Author: ditArdo

Happy holidays!

… and a super happy 2025!

… and a super happy 2025!
comic cubism to schools

“THE WALL” an unusual school project

Following the public commission from the town of Leonberg to paint a portrait of “Sophie Scholl” for the Sophie Scholl School in Leonberg, I have now received another commission for a great school project. This time it’s the Ludwig-Uhland School, a combination of a primary and secondary school in Leinfelden. And this time it’s not about a realistic portrait of Diethard Sohn but about comic cubism, so this time ditArdo the comic cubist is in demand.  

Acting principal Ms. Alina Hummel asked Janina Umgelter, the school’s art officer and primary school teacher, to find an artist to paint a 6 x 3 m concrete wall in the school together with the pupils.

The Wall

Ms. Umgelter saw works by ditArdo the comic cubist at a small exhibition at the long art night in Leinfelden-Echterdingen and was enthusiastic about the works. The title of her email was “Artists to schools” and the Ludwig-Uhland School is indeed always keen to initiate projects with external experts, including artists, gardeners and others.   This is how the project “The Wall” came into being.
The city, represented by Mayor Dr. Carl-Gustav Kalbfell, was pleased to be on board to support this project.   And I, ditArdo the comic cubist, am very much looking forward to this very unusual project.
A team of volunteers from all class levels is being put together. This was very well received by the parents’ council and I am also very happy about this mixed team:

Team Comic-Cubism

Photo: Janina Umgelter

On 19.09.2024, 10 pupils from LUS who were particularly interested in art visited the “Showtime” exhibition by artists Diethard Sohn, Irene Müller and Hyunjeong Ko (Müller & Sohn + Ko) in Ludwigsburg.
The students had the opportunity to explore the artworks on display, learn more about the artists and their techniques and develop their own creative ideas.
The visit not only promoted an understanding of art, but also encouraged teamwork and exchange among the pupils. It also marked the start of an exciting LUS art project together with the artist Diethard Sohn (ditArdo the Comic Cubist). In the coming weeks, the children will be able to help design a previously very sparse wall (6 x 3 m) and thus contribute to the beautification of the school building.

Amtsblatt – Große Kreisstadt Leinfelden-Echterdingen, KW 40

Save the date: On 21.11.2024, at 16:30, the artwork will be unveiled as part of a vernissage. It will be opened by Mayor Dr. Kalbfell.

In the meantime, we are already getting down to business:

Pupils from different class levels are concentrating on their initial designs and sketches. The task was to draw an avatar or a symbolic image. Later, ditArdo will transfer these drawings into comic cubism and incorporate them into the composition of the mural. A real team work.

Photos: Janina Umgelter

The transformation

ditArdo then worked diligently to transform the avatars into comic-cubist figures, which were then arranged into an overall composition.

Team Comic Cubism practices mixing colors to get ready for the wall.
NOW DITARDO TRANSFERS THE SKETCH TO THE WALL
Pupils are very interested and everyone likes the design. ditArdo answers questions and enjoys an attentive and engaged audience.
Later, when the surfaces are being painted, the team also gets involved again.
HIGHLY MOTIVATED EMPLOYEES ARE NOW HELPING OUT
Today, the first group of schoolchildren comes to help with the mural themselves. First of all, the floor is glued on as normal, and the cooperation in the Comic Cubism team works extremely well.

Signing in the end

ditArdo gave the pupils the task of designing their own signature. And since this picture was created by everyone together, the pupils were also allowed to co-sign it.

Comic cubism in the classroom

Parallel to the project “The Wall”, ditArdo’s comic and cubism and cubism are discussed in all classes at the school. The children create their own cubist and comic-cubist paintings, which can then also be seen in small exhibitions when the wall is unveiled.

