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Ernst
Altien
The life of Ernst Altien
Told by Sven Froekjaer-Jensen.
You can learn more about me here here
Not very much is known about the Danish or
maybe German painter Ernst Altien. He is a rather reluctant source
of information, and although I have known him for many years, he don´t
want me to give out too much information about himself. He is supposed to have been born
in the cold month of November 1940 in Lübeck, where his father earned his living as a clerk. Ernst Altien
inherited the fathers great affection for art and literature, but did
not find his fathers deep religious commitment.
Because of the dire circumstances during
WW2, he was sent as a little boy
to some relatives in
Denmark,
where he grew up in
small town in
Jutland
.
As a young man he travelled a lot but returned to the northern part of
Germany, where he worked for
some years as a caretaker in a small restaurant on Lüneburger Heide.
The Bierstube does not exist any more.
As a more mature man he gathered his wits,
woke up from the sins and vices of the sixties and found out, he
could make a living out of the word of art. So he sold his paintings to
galleries, private collectors and through auctions.
A great lot of his more naturalistic paintings disappeared during a fire
in one of his humble lodgings in
Kreuzberg,
Berlin, where he stayed
from 1982-1983. In those days he made his living as a lorry driver and
might have some contacts with an east german Stasi officer with the
first name of Franz. Later on he fiercely denied any contacts of that
sort, but some of his friends did wonder about his numerous trips to the
eastern part of
Germany
and to
Poland. One night when he
was almost petrified of alcohol, he mentioned Franz and said boasting:
Yes, Franz, you people would never believe what he told me and what I
told him on the road from
Berlin
to Oranienburg. Some have believed that the great fire was a revenge
from the eastern intelligence service because he alledgedly wanted to
get out of his relation with them, but others have seen him caught in
the crossfire between some of the foreign services. What ever the real
explanation is, most of his older paintings were lost at that moment,
and what he had of personal papers went the same way except for some
letters from his mother, which he always
carried on him him. The fire of the 28 of
February 1983 ended his stay in
Berlin
and he
went south. First to Marseilles
and then to the Canaries, where he stayed several months.
Later
he
took the
northern road to
Denmark
again .
Back in
Denmark
he was still unable
to cover his life expectations by painting
alone, so he went back to his
old occupation as a waiter and used most of his sparetime on painting
and drawing. In those days – that is after 1983 – he fell hopeless
in love with a lady from
abroad, with whom he lived
for about 8 years. Since he is very shy about his love life, no one
knows, if he left her or she just found out, that he was no good. The pain
that rose from the ruining of his love gave him very much energy for
painting, but he never mentioned her again.
I think
this unfinished painting,
which I found in his Swedish studio, was made one day when she was
lying at the waterfront.
By now he is living in a remote part of
Scandinavia
working with his art
and pondering the structure of life.
In his older days he is difficult to get
into touch with, but you can normally reach him on his email: ealtien@hotmail.com
Ernst
Altien had a sporadic correspondence with his mother,
who passed away in 1989. They discussed a lot of subjects, among others
his art. The first letter
from his mother was the most important to him, although he first got it
from her after her death.
You can read this letter
here.
Later I might publish the other letters from his mother.
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