Willem Grimm was born in 1904 in Darmstadt, absolved a training as a
commercial artist with RudolfKoch in Offenbach, was also interested in photography, continued studying in Munich and came to Hamburg in 1924 via Worpswede. On recommendation of Rosa Schapire he met Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in Berlin, visited Paris repeatedly in the late twenties, undertook voyages throughout the whole of Europe and travelled by boat to New York and Western India. To support the painter, Rosa Shapire founded the "Grimm-Gesellschaft" ("Grimm Society") together with Emmi Ruben (mentioned here on 22/11) and other patrons of the arts in Hamburg. |
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In spring 1937 he married Käthe Franck – which he evidently told Beckett
(Beckett mentions Grimm's wedding in his letter to Günther Albrecht on 31st
March 1937 from Munich) – two children were born. Six of Grimm's works were
confiscated during the "Entartete Kunst" ("Degenerate Art") campaign, in World
War Two he was drawn in to serve in the Wehrmacht, his early work was almost
entirely burned when his last studio in Isestraße was destroyed in the summer of 1943. As of 1946 Grimm was professor at the Landeskunstschule, in 1959 he
was awarded the Edwin-Scharff-Preis. In 1963 he married Margret Tiemanna
pupil of his, in 1967 he resided at the Villa Massimo as a guest of honour. Willem Grimm died in 1986 in Hamburg. |
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