The project is having an impact

More and more children are now interested in the project on the wall. The project is arousing curiosity and interest. Some children ask questions. Admiration often fills the room. Some of the children introduce themselves by name, others ask their teachers if it would be possible to go on excursions to art museums. It’s great that an interest in art is awakened in children here, some of whom are not necessarily confronted with art at home. It creates an incredibly lively interaction.

The exhibition

A stunning unveiling ceremony with exhibitions on the subject of comic cubism in all classes of the primary and secondary school.
The project is supported by the Mayor of Leinfeld, Dr. Carl-Gustav Kalbfell, and has also attracted the interest of a member of the German Bundestag, Macit Karaahmetoğlu, who has agreed to support future ditArdo school projects as patron. “The Wall” project.
The unique success of this project at the Ludwig-Uhland School shows that visual art is alive and well and also speaks and appeals outside the “white cubes”.
Comic Cubism is driven by love, so it touches young and old and connects people of different backgrounds and education. This painting manages to build bridges and thus enter into a socially relevant dialog.
I would especially like to thank Janina Umgelter, the school’s art officer, who supported this project with incredibly positive energy, Ms. Alina Hummel, the school principal, Dr. Carl-Gustav Kalbfell, the mayor of Leinfelden-Echterdingen and Mr. Macit Karaahmetoğlu MdB, who has agreed to take over the patronage of further projects of this kind from ditArdo, and last but not least, of course, all the pupils involved.

From left to right: Janina Umgelter, ditArdo, Alina Hummel

The finished mural

Press:

Stuttgarter-Nachrchten-Lokal Fildern 23./24.11.2004

The Wall: Colorful colors instead of dull concreteArt project inspires students

(Original Text is in German)

Last Thursday, an exhibition with the artist Diethard Sohn was opened at the Ludwig Uhland School.

Together with the group of art students led by Janina Umgelter (left) from grades 3 to 9, he created “The Wall” – a six by three meter painting that now makes a dull grey wall glow with color.

“The project has inspired the whole school community,” said a delighted Headmistress Alina Hummel (2nd from left). Sohn praised the cooperation with the pupils, as did Mayor Dr. Carl-Gustav Kalbfell (r.), who would also be happy to see it continued in other schools. Member of the Bundestag Macit Karaahmetoglu (center) has agreed to support future school projects of ditArdo – Sohn’s stage name – as patron…

Link to the origin

Festive unveiling of the mural “The Wall”

(Original Text is in German)

In the 1990s, the artist Diethard Sohn turned his passion into his profession and created a new art movement that was strongly influenced by his…

Link to the origin

Following the public commission from the town of Leonberg to paint a portrait of “Sophie Scholl” for the Sophie Scholl School in Leonberg, I have now received another commission for a school project.
interview

The visual artist Diethard Sohn, pseudonym ditArdo, initiated comic cubism and shaped this style with his signature style.Journalist and valued network colleague Brigitte Muschiol spoke to ditArdo, who lives in Stuttgart. The result is an interview that is well worth reading and shows ditArdo to be a subtle, passionate and politically aware artist.

You can read it at www.der-geniesser.eu
https://tk-kulturmarketing.de/aktuelles-und-pr

Tania Königshagen Kulturmarketing comments on the interview that the Hamburg journalist Brigitte Muschiol conducted with me on her website as follows:
Comic-Cubism as a concept and as a genre

The stylistic terms ‘comic’ and ‘cubism’ overlap in their formal approaches in ditArdo’s artistic language. The ‘comic’ is characterized by the means of line and surface, whereby the space is also defined by the surface. The striking effect is used together with synthetic ‘cubism’, the simultaneous and superimposed representation of different views or perspectives, to make high-contrast statements about the motif or experiences. The motif becomes a pictorial symbiosis of everyday experiences, dreams, lines, colors and structures. For example, the yellow tomcat stands for the image of laissez-faire, of roaming around in the midday sun.

In the artistic observation process, questions about the fourth dimension arise primarily in sunny Jakarta. What color are the streaks of light over the water? How much time is eight months? Is time yellow, red or blue?
These are just a few quotes from our lively email exchange in the ether.

Text: Dr. Wolter Abele, art historian on the exhibition ‘Out of The Common’ 2005

At the beginning of the 1990s, ‘ditArdo’ developed his characteristic artistic language of ‘comic-cubism’. The term ‘comic-cubism’ was then coined by Fred Feuerbacher in 2004 in connection with ditArdo’s paintings in front of a wide audience.
Role models and inspiration

Conversely, ‘comic-cubism’ without ‘cubism’ without Braque or Picasso would of course hardly be conceivable. Just as it would hardly have emerged without Disney, Uderzo or Charles M. Schulz. However, ‘comic cubism’ is visibly and clearly going its own way in our time. ditArdo is convinced that ‘comic-cubism’ will establish itself as a term and a genre closely related to pop art.
Roy Schwartz, historian and critic of pop culture, has described Picasso’s influence on Cubism as follows (original source: link)

Picasso’s revolutionary Cubism is considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century and earned him the nickname “father of modern art”. Its impact was so immense that it helped to inspire a host of other art movements around the world such as Futurism, Suprematism, Dadaism, Constructivism, Vortism, De Stijl and Art Deco.

But Picasso was also an avid fan of American comic strips, especially “The Katzenjammer Kids”, and this influence is obvious. If Cubism was the opening shot of modern art, comics gave him something of the “Bang!”
From an article by Roy Schwartz historian and pop culture critic
Picasso’s Comics: How Cubism Was Influenced by an American Comic Strip
Roy Schwartz is a pop culture historian and critic. His work has appeared in CNN.com, New York Daily News, The Forward and Philosophy Now, among others. His latest book is the Diagram Prize-winning ‘Is Superman Circumcised? The Complete Jewish History of the World’s Greatest Hero.’ Follow him on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @RealRoySchwartz and at royschwartz.com.

Pablo Picasso was already impressed by Rudolf Dirks and other US American comic artists, and so there has always been an art-historical link between the comic strip and ‘Cubism’, which was celebrated as revolutionary.
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH AND The FIRST COMIC-CUBISTIC PAINTINGS

Inspired by comic artists such as Disney, Uderzo or Charles M. Schulz, I mostly drew my own characters.

During my studies at the Merzakademie, I also drew characters such as Tick, Trick and Track or Donald Duck for movie commercials. That was quite lucrative weekend work. This work with well-known ‘comic’ characters remained the exception. Some mystical figures and scenes were also created at this time.

I then painted my first ‘comic-cubist’ pictures at the beginning of the 90s. The figure no longer played the main role in them, but rather the interplay of the different perspectives, the colored surfaces, the lines and structures.

Later, some of these became so abstract that finally no whole figures were recognizable any more, but only the lines and shapes were reminiscent of ‘comics’. From then on I began to add realistic elements to my ‘comic’ figures. In the meantime, realistic-looking elements are mixed with comic-like forms. New aesthetic elements and surreal scenes emerge.

My childhood in the 60s, like that of so many others of my generation, was characterized by comic figures, ‘pop art’, chewing gum and Coca-Cola. But while other children struggled with English, Latin or physics at school, I used every minute of my time at school to draw, namely ‘comics’.
‘ditArdo’ an Avatar?

Since I work as an artist on very different ‘art projects’, it became clear at some point that it is better for the outside world to name projects that are characterized by different styles individually. So it made sense to assign them a kind of ‘avatar’, an ‘artist person’ – but identical to one and the same person in the end.

Art is free. And in order for it to be free, it is important that artists do not allow themselves to be pigeonholed, which of course also applies in the context of a constantly changing and developing body of work. Neither market mechanisms nor expectations should stand in the way of the artistic process.

Artist names can be helpful to differentiate ‘soft’ or if the pseudonym becomes a phantom, see ‘Banksy’, ‘hard’.

‘ditArdo’ is not a phantom. ditArdo’ consciously and ‘softly’ distinguishes itself, also to create a little more space.

Naturally with its own signature

The name ‘ditArdo’ came about back in the 1980s, when I was painting a central pub in Leonberg together with a fellow student. They often called me ‘der Künschtler’ or ‘Diethardo’, which then became ‘ditArdo’.

A pseudonym, an avatar, an artist name, a brand, a label – ‘ditArdo’ consciously chosen and based on my own life story.
Art moves LE

Some of the pictures will be shown here for the first time in public, including the “Jakarta Edition”, a small series of newly interpreted motifs from my time in Jakarta from 2005-07.

Any proceeds from the sale of one or more pictures will of course go 100% to the artist and thus to the current and future art projects.

VernissageFriday March 08, 2024
We invite you to

18:00 Official opening

in the Zehntscheuer, Bürgersaal

Our vernissage
from 19:30 in the store:

Sassenscheidt Augenoptik
main street 74

Jörg Schweigert and Ralf Schröder are looking forward to your visit.

The vernissage will be accompanied by catering. The exhibition runs until 22.03.2024

Opening hours:
Mon. – Fri. 09.30 – 18.00 h
Sat. 09.30 – 13.00 h

Bribed with a pair of glasses and persuaded by friend Ralf: ditArdo – the comic-cubist takes part in this promotional fun-and-art event and has a lot of fun doing it.
Cafe Künstlerbrot

Military canteen
St. Gallen / Lachen

ELTERN CAFÉ
Parents enjoy a cup of coffee
and eat a sandwich | 09:00 – 22:00

CHILDREN’S ART STUDIO
Children work with professional artists | 09:00 – 13:00

LIVE PROGRAM
Live coffee house music,
Information about Café Künstlerbrot | 09:00 – 22:00

QUARTIER CULTURE FAIR
What’s going on in Lachen
and what’s on offer for families | 09:00 -16:00

https://cafekunstlerbrot.ch

Military canteenSt. Gallen / Lachen ELTERN CAFÉParents enjoy a cup of coffeeand eat a sandwich | 09:00 – 22:00 CHILDREN’S ART STUDIOChildren work with professional artists | 09:00 – 13:00 LIVE PROGRAMLive coffee house music,Information about Café Künstlerbrot | 09:00 – 22:00 QUARTIER CULTURE FAIRWhat’s going on in Lachenand what’s on offer for families |…
Hello world

Jesus?! Yes, the title of this painting is actually “The Last Supper”. The painting was created in Jakarta in 2005. The rooster played an important role in ditArdo’s imagination. Firstly, because chickens and roosters were omnipresent in Indonesia, and secondly because the question arose as to what would have happened if the rooster had not crowed in the morning…
Jesus! Yes, the title of this painting is actually “The Last Supper”. The painting was created in Jakarta in 2005. The rooster played an important role in ditArdo’s imagination. Firstly, because chickens and roosters were omnipresent in Indonesia, and secondly because the question arose as to what would have happened if the rooster had not crowed in the morning? Would the history and fate of Peter and Jesus have been different? According to tradition, the cock crowed three times and Peter slandered Jesus. DitArdo turned the rooster into a DJ, and the story rocks to his music.

Another protagonist: Judas. Coming into the picture from the left, with his mouth wide open, he points at the three-eyed Jesus. Judas does this facing backwards, his finger forming a strong contrast in the backlight of the sun.
In vino veritas est.

Three eyes see more than two, the cock crows three times, holy is the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The painting was sold into an art collection at a wonderful exhibition at The Peak Bandung with introductory words by the very famous sculptor Nyoman Nuarta.

Jesus?! Yes, the title of this painting is actually “The Last Supper”. The painting was created in Jakarta in 2005. The rooster played an important role in ditArdo’s imagination. Firstly, because chickens and roosters were omnipresent in Indonesia, and secondly because the question arose as to what would have happened if the rooster had not…