“DIT IS DOCH EIGENTLICH OCH JANZ SCHÖN”
The Painter Annelotte Spieß – A Century of Colour and Poetry
14th February – 10th April 2026
VERNISSAGE: FEBRUARY 14, 6 – 10 pm
Annelotte Spieß was born in 1912 in Magdeburg and received her artistic training at the University of Art Education in Berlin-Schöneberg. Her life and work spanned profound political and social upheavals—from the German Empire and the Weimar Republic through National Socialism and the GDR to reunified Germany. After the Second World War, following periods spent with her two children in Neuwasser (East Prussia), she found a new home in Druxberge in the Magdeburg Börde, where she worked as both a teacher and a painter.
Her works are marked by a refined sensitivity to colour and a perceptive sense of balance—between change and continuity, playful lightness and composed calm. Careful observation of her surroundings is reflected throughout her work, as are the influences of her teacher Curt Lahs and her engagement with the art of Paul Klee. A sense of playful openness—particularly evident in her works from Hiddensee, where it often condenses into a vibrant lightness of colour—points to her artistic independence. Questioning instructions and maintaining an unorthodox attitude accompanied her throughout much of her life. In 1933, at the beginning of the National Socialist dictatorship, this stance led to a temporary ban from her studies.
Stays on the Adriatic island of Krk during the 1930s had a lasting impact on her artistic practice. The blue of the Adriatic finds an echo in later watercolours created on Hiddensee. Water appears as a unifying element in her oeuvre—both as a recurring motif and through her preferred medium of watercolour. Especially during her stays on Hiddensee, she worked with great discipline, often setting herself the goal of completing one painting a day.
Throughout her life, painting remained a central necessity and a source of joy for Annelotte Spieß. It also provided her with support during difficult periods. “I must start painting again,” she wrote to a fellow student in 1979 after the early death of her husband.
Her recurring motifs included flowers—particularly poppies from her own garden—landscapes of the island of Hiddensee, impressions from travels abroad, and views from the living-room window of her red brick house in Druxberge. Many of her works were created directly outdoors; weather conditions such as raindrops occasionally became integral elements of the compositions.
Creating spaces for art, culture, and community was a special concern for Annelotte Spieß and her husband, Hans Arthur. In 1980, her former classroom at the village school was transformed into the Kleine Galerie Druxberge, which for many years served as a place of exchange and cultural encounter in a rural setting.
With her colour-intensive and vibrant works, Annelotte Spieß developed an art shaped by a desire for peaceful coexistence and mutual consideration. Her life encompassed a century of profound upheavals—marked by ruptures, wars, and new beginnings—yet she remained true to herself throughout: close to nature, inquisitive, and independent. Her watercolours, which were still exhibited in Berlin in her presence on the occasion of her hundredth birthday, testify to an enduring joy in colour, nature, and life.
