Edgar Ende

Edgar Ende - A master of visionary art

Edgar Ende was born in Altona on 23rd February 1901. After school, he completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter and attended the Altona School of Arts and Crafts. He entered into his first marriage in 1922 under pressure from his parents, which ended in divorce four years later. In 1924 he came into contact with Gustaf Gründgens and Paul Kemp, in 1925 became a member of the Altonaer Künstlerverein, and in 1927 he took part in the exhibition Europäische Kunst der Gegenwart at the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Edgar Ende's fame grew noticeably, and he also found private happiness with his second wife Luise Bartholomä, which was crowned by the birth of their son Michael Ende in 1929. The family moved to Munich to the house of the sculptor Josef Flossmann, where Ende joined the Munich Secession, and quickly gained international fame through various exhibitions.

The painter in the darkroom

Edgar Ende gained his inspiration for new visionary paintings in an unusual way: He would sit or lie down in his completely darkened studio, which no one was allowed to enter during this phase, and wait for the right motifs to appear to him. The artist sometimes spent more than 24 hours in his ‘darkroom’, like a photographer developing a new picture, before he actually began to paint. Darkness was essential for Edgar Ende in order to empty his consciousness and create space for new and mysterious thoughts. To capture these in sketch form, the painter used a pencil specially constructed for this purpose, to which a small light was attached, providing just enough brightness to see what was developing on the paper. He then went through the sketches carefully and checked which ideas were really suitable for developing into an oil painting. The act of actual painting then began in a lively atmosphere, and when a new piece was finally completed, family and friends would gather to admire and celebrate the work - and to discuss it. People often talked for hours about a new painting by Edgar Ende. For his son Michael Ende, these discussions were extremely formative for his own literary career.

A large part of the work was lost to fire

Edgar Ende was not able to enjoy his increasing international success for long. The seizure of power by the National Socialists meant the end of the surrealist painter's artistic endeavours for the time being as his work was considered ‘degenerate art’. Due to financial difficulties the family moved to a smaller apartment; his wife learnt massage and therapeutic gymnastics and thus secured the family's livelihood, while Ende himself was drafted into the Wehrmacht and became an American prisoner of war. Much of his work was lost in the devastation of the war, although some paintings were saved thanks to the personal efforts of art historian Ernst Buchner. In the post-war period, Ende was involved in the re-establishment of the Deutscher Künstlerbund and was able to celebrate new successes with his visionary art. Edgar Ende left his family and lived with the art student Lotte Schlegel, whom he appointed as the sole heir to his artistic estate.

Edgar Ende died on 27th December 1965 in Nettendorf. Edgar Ende's son, the writer Michael Ende, famous for his novels The Neverending Story and Momo, repeatedly took up his father's surrealist imagery in his work and created a literary monument to him with his book The Mirror in the Mirror. He campaigned for his father to be properly honoured and put him on a par with René Magritte. Michael Ende also ensured that his mother received some of the paintings from his estate.