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Artists A - Z
Olaf Gulbransson (1873 - 1958)
Olaf Gulbransson was born in 1873 in Christiana (now Oslo).
During his time at the Royal Art and Craft School in his hometown, he published political cartoons in the Norwegian satirical magazines and created his first book illustrations.
In 1899 he successfully put on his first exhibition of portrait caricatures. The early works are still Gulbransson's most conventional ones and are based both on the Nordic Expressionism and the woodcut-like compositions of Art Nouveau and Jugendstil.
In 1902 Gulbransson took up an invitation by Simplicissimus-founder Alber Langen and moved to Munich to participate in the 1896 newly founded satire magazine. First cartoons appeared in Simplicissimus in December1902 and made him quickly known in the artistic circles of Munich. During his time at Simplicissimus, Gulbransson developed his own precise linear style which is characterised by a delicate filigree flow and minimal representation achieved by strong expressive power. The colourful works Gulbransson’s are usually characterised by bold separate areas of colour and shades without the use of capital letters. The distinctive signature Gulbransson’s accompanied by that of Thomas Theodor Heine was the main style in the Simplicissimus publications.
At the time the Nazis seized power in 1933 an exhibition took place celebrating Gulbransson’s 60th Birthday at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, followed by the Städtische Galerie in Munich, however, two days after the opening by the NSDAP Reichsleiter it was closed - apparently due to an earlier shown cartoon criticising the German leadership. Later Gulbransson was not so critical of the Nazi Party. In the same year he joined the ranks of fellow artists against the "European" Wagner-Vorstellung by Thomas Mann; Gulbransson saw in it the negation of the "national direction". During the war years came mainly caricatures against the "enemy states", especially against Churchill.
After the war, Gulbransson moved back to his Schererhof recouperated and worked on various publications and illustrations. In 1953 his complete works were shown in the Wilhelm Busch Museum in Hannover, in 1955 he was awarded the prize in visual arts in the state capital Munich. On 18 September 1958 Olaf Gulbransson died after a stroke on the Schererhof.
In 1965 the OLAF GULBRANSSON MUSEUM FOR GRAPHIC & CARICATURE was founded in Tegernsee.
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