, "It
seems as though I can actually hear the painting."
There are several books on his
work, including
AUGENBLICKE DER BEWEGUNG,
DER TIER UND JAGDMALER,
JAGDTAGE,
MASTERS OF THE WILD - THE MOVING ART OF MANFRED
SCHATZ, and
WILDBAHN IMPRESSIONEN. His work has been featured
in such publications as Gray's Sporting Journal, National
Wildlife, Southwest Art, Sporting Classics, and Wildlife Art
magazines.
His work is in the collections
of several museums throughout the United States, including
the Genesee Country Museum in Mumford, New York, the Leigh
Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin, and the National
Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming.