Felix Nussbaum ( 1904 – 1944) was a German-Jewish
surrealist painter.
Nussbaum was born in Osnabrück, Germany, as the son of Rahel
and Philipp Nussbaum. Philipp was a World War I veteran and German patriot
before the rise of the Nazis. He was an amateur painter when he was younger,
but was forced to pursue other means of work for financial reasons.
Nussbaum was a lifelong student, beginning his formal
studies in 1920 and continuing as long as the contemporary political situation
allowed him. Heavily influenced by Vincent van Gogh and Henri Rousseau, he
eventually paid homage to Giorgio de Chirico and Carlo Carrà as well.
In 1933, Nussbaum was studying under a scholarship in Rome
at the Berlin Academy of the Arts when the Nazis gained control of Germany.
Adolf Hitler sent his Minister of Propaganda to Rome in April to explain to the
artist elites how a Nazi artist was to develop, which entailed promoting
heroism and the Aryan race. Nussbaum realised at this point that, as a Jew, he
could not remain at the academy.
The next decade of Nussbaum's life was characterised by
fear, reflected in his artwork. In 1937 he married Felka Platek during their
exile in Brussels.
After Nazi Germany attacked Belgium in 1940, Nussbaum was
arrested by Belgian police as a "hostile alien" German, and was
subsequently taken to the Saint-Cyprien camp in France. The desperate
circumstances in the camp influenced his pictures of that time. He eventually
signed a request to the French camp authorities to be returned to Germany. On
the train ride from Saint Cyprien to Germany, he managed to escape and
rendezvous with Felka in Brussels, and they began a life in hiding. Without
residency papers, Nussbaum had no way of earning an income, but friends
provided him with shelter and art supplies so that he could continue his craft.
The darkness of the next four years of his life can be seen in the expression
of his artwork from that period.
Philipp and Rahel Nussbaum were killed at Auschwitz in
February 1944. In July, Nussbaum and his wife were found hiding in an attic by
German armed forces. On August 2 they arrived at Auschwitz, and a week later
Felix was murdered at the age of 39.
Felix Nussbaum’s artwork affords a rare glimpse into the
mind of one individual among the victims of the Holocaust. In 1998, the FelixNussbaum Haus in Osnabrück opened its doors to exhibit the artworks of Felix
Nussbaum.
