I’ve never heard of artist A. Paul Weber until I came across this feverish drawing today called “The Rumor.” See it in Gigapan here.
From the Weber Museum:
Weber was born in Arnstadt, Thüringen. In his youth he joined the Jung-Wandervogel, a movement interested in cultivating a better lifestyle and a heightened appreciation of nature through hiking. Weber’s love of his native country and his attachment to nature were awakened by hiking through Germany.
In 1928 Weber became a member of a political circle opposing Hitler and National Socialism, which was centred around Ernst Niekisch. Weber illustated books and periodicals for the Widerstands-Verlag (Resistance Press). The journals were banned and Weber was imprisoned by the Nazis from July to December 1937.
After the Second World War he continued to be a social commentator, with his criticism covering politics, justice, militarism, enviromental pollution, inhumanity, medicine and fanaticism in sports. In 1980, Weber died at the age of 87 in Schretstaken, a small village near Ratzeburg, where he had lived since 1936.
My favorite line in his brief bio: “Weber did not draw in an abstact manner. His critique of this type of art and his opinion of narrow-minded experts and museum visitors can be seen in the next room.”
(Via Suddenly)