Georg Meistermann (June 16, 1911 – June 12, 1990) was a German painter and draftsman who was also well-known for his stained glass windows in the collect of Europe.
From 1930, Meistermann studied art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf below Werner Heuser, Heinrich Nauen and Ewald Mataré, but in 1933 the Nazis condemned this sort of art, and he could not continue his studies. Therefore, he worked as an independent painter and art moot in Solingen for some years.
Influenced by late Cubism and Alfred Manessier, he created abstract paintings, but he also produced portraits and wall paintings. Beginning in 1937 he made stained glass windows, immersing private, public and church rooms in colored spacious in an highly developed manner, based on an dealings of color, form and line, for which he would become famous. “To bring the colour to floating, to detect meditative spaces and to conquer a depth of the painting directed towards transcendence has been his artistic programme.” One example, installed in 1957, is to be found in Berlin’s Kaiser-Friedrich-Gedächtniskirche. In 1976, he meant four windows for the Collegio Teutonico, Rome. Another important play is his further design for St. Gereon’s Basilica, Cologne (1979-1986), which he called “my religious testament and climax of my lifework”. The Stained Glass Association of America considers Meistermann “the most versatile German stained glass designer”.
In 1953 the player was appointed professor at the Städelschule, Frankfurt am Main. From 1955 to 1959 he maintain a professorship at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, and from 1960 to 1976 he was a professor at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Karlsruhe. Among his students at the Düsseldorf Academy were Gotthard Graubner, Raimund Girke and HA Schult. Among his students at the Karlsruhe Academy were Gerold Bursian, Wolfgang Glöckler, Otto Mindhoff, K.J. Overkott and Hans-Günther van Look.
Meistermann participated at the documentas I (1955) and II (1959) in Kassel.
A devout Catholic, Meistermann worked for sacred rooms with good passion. With his art he wanted to compliment the grace of God, looking for form-expressing solutions to glorify the Creator. However, he next criticized the Church, quarreling behind those who thought they were in a tilt to claim special rights and no-one else because they administered the Christian faith: “I make propaganda for the Christian faith,” he said, “but quite certainly, I pull off not make propaganda for the Church.”
From 1967 to 1972, he was President of the German Artists Federation, requesting his colleagues in numerous papers and speeches to contribute their allowance to a more unselfish society.
In 1994, the Georg-Meistermann-Museum was opened in Wittlich.
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