Josef Wackerle
Josef Wackerle, born in Partenkirchen in 1880, trained as a sculptor at the School of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. In 1906, he became artistic director of Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg before being appointed to the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin in 1909. He returned to Munich in 1917 to teach at the School of Arts and Crafts and, from 1923, at the Academy of Fine Arts. Wackerle’s work encompasses porcelain and majolica figures as well as large-scale sculpture and architectural works. His visual language combines influences of Art Nouveau with an increasingly classicist approach to figurative sculpture.
Wackerle’s collaboration with Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg began in 1905 and continued for more than 50 years. He had a significant influence on the manufactory’s figurative sculpture and majolica in the early 20th century. His porcelain designs include Lady in an Armchair from 1906 and The Skier from 1909. At the same time, Wackerle opened up new dimensions for Nymphenburg majolica: for the Munich 1908 exhibition, he designed eight large-scale park figures, followed by monumental parrots and cockatoos for the 1910 Brussels World’s Fair. In 1922, he created a majolica temple for the German Trade Exhibition in Munich featuring the life-size Four Continents – personifications of Europe, Asia, Africa and America. Wackerle’s work thus expanded Nymphenburg’s traditional figurative art to encompass monumental sculpture for gardens, architecture and public spaces.
