Ottomar Starke

Ottomar Starke studied at the Königlichen Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich under Maximilian Dasio. He worked as a set designer, graphic artist, author and translator. From 1909–39 he worked as a stage designer in Munich, Frankfurt/Main, Mannheim, Darmstadt, Freiburg i. Br. and Baden-Baden. From 1916 he illustrated famous works of literature by authors such as Sternheim, Stendhal, Goethe, Strindberg, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Grillparzer.

His works were published on several occasions in the magazine ‘Der Querschnitt’ issued by the Galerie Flechtheim. He also published several texts in ‘Uhu and Scherls Magazin’ and wrote books, including detective stories and his autobiography ‘Was mein Leben anbelangt’ (1954). He wrote radio plays and comedies and worked as a translator.

In 1920 he exhibited at the Galerie Alfred Flechtheim for the first time, even being given a solo exhibition there in 1923. In 1922 Flechtheim published his portfolio ‘Candide oder Der Optimismus’. In 1925 Starke lived in Paris and was in contact with the Café du Dôme artists. Starke designed a representative room for the international press exhibition Pressa in Cologne in 1928. Although he had been a member of the NSDAP since 1933, five of his works were confiscated from German museums as part of the ‘Degenerate Art’ campaign in 1937. In 1967 tribute was paid to Starke by the Kunstamt Wilmersdorf with an exhibition.