Winther, Poul

Biography in relation to Skagen

Trained as a carpenter in 1960, after which he graduated as a building designer and built his own workshop in Skagen.

As an artist, Poul Winther is self-taught. He has received guidance from Karl Bovin and Svend Wiig Hansen.

Poul Winther paints arrangements of things he finds on the beach: pieces of cork, zinc balls, waist blocks, wooden blocks, stones and debris.

Dødsfald: Billedkunstner Poul Winther (79)

NEKROLOG i Altinget 27.7.2018: Maler og grafiker Poul Winther, Skagen, er død, 79 år gammel. Han er kendt fra udsmykninger landet over.

Maler og grafiker Poul Winther er død, 79 år gammel efter nogen tids sygdom. Han døde forleden i sit mangeårige hjem på Vesterbro i København. Efter bisættelsen for kun de nærmeste blev asken efter kunstnerens ønske spredt over Øresund i retning mod Skagen.

Skagen var ikke bare Poul Winthers fødeby. Det var livet igennem hans andet hjem ved siden af København, og det blev først og sidst hans sjæl, hans motiv.

Poul Winther samlede strandingsgods og stillede det hjemme i atelieret op til enkle, skønne formationer, så de foldede sig ud til historier langt hinsides udtjent kork, træ og zink fra havet. Han balancerede mellem det abstrakte og det genkendelige. På tværs af tidens krav og luner. Ofte dæmpet valør-maleri, andre gange mere koloristisk. Med tiden blev han lysere i farven og enklere i motivet.

Han er repræsenteret på Statens Museum for Kunst og de fleste andre centrale danske kunstmuseer, og modtog fra 1997 Statens Kunstfonds livsvarige ydelse.

Mange har stiftet bekendtskab med denne nok første centrale maler fra Skagen siden Skagensmalerne. Poul Winther har sådeles udstillet malerier og grafik på de to sammenslutninger, han var mellem af helt siden 1964: Koloristerne og Vraa-Udstillingen i Vendsyssel.

Også i gadebilledet og på institutioner mødes man nu og i fremtiden af Poul Winthers værk. Han har udført en lang række udsmykninger, eksempelvis til Risskov Gymnasium, Gutenberghus, Vandkunst til Hjørring og til Frederikshavns Sygehus, skulpturerne i søen ved Albertslund Rådhus, monumental vægudsmykning for det danske firma Carl F. Petersen i Kuwait, jernskulpturer til Aalborg Universitet og et trappetårn til KMD Aalborg og som noget af det sidste 34 tryk til jobcentret i Hjørring 2010-11.

Han blev bl.a. vist retrospektivt på Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum (Kunsten) i 2002 og havde en stor separatudstilling på Kastrupgårdudstillngen i København i 1999, dét år Sydafrikas præsident Nelson Mandela besøgte København. Poul Winther fulgte i hælene på menneskerettigheds-ikonet og lavede natten derpå i arbejds-eufori en række spontane lærreder præget af på samme tid rød smerte og sort-hvid vildskab. Ingen kunstner uden samfundsengagement.

Forventningen til bysbarnet i Skagen, der mistede sin mor som helt lille, var enorme. Allerede som stor teenager debuterede han på Kunstnernes Efterårsudstilling i København.

Efter Poul Winther fik svendebrev som tømrer i 1961 og året efter tog afgang som bygningskonstruktør fra Aalborg Tekniske Skole, brød han igennem som billedkunstner. Det var sjældent set med en ung håndværker i starten af tyverne, og da slet ikke når man kom fra en lille provinsby og var søn af en prokurist. Men livet igennem kom den håndværksmæssige kunnen kunstneren tilgode.

På sin første separatudstilling i hjembyen i 1961 solgte han et oliemaleri til Skagens Museum, en opstilling i tunge jordfarver bygget over fund på Skagen Sønderstrand. Så tidligt som i 1965, 26 år gammel, modtog han det treårige arbejdslegat fra Statens Kunstfond, der var blevet oprettet året forinden.

Poul Winther havde talentet i sig, og formelt er han som kunstner autodidakt. Men han var kunstner fra hjertet over forstanden til fingerspidserne. Kunsteksperterne i København kunne straks se, at der bag ophobningen af mørkstemt strandingsgods gemte sig et ægte oplevet og fortalt kunstnerisk udtryk, der fra en nordisk inspiration og tradition byggede videre på den italienske mester Morandi (1890-1964).

Poul Winther har modtaget en række hædersbevisninger som Oluf Hartmanns Legat, Henri Nathansens Mindelegat og Svend Engelund-Prisen, for ikke at forbigå Henry Heerups Legat, der blandt mange kunstnere regnes for en ganske særlig hædersbevisning. I 2002 modtog Poul Winther kulturminister Niels Mathiasens (S) mindelegat.

Poul Winther har skabt bogværker sammen med Per Højholt, Sten Kaalø og Klaus Rifbjerg.

Han havde selv ordet i sin magt og var en glimrende iagttager og formidler, både på skrift og i de tv- og radioudsendelser, han gæstede, som "Skawbo på Vestebro" (TV2 Nord 1994).

Poul Winther var på samme tid et følsomt og givende, men også voldsomt og krævende menneske. Han brændte sit talent og liv i begge ender, og kun et stålhelbred, som det kan laves i fiskerby som Skagen, sikrede ham et så langt liv, som 79 år trods alt er. Når han havde de kendte til frokost eller en sød pige i sit nærvær - eller når han sad alene ved staffeliet i stuen eller atelieret med Chet Baker i højtaleren- så havde han det allerbedst.

