Schatz, Manfred

German painter (* 10th december 1925 in Bad Stepenitz (on the Stettiner Haff); died 24th, october 2004 in Meerbusch)

Manfred Schatz was born on December 12, 1925 in Bad Stepenitz at the lake Stettiner Haff. From 1940 until 1943, Manfred Schatz studies at the Stettiner art school and then at the academy in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Being only seventeen years old he is the youngest student of fine arts not only in Berlin, but in all German art schools. Already in his first year his teacher Professor Ulrich suggests working as a wildlife artist. After military service and being a prisoner of war he returns ill from Russia in 1949. Thanks to the help of his wife and his brother he recovers. After working on commission, Manfred Schatz finally finds what he is destined to do in the early 50s: to capture wild animals in the moment of movement in their natural surroundings. He never goes hunting himself except with brush and easel. As he does not believe in photos or filming his only aid are binoculars. On his many travels he repeatedly returns to the countryside in Scandinavia, especially to Sweden. In the 80s, he returns at last to visit his home in the region of Pomerania, that had been practically burnt down in World War II. Here at the Stettiner Haff he experiences nature that he loved so much as a child and puts it on canvas. Following the example of the impressionist plein-air paintings, the artist draws animals with charcoal and paints landscape studies in oil out in the open air. From these he then develops oil paintings in his atelier that can only be described as great and even moving. In his paintings we experience wild animals in the very moment of their existence, the impressionist way only a Manfred Schatz manages to depict them. The ability to capture animals in the instant of attack or flight shows his concern about the protection of wild animals and their natural habitat. His worries about the preservation of the world are reflected in a painting produced in the artist’s last years: The Accusal.
For Manfred Schatz, art is the greatest and most valuable way of human thinking and feeling, a visible expression of mind through knowledge and capability.
A quote by Ephraim Kishon expresses just that: Dear Mr. Schatz, you are the proof that in this day and age of bluffing there still are real painters.
On 24. October 2004 Manfred Schatz dies after short severe illness in his home in Meerbusch.

During the course of his career he won many prizes and tributes:

1964 Silver Medal for Rambling Elks on the International Art Exhibition for wild life painting in Florence
1968 Gold Medal for Fleeing Lynx at the Interfauna in Düsseldorf
1975 On the International Exhibitionn of Art in Toronto he is declared the greatest painter of wild animals
1979 Culture Prize of the German Huntsman Association
1984 Federal Cross of Merit
1986 1st Prize and Gold Medal at the international exhibition in Nürnberg Wild Animals and their environment
1987 Professorship at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, USA