Barthel Gilles - Artist Info

About Barthel Gilles

  • Biography

    Barthel Gilles (1891-1977) studied at the Industrial School of Cologne to become a decorative painter. During this time he created his first autodidact paintings. He continued his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy (1909-11) and was called into military service from 1914 to 1918 where he was wounded.

    Gilles joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1929 and participated in the first National Socialist exhibition ‘Westkunst’, held in Essen in 1933. Starting in 1938, the artist’s works were represented at the exhibitions of the German Labor Front (DAF).

    He traveled Europe extensively from Spain to Scandinavia. Formally, Gilles took up the Old German masters and the Pre-Raphaelites, using wood as a pai...

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