Insights

Barbara sorting and scanning

 'Welcome to the wonderful chaos' that is the Fritz Stehwien Gallery still - 13 years later. All is much more organized and digitized, but no less overwhelming. 

Listen here:  https://www.buzzsprout.com/1660786/9277238 

as SaskScapes podcaster Kevin Power visits the Gallery Garage for a chat with Fritz's youngest daughter, the current keeper of the massive collection of family art.

Some delightful insights into the life and times, as well as a look at part of the remaining collection of Stehwien art on display and stored on site.

Thank you Kevin Power - it is indeed an honour to be SaskScapes' first podcast from a garage!

An exciting development

Map by City of Saskatoon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Street naming in Saskatoon has designated the red marked street in a new residential development: the Stehwien Street, to honour Fritz Stehwien. 

This nomination was given to Fritz for his 90th birthday, but he was not around to see it approved in 2014. The new Aspen Ridge area is being developed in phases, so it make take a few more years before taking a tour is possible.

An unexpected development is that while a park naming was applied for, where the full name is used, the street naming leaves the dedication open to all Stehwien artists! This is especially great for Waltraude Stehwien who is still creating scissorcuts and was very active alongside her husband in the 50plus years living in Saskatoon and making many contributions to the greater community.

"Paint that Bridge when you get to it"

 

While Fritz no doubt crossed a lot of bridges in his lifetime, he likely painted as many!

With a major portion of the archiving and documentation complete, this wonderful review of Scenic Bridges is a great addition to illustrating his life and times:  

Review by SaskBooks

 

More details on the Stehwien Art virtual gallery with giftshop can be found here: https://www.stehwien.art/

75 Years Ago

An odd anniversary has come around for Fritz Stehwien and his family. 75 years ago, as a young German art student forced into war, and then into a Russian prison camp in Poland, Fritz escaped with forged papers. His paintbrush was the key and the long, cold, heart stopping journey ended peacefully in early 1946.

The forged papers, as well as many artworks survived (winter scene shown in blog header above). The story has now been compiled, along with images of these artworks, in the following book: 

The Power of a Paintbrush

Also in German: Die Macht des Pinsels

The cover of the book features the prison release papers, front and back, enlarged to show detail. The stamp, the signatures and what appears to be authorized names and dates were all meticulously painted with a fine brush.

Available through SaskBooks https://www.skbooks.com/