Kunstnerisk og fysisk svækkedes Poul Winther de sidste år, hvor en lam højre hånd gjorde det umuligt for ham at arbejde. Men han fulgte med og arbejdede til det sidste mentalt med kunsten.

De sidste fem år måtte han opgive at besøge sit elskede Skagen, han havde drømt om at gense, hvor hans selvbyggede, hvide hus på Hollændervej forfaldt, og 9. juni 2018 sov han stille ind i sin lejlighed i Valdemarsgade i København. Han ville bæres derfra. Og det blev han.

Den sidste tid faldt Poul Winther mentalt mere til ro, gjorde sig mindre svag, end han var, og følte sig tryg ved og tilfreds med det, han fik gjort.

rasmus@altinget.dk

Death: artist Poul Winther (79)

Obituary in Altinget 27.7.2018: painter and graphic artist Poul Winther, Skagen, has died, 79 years old. He is known from decorations all over the country.

Painter and graphic artist Poul Winther has died, aged 79, after some illness. He died the other day at his longtime home in Vesterbro, Copenhagen. After the funeral, which was attended only by those closest to him, the ashes were scattered across the Øresund towards Skagen, in accordance with the artist's wishes.

Skagen was not just Poul Winther's birthplace. It was his second home next to Copenhagen throughout his life, and it became first and foremost his soul, his motif.

Poul Winther collected beached goods and arranged them at home in his studio into simple, beautiful formations, so that they unfolded into stories far beyond the worn-out cork, wood and zinc of the sea. He balanced between the abstract and the recognisable. Across the demands and vagaries of time. Often muted valley painting, other times more colourful. Over time he became lighter in colour and simpler in subject.

He is represented at the National Museum of Art and most other key Danish art museums, and from 1997 received the Statens Kunstfonds lifetime grant.

Many have become acquainted with this probably first central painter from Skagen since the Skagen Painters. Poul Winther has exhibited paintings and prints at the two associations he was a member of since 1964: Koloristerne and Vraa-Udstillingen in Vendsyssel.

Poul Winther's work can also be seen in the streets and in institutions now and in the future. He has made a large number of decorations, for example for Risskov Gymnasium, Gutenberg House, Water Art for Hjørring and for Frederikshavn Hospital, the sculptures in the lake at Albertslund Town Hall, monumental wall decorations for the Danish company Carl F. Petersen in Kuwait, iron sculptures for Aalborg University and a stair tower for KMD Aalborg and as one of the last 34 prints for the job centre in Hjørring 2010-11.

He was shown retrospectively at the North Jutland Art Museum (Kunsten) in 2002 and had a major solo exhibition at the Kastrupgårdstill in Copenhagen in 1999, the year South African President Nelson Mandela visited Copenhagen. Poul Winther followed in the footsteps of the human rights icon and the following night made a series of spontaneous canvases in working euphoria, marked at once by red pain and black-and-white ferocity. No artist without a commitment to society.

The expectations of the town boy from Skagen, who lost his mother when he was very young, were enormous. As a teenager he made his debut at the Kunstnernes Autumn Exhibition in Copenhagen.

After Poul Winther was awarded a carpentry apprenticeship in 1961 and graduated from Aalborg Technical School the following year as a structural engineer, he made his breakthrough as an artist. It was rare to see a young craftsman in his early twenties, especially when you came from a small provincial town and were the son of a procurator. But throughout his life, his craftsmanship served him well.

At his first solo exhibition in his home town in 1961, he sold an oil painting to Skagen Museum, an installation in heavy earth tones built over finds on Skagen Sønderstrand. As early as 1965, at the age of 26, he received the three-year working grant from the Danish Arts Foundation, which had been established the previous year.

Poul Winther had the talent in him, and formally as an artist he was self-taught. But he was an artist from the heart to the fingertips. The art experts in Copenhagen could immediately see that behind the accumulation of darkly coloured beach goods there was a genuinely experienced and narrated artistic expression that built on the Italian master Morandi (1890-1964) from a Nordic inspiration and tradition.

Poul Winther has received a number of honours such as the Oluf Hartmann Legacy, the Henri Nathansen Memorial Legacy and the Svend Engelund Prize, not to mention the Henry Heerup Legacy, which is considered by many artists to be a very special honour. In 2002, Poul Winther received a memorial grant from Minister of Culture Niels Mathiasen (S).

Poul Winther has produced books together with Per Højholt, Sten Kaalø and Klaus Rifbjerg.

He had the power of the word and was an excellent observer and communicator, both in writing and in the TV and radio programmes he hosted, such as "Skawbo på Vestebro" (TV2 Nord 1994).

Poul Winther was at the same time a sensitive and rewarding, but also a violent and demanding man. He burned his talent and life at both ends, and only a steel helmet, such as can be made in a fishing town like Skagen, ensured him such a long life, which 79 years is after all. When he had the famous for lunch or a sweet girl in his presence - or when he sat alone at the easel in the living room or the studio with Chet Baker on the loudspeaker - he was at his best.

Artistically and physically, Poul Winther weakened in his last years, when a paralysed right hand made it impossible for him to work. But he kept up and worked to the end mentally on his art.

For the last five years he had to give up visiting his beloved Skagen, where he had dreamed of revisiting his self-built white house on Hollændervej, and on 9 June 2018 he fell asleep quietly in his apartment in Valdemarsgade in Copenhagen. He would be carried from there. And he was.

Lately, Poul Winther settled down more mentally, made himself less weak than he was, and felt comfortable and satisfied with what he had done.

rasmus@altinget.dk