Berndt Trepesch

Berndt Trepesch
Trepesch 1986
BornFebruary 1952 (age 74)
Amberg (Bavaria, Germany)
OccupationsArtist, Teacher

Berndt Trepesch (born February 1952, in Amberg) is a German artist and teacher.

Life

Trepesch graduated from the Gregor-Mendel-Gymnasium in Amberg in 1972 and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Nuremberg from 1972 to 1973. After completing his civilian service, he continued his studies and passed his first state examination in 1979. Following his teaching traineeship, he passed his second state examination in 1981. Trepesch then taught at the Herzog-Christian-August-Gymnasium in Sulzbach-Rosenberg. In 1979, he joined the "Gruppe Amberger Künstler" (GAK). In 1984, he purchased and renovated the Weiglhof in Speckmannshof. Trepesch's uncle was the landscape and portrait painter Josef Vietze [de] (1902–1988).

Works (selection)

Trepesch's works encompass a wide variety of paintings, prints, sculptures, and installations.

Art against the Wackersdorf reprocessing plant

Anti-WAA votive offering (1984)
Environmental protection Sermon to the Birds (1984)

Trepesch also engaged artistically in the opposition to the construction of the nuclear Wackersdorf reprocessing plant (WAA). He painted the anti-WAA votive tablet, which was carried to the Church of Our Lady of Kreuzberg in Schwandorf during a penitential procession in 1984 and hung in the Chapel of Grace there. The votive tablet depicts the flash of light from an atomic bomb, with the Madonna of Mercy visible in front of the atomic symbol on the radioactive cloud. The city of Schwandorf with the Kreuzberg hill and the Kreuzberg Church can also be seen, viewed from the direction of Amberg.

Also in 1984, Trepesch created the image for the Franziskus-Marterl (St. Francis wayside shrine) in the Taxölden Forest, which became a Sunday meeting place for many WAA opponents. He painted Francis of Assisi preaching to the Birds (Sermon to the Birds). A bluethroat, a nuthatch, and a green woodpecker can be seen in the chestnut tree. A common swift flies around. On the ground are a wagtail, a kingfisher, and two dead birds. Trash and an empty canister lie on the ground. In the background are a lake, transmission towers, and the Schwandorf coal-fired power plant, from which dirty brown clouds of smoke rise. Trepesch painted another anti-WAA votive panel for the Maria Hilf pilgrimage church in Amberg.

A Boat – or Letting Hope Sail

A Boat - or Letting Hope Sail (2010)

For the 2010 Amberg Sculpture Trail [de], Trepesch carved Ein Boot – oder die Hoffnung fahren lassen (A Boat – or Letting Hope Sail) from poplar wood. It is intended to be a symbol of life, as in the Romantic era (see Caspar David Friedrich).

Exhibitions (selection)

To this day, Trepesch participates in almost all annual exhibitions of the "Amberg Artists' Group" (GAK). Other important exhibitions for him included those in Wiesenfelden organized by the Bund Naturschutz (Association for the Protection of Nature), at the open-air museum in Perschen, at the Upper Palatinate Artists' House in Fronberg, and in 2011 at the Museum Quarter in Tirschenreuth.

Literature

References

  1. ↑ Amberger Skulpturenweg (Amberg Sculpture Trail), Kulturamt Amberg 2020, p. 43
  2. ↑ Amberger Künstler Berndt Trepesch feiert 60. Geburtstag – Gespräch über Ausstellung im Zeughaus ...: Begeisterung geht schnell über in Knochenarbeit (Amberg artist Berndt Trepesch celebrates his 60th birthday – a conversation about the exhibition at the Zeughaus...: Enthusiasm quickly turns into hard work), Onetz, 20 February 2012
  3. ↑ Alois Döring: Franziskus in Wackersdorf: Christliche Symbolik im politischen Widerstand. Religiöse Riten und Formen in ökologischen und friedensethischen Protestbewegungen (Francis in Wackersdorf: Christian symbolism in political resistance. Religious rites and forms in ecological and peace-ethical protest movements), p 435–449. in: Rolf Wilhelm Brednich, Heinz Schmitt (Hrsg.): Symbole – Zur Bedeutung der Zeichen in der Kultur. 30. Deutscher Volkskundekongreß in Karlsruhe vom 25. bis 29. September 1995 (Symbols – On the meaning of signs in culture. 30th German Folklore Congress in Karlsruhe, September 25–29, 1995), Waxmann Verlag 1997, p. 435–449, ISBN 978-3-89325-550-4
  4. ↑ Schüler haben Franziskus-Marterl restauriert – Pfarrer Salzl erklärt das Franziskus-Bild (Students have restored the Franziskus-Marterl – Pastor Richard Salzl explains the image of St. Francis), Oberpfalz TV [de], 18 April 2018
  5. ↑ 375 Jahre Wallfahrt auf den Mariahilfberg (Amberg) [de] (375 years of pilgrimage to the Mariahilfberg Amberg), Amberger Zeitung, 27 June 2009
  6. ↑ Letting go of hope refers to the romantic longing for the transcendent and the confrontation with themes such as transience, death and the afterlife, and is a metaphor for letting go of worldly ties and turning to spiritual or metaphysical experiences.
  7. ↑ Amberger Skulpturenweg (Amberg Sculpture Trail), Kulturamt Amberg 2020, p. 43
  8. ↑ Achim Hüttner: "Gruppe Amberger Künstler" (GAK) – eine kleine Entwicklungsgeschichte ("Amberg Artists' Group" (GAK) – a brief history of its development) in: „975 Jahre Amberg – Eine Stadt in der Mitte des historischen Nordgaus“ (975 years of Amberg – A city in the heart of the historical Nordgau region) Festschrift 38/2009 Amberg p. 235f.
  9. ↑ Die Kraft der Kunst – Ausstellung in der Alten Feuerwache Amberg glänzt mit besonderer Vielfalt (The Power of Art – Exhibition at the Old Fire Station in Amberg shines with exceptional diversity), Mittelbayerische Zeitung, 2 December 2024
  10. ↑ Amberger Künstler Berndt Trepesch feiert 60. Geburtstag – Gespräch über Ausstellung im Zeughaus ...: Begeisterung geht schnell über in Knochenarbeit, Onetz, 20 February 2012
  11. ↑ Neuerscheinungen zur Geschichte und Landeskunde der Oberpfalz 1999 (New publications on the history and regional studies of the Upper Palatinate 1999), University of Regensburg