pictures in this post courtesy of Haus Nieting
Monreal is a smalll, centuries old, picturesque community of less then a thousand inhabitants in the Eifel area in Germany. It has a castle in ruins, on a hill.
Life and work
In the foot of that hill there has been a dugged out house, which through the years has developed into an outsider art environment. In 1919 the house was bought by grandfather Meurer. His son Fritz Meurer (1932-2003) lived there all his life. In 1959 Markus Meurer was born, and he lived there untill he had to quit in 2006.
It so happened that in this house, from 1959 on, for a number of years, three generations Meurer lived together.
Markus Meurer grew up in an artistic, creative family. His grandfather told him stories about worldly adventures and technical inventions. His father, Fritz Meurer, who was an autodidact visual artist, teached him working with wire, metal and stone.
picture by Charles Pilet
The interior of the dugged out house has been abundantly decorated by Markus Meurer: paintings on the ceilings and on the walls, lots of sculptures, all kinds of bric à brac, all together producing kind of a Gesamtkunstwerk.
In the same way the exterior has been equipped with a variety of creative constructs and decorative items.
picture (2006) Peter Nieting
paintings on the ceiling
The house and its exterior have become known as the "Künstlerhaus in Monreal" (Monreal Artist's House) and those interested in this art were welcome to pay a visit.
picture by Charles Pilet
the inscription reads: "Thanks for visiting the art, 3M"
(3M = Markus Meurer Monreal)
(3M = Markus Meurer Monreal)
After first his grandfather, and later (in 2002 and 2003) his parents had died, Markus Meurer, who meanwhile had developed himself into an outsider artist with a very personal signature, came under pressure of the local authorities to quit the house.
This he finally did in 2006, when he left for the United Kingdom, to live there with his english wife.
The local authorities declared the house to be unhabitable and had the site destructed in the autumn of 2007, despite protests from (inter)national gremia. Before the demolition took place, a group of Markus Meurer's friends has taken out all movable creative constructs, which nowadays are safely stored in a depot.
Markus Meurer's art
In 2008 Markus returned to Germany, to setlle in a community in the Lower Rhine area.
Using wires, metal, all kinds of thrown away materials and objects, whatever, he creates assemblages and constructs, depicting fascinating insects, animals, mobiles, and structures.
He recently had expositions in *Kunsthaus Kannen in Münster, Germany (2007-2011), *the Outsider Art House in Veenhuizen Netherlands (2009), * at the Verbeke Foundation (Back Yard Genius) in Antwerp, Belgium (2010) and *at INSITA Triennial of naive art, art brut and outsider art in Bratislava, Slovakia (2010).
Documentation
* Website of Markus Meurer's agent, Haus Nieting (in english)
* Webpage of the Stadshof Collection (Netherlands)
Markus Meurer (and his father and grandfather)
Künstlerhaus
Monreal. Germany
site demolished in 2007
This house looks like it was really wonderful. I can't understand how things like this happen... if no one was even living there, why destroy the work of three generations?
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