WHIITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1988, PAGE 13 WILLY FICK, ca. 1948 and a politi cally inspired ink on paper drawing, g- Death in the Kitchen pictures from Fick- Eggert collection on exhibit at Whitby Art Collection Art Gallery of Ontarlo By Debbie Luchuk For one year, 1967, Whitby was home to a brilliant Dada period artist from Cologne, Germany. William Fick left a legacy of more than 100 works of art to his remaining family, the Eggerts, in Whitby upon his death at the end of 1967. The collection is the subject of "The Dada Period in Cologne" exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario which opened on September 9 and will run until November 6. The Fick Eggert collection is composed of works by Fick, his sister Angelika, brother-in-law Heinrich Hoerle, and a few early selèctions of work by Max Ernst, one of the better known Dada movement artists. j a. n~ IUiLW. L 4-r% l.lI.Ll Fik'AVAl rplRative-- Thýe collection beiongs to nephew Frank Eggert and hisw Angie Littlefield, the Eggert's daughter and grandniece of Willy Fick discovered the art works in the summer of 1967 while on a visit to the artist's home in Germany. Littlefield is assistant head of English at Henry Street High School. She found the works when she was sent by her great-uncle on an errand to a nearby leaky stucco shed, which had not been entered for years. In addition to the art works, there were documents and periodicals under piles of debris, all badly stuck together. Fick was planning to throw out the art and periodicals, thinking that no one would be interested in art of that period. Littlefield, however, had dif- ferent ideas, packed the lot and sent it to Canada. She began to question her uncle Willy in earnest to learn more about the art, artists and movements of the Dada period. The discovery of the paintings began a 20-year crusade on the part of Littlefield to stir interest in her uncle's and contemporaries' works. In a leaky shed, there were art works, documents and periodicals under piles of debris, all badly stuck together. After Fick's death in 1967, Littlefield and her brother Michael began research into his life and the art movement of which he was a part. With interest shown by-Yale Univer- sity, and with a revival of interest in the artists of the Dada period in Cologne, Littlefield was able to bring the collection to the attention of the art world. Littlefield's research project has its climax in the AGO's exhibition, and much of her research is documented in a rcK s oniy survivng e lL.v, wife Suse of Whitby. catalogue on the collection writ- ten for the · show. She is the associate curator of the exhibition. Fick was born Wilhelm Peter Hubert Pick in Cologne on February 7, 1893, to cabinet- maker Richard Pick and Anna Maria Kraft. He had eight years of public school and began an appren- ticeship as a cabinet maker in 1908. Fick first participated in various exhibitions in 1915, and continued to meet the artists that would have an influence on his work and who would become the Dada movement. Although a pacifist, Fick was drafted into the German army and served as a wagon driver in Koblenz and Kassel. Both of his sisters married in 1919, Angelika marrying without parental consent to artist Hein- rich Hoerle. The years following Germany's defeat in the lst World-War were a period of great upheaval in Germany. The established order was in ruins and the resentment of the occupation forces led to overt and underground political activities of every shade. This was reflected in the art of the period 1919 was the entry of Fick into the Dada world, and political activism. He helped finance a series of woodcuts of political martyrs by sister Angelika Hoerle and others. He was involved in disruptive Dada activities such as posting political posters at the French embassy and sabotaging the patriotic play called "The Young King." As he was the only working member of his sister's struggling art group, he financially supported the others. Through the 1920's Fick's works were shown at various exhibitions in Germany as part of the Dada group, usually at the more avant garde galleries. When Angelika Hoerle contracted tuberculosis, she was abandoned by her husband who had lost several of his family to the dreaded disease. She was carried by her brother Willy to the Fick family home where she died in 1923, at the age of only 23. Much of the collection on display at the AGO is works which Willy removed from his sister's apartment following her death. From 1928 to 1931, Fick studied art under Jan Thorn- Prikker, and further developed his own style. Because of the political nature of his work, much of Fick's art was declared degenerate by the Nazis and he was prevented from exhibiting his work. Although he continued to work as a civil servant for the city of Cologne, he was banned from becoming a free lance architect. Much of his work and others was destroyed in the last years of the war through bombing and looting. With the conclusion of the war, he began work as an architect for the High Rise division of the city, and designed hospitals and public buildings. Fick was given a day off per week from this job to pursue his art. Prom 1954 to 1967, Fick visited Canada for several three Because of the political nature of his work, much of Fick's art was declared degenerate by the Nazis and he was prevented from exhibiting his work. to six month visits, and produced approximately 10 Canadian works. Upon his retirement in 1956, Fick travelled extensively, and continued to produce works of art. WILLY FICK, centre with cat, brother Richard to left, father to right and relative far left playing cards, before 1932 ANGIE LITTLEFTELD and a portrait of her great aunt Angelika Hoerle painted by her husband Heinrich Hoerle in 1920. Freé Prss photo In 1967, two days before his death, he was made an honorary member of the "International Dada and Surrealism Associ- ation." Fick died Oct. 3, and was buried in Groveside Cemetary, Brooklin. In the past, accounts of the Dada movement in Cologne have centred around the art of Max Ernst and the publication of the periodical, Die.. Schammade. Ernst's departure for France in 1921 was supposedly the end of thA Dada movement in Cologne. The Pick Eggert collection paints a larger picture of a movement that thrived beyond 1921. It reveals the "lost" works of Fick and the Hoerles, and also the founding of the related "Stupid" group, in reaction to the occupation of Cologne by the British. The opening of the exhibition is a landmark, a recognition of years of bard work by Littlefield and her family.