Paul Strecker

Alfred Flechtheim and Paul Strecker

Paul Strecker was a set designer, painter and writer. His parents led a privileged life in which art, theatre, literature and music played central roles and favoured Strecker’s development as an artist. He took advantage of a stay in Munich after his Abitur in 1915 to study painting closely, something that he then continued at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich after the end of the war from 1919–22. Probably at Alfred Flechtheim’s instigation, he moved first of all to Berlin where he studied at the Kunstakademie and exhibited works at Cassirer’s and Flechtheim’s in January 1923. This was followed by tours of Italy and France accompanied by other artitsts from the circle around Flechtheim. On 10 April, 1924, Strecker settled in Paris having been formally received by Rudolf Levy and Jules Pascin. He remained there until 1944, interrupted by trips throughout Europe and times spent in Germany. When France was occupied by the Germans, Strecker fled to the south where he was interned from 1939–41. After the war he was offered a professorship at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste. Strecker, who was a member of the ‘Neue Berliner Gruppe’, died in Berlin at the age of 51.

Encounters with important movements in French Modernist art that Strecker largerly got to know through Flechtheim are reflected in his artistic development. His motifs – landscapes, gardens, interiors and nudes – testify to his struggle to find the appropriate artistic expression and the unity of content and form. He also described this process in depth in entries in his diaries. He received acclaim for his work even before the war thanks to exhibitions at Flechtheim’s as well as at French and American galleries. After the war his work was exhibited in many German museums.