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The Musée-Atelier invites you to visit the studio of the painter, graphic artist and sculptor Werner Lichtner-Aix (1939-1987).
The museum, opened by the artist’s family two years after his death on the occasion of his 50th birthday in July 1989, affords the visitor an insight into the rooms of his studio – on three floors – which have remained unchanged since he himself worked in them.
Located on the ground floor is the artist’s printing studio containing a lithographic press, on which Werner Lichtner-Aix himself pulled not only the proofs but also the actual editions of his lithographs, and also a copperplate printing press, on which the artist pulled the trial proofs of his drypoint engravings and also experimented. Information panels explain the two printing techniques to the visitor.
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The museum mounts changing exhibitions of works from the artist’s copious oeuvre of lithographs and engravings.
Climbing the stairs to the first and second floor, the visitor enters the artist’s drawing and painting studio, dominated by a large workbench and easel.
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Changing exhibitions of oil paintings, watercolours and drawings – and also sculptures – initiate the visitor into the art of Werner Lichtner-Aix and enable him or her to re-discover Provence through the eyes of this so gifted painter.
Besides his vast oeuvre of paintings, Werner Lichtner-Aix also left an extensive oeuvre of over 260 lithographs and etchings.
Images of light
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Light endows all things with the restrained dynamic ofa living being
The museum shows the works – oil paintings, watercolours and drawings – of the artist Werner Lichtner-Aix from his twenty years of creativity, from 1966 until his death in 1987. Works that capture the interplay of light and colour, that subtle refraction and modulation of light so characteristic of the landscape of Provence.
They are paintings of infinite breadth and depth, of hovering horizons beneath turbulent skies.
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"In spite of his early death, Werner Lichtner-Aix's oeuvre is distinguished by its extraordinary consistency. It is in his paintings that the primal and the elemental, the untouched and the unspoilt, the cosmically vast and unreachable merge through his sensitive use of colour and light to become a harmonious whole. The human
being appears as an integral part of this harmony." (Prof. Dr. R. Beck)
Werner Lichtner-Aix In order to realize his childhood dream of being a painter, Werner Lichtner-Aix gave up his main profession as a mechanical engineer in 1967. Discovering the small village of Sérignan-du-Comtat in the Vaucluse in 1969, he immediately settled there with his family, making a home out of the remains of a mediaeval castle and spending the largest part of the year there painting. The works produced during the early years in Provence are distinguished by their spontaneous, expressive brushwork and their bright, fiery colours; occasionally they tend towards a genre-like, anecdotal style, at once capturing and caricaturing the moment. During the 1970s, the style of Werner Lichtner-Aix’s paintings now became more tranquil – the “cloud paintings”… |
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At the beginning of the 1980s, Werner Lichtner-Aix purchased a piece of land adjoining his property and built a studio that gave him the “ideal, unspectacular light” he had always been seeking. Travels through Greece, Tunisia, Morocco and, in particular, by bicycle through Sinai changed his perception of the landscape and its colours …
Werner Lichtner-Aix died in 1987.
His last resting place is in his beloved Provence – in the courtyard of his studio.
The works inspired by his travels through Sinai represent the zenith of Werner Lichtner-Aix’s oeuvre. In his funeral oration, Prof. Dr. Rainer Beck said: “It is in his paintings that the primal and the elemental, the untouched and the unspoilt, the cosmically vast and unreachable merge through his sensitive use of colour and light to become a harmonious whole. In spite of his early death, his work manifests an unusual inward equilibrium. He had found, in his art, a golden mean that reached its peak, at the end of his life, in the Sinai landscapes: reduced to their absolute, elementary simplicity, they are awash with supernatural light in all its harmony. As though it were a matter of course, the human being becomes an integral part of this harmony, entirely at one with the elements. His art forever seeks what is pure and unspoilt in a landscape or in a scene from life – its intangible essence.”
Numerous publications and exhibitions have made his name known worldwide.
Musée-Atelier Werner Lichtner-Aix Open from 1st April until 15th October |
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Guided tours (in German and French) by prior arrangement.
On sale in the printing workshop are books and posters and postcards of the works of Werner Lichtner-Aix.
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Musée-Atelier Werner Lichtner-Aix
Place Werner Lichtner-Aix
F 84830 Sérignan-du-Comtat
Monique Lichtner-Lubcke
info@musee-lichtner-aix.com
www.musee-lichtner-aix.com
How to get to the museum
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