User:Eli185.2/Ferdinand Eckhardt

Ferdinand Anton Ludwig Eckhardt (born April 28, 1902 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary; † December 25, 1995 in Winnipeg) was an Austrian-Canadian art historian. From 1953 to 1974 he was museum director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Life
After studying art history at the University of Vienna and earning a doctorate in art history. phil. In 1927, Eckhardt initially worked at Benno Filser Verlag in Augsburg before moving to Berlin and writing as an art critic for various newspapers. In 1932 he published a treatise on the graphic work of Walter Gramatté and in 1932/33 designed a memorial exhibition with Gramatté's widow Sophie-Carmen (Sonia) Gramatté.

In October 1933, Eckhardt was one of 88 writers who signed the pledge of loyal allegiance to Adolf Hitler. In 1934 he married Sonia Gramatté. In the same year he took a position at Bayerwerke, which had been part of I. G. Farben since 1925. Here he was primarily responsible for the marketing of acetylsalicylic acid. In 1939 he was transferred to Vienna, where he was called up for military service in the Wehrmacht in 1942. After the end of the Second World War, he became head of the teaching department at the Vienna State Art Collections under director Alfred Stix. Eckhardt was a co-founder and cultural director of the Austrian-American Society.

After studying in England and the USA, he was called to Canada in 1953 and appointed director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Winnipeg. Until his retirement in September 1974, he organized around 650 art exhibitions. He saw the opening of the new art gallery by Princess Margaret in 1971 as a highlight of his career.

After retiring and losing his wife, he founded the Eckhardt-Gramatté Foundation and in 1976 launched the Eckhardt-Gramatté National Music Competition in memory of his wife. In 1977 he published Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté's memoirs under the title Music from within.

He is buried together with Walter Gramatté and his wife in the Rahnsdorf-Wilhelmshagen Evangelical Cemetery in Berlin (Dept. C, Row 9). The grave is dedicated to the city of Berlin as an honorary grave.

Heritage
The written legacy is in the art archive of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg.

Selected writings

 * Der Utrechter Psalter und die Entwicklung der Psalterillustration, 1927
 * Emil Orlik als Graphiker. Der Kunstwanderer ; 11/12(1929/30), Seite 398–404
 * Berliner Graphiker der Nachkriegszeit. Die graphischen Künste ; 54(1931), Seite 13–28; Seite 29–42
 * Walter Gramatté. Kunst und Künstler ; 31(1932), Seite 279–285
 * Das graphische Werk von Walter Gramatté, 1932
 * Die Wiener Kunstsammlungen nach dem Kriege. Kunstchronik ; 3(1950), 1, Seite 5–11
 * Music from Within: A Biography of the Composer S C Eckhardt-Gramatté, Winnipeg, Manitoba: The University of Manitoba Press, 1985 ISBN 0-88755-136-X

Literature

 * Claus Pese: Mehr als nur Kunst. Das Archiv für Bildende Kunst im Germanischen Nationalmuseum, Ostfildern-Ruit 1998 (Kulturgeschichtliche Spaziergänge im Germanischen Nationalmuseum, Bd. 2), S. 78–81.

Weblinks

 * Biographie in englischer Sprache
 * Biographie in englischer Sprache