Heinz May (1878-1954):"gersfeld Dalherda Thesenstein, Rhon, Allemagne"; Oil On Pannel, Dusseldorf, Cologne.

Heinz May (1878-1954): "Gersfeld Dalherda Thesenstein, Rhon, Germany"; Oil on panel, Dusseldorf, Cologne.
Heinz May (b. 1878, Düsseldorf; d. 1954, Düsseldorf) was a German painter. He belonged to the first generation of Rhenish Expressionists.
Biography
From 1901 to 1909, Heinz May studied at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts under Willy Spatz, becoming a master's student under Claus Meyer. After studying at the academy, he was attracted by the anti-academic painters of the Sonderbund, founded in 1909, including Walter Ophey. He became an expressionist, painting nudes, portraits, landscapes and flowers2.
Ophey shares a studio with May in the house of sculptor Albert Pehle (de), who is related to Ophey by marriage, at Drakeplatz 4 in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel. The studio building was taken over by Joseph Beuys in the 1960s3. He was a close friend of Ophey's until his death in 1930. Together, they continued to go out into nature to draw and paint in watercolors.
In 1907, May participated for the first time in an exhibition at the Düsseldorf Palace of Art. In 1908, he was one of the participants in the first exhibition of the Groupe d'artistes du Bas-Rhin (de) founded in 1907/1908. In 1914, he was represented with drawings for murals at the Cologne Werkbund exhibition. Gallerist Alfred Flechtheim signs May in 1914, launching a promising career interrupted by the First World War. He did his military service from 1914 to 1918.
In 1919, May was one of the founding members of the artists' association La Jeune Rhénanie. He was also a member of "Mère Ey", the circle of friends around Düsseldorf art dealer Johanna Ey. Relations between them had remained close since the founding of the artists' association, so much so that in 1921 their office was transferred to Johanna Ey's gallery. In 1923, May left the Young Rhineland with his friends Ernst Gottschalk (de), Jupp Rübsam (de) and Walter Ophey to found the Rhineland Group (de) with other colleagues around Adolf Uzarski. In 1928, he became a member of the Rhenish Secession (de) and from 1932 to 1933, May was its president.
In 1925, May painted a mural for the GeSoLei exhibition. The image of the spandrel hangs in the "Rhenish Hall", the GeSoLei's multi-purpose hall and planetarium, now the Düsseldorf Concert Hall. It can be seen there today - in the same place - in the outer gallery of the rotunda foyer.
From 1933, May was banned from exhibiting by the National Socialists. He went into internal emigration and led a secluded life in his studio at Bismarckstraße 44, in the "Grain House", where the "Scourge Brewery", a National Socialist hangout, was located on the first floor. Artists Heinz May, Ferdinand Macketanz (de) and others live on the upper floors of the "Grain House", while the SA has set up shop in the basement, in what they call the "Scourge Brewery".
During the Second World War, he spent time in the Black Forest, on Lake Constance and in Vorarlberg. In 1937, his paintings were confiscated from the Düsseldorf Art Museum as "degenerate art" and destroyed4. His studio was destroyed during air raids on Düsseldorf (de) in 1943, along with over 100 paintings and countless watercolors. Her life's work was destroyed.
Hella Nebelung opened her gallery at the end of the war, on December 22, 1945, as one of Düsseldorf's first gallerists, with an exhibition of "contemporary art". It was dedicated to his artist friends. For some of them, such as Heinz May, this presentation was like reparation for a long ban on exhibiting5. In 1946 and 1952, solo exhibitions followed for May at Galerie Nebelung. In 1948, Heinz May had an exhibition at the Der Spiegel gallery in Cologne6.
From 1949 to 1950, May held a teaching post at the Düsseldorf Academy of Fine Arts. Study trips took him to Italy, Paris, Austria and Holland. His last trip was to Spain in 1953.