Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp

Her father and her uncle Heinrich, managed the paper and paper bag factory in Wesel which had been founded by her grandfather Heinrich Berkenkamp in 1865.

Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp graduated from elementary school, then attended a grammar school for four years and went on to attend the Viktoria-Schule in Essen, a girls' grammar school with progressive teaching.

Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp was born in Wesel and was the daughter of Adalbert Berkenkamp (1868-1947) and his wife Laura Johanna Katharina Darmstädter (1872-1956).

She had two brothers Alfred (1896-1917) and Walter (1910-1994).

Through the art teacher Margarete Schall (1896-1939) her talent for colours and painting was discovered.

Hermine Louise Berkenkamp originally wanted to study medicine or German philologie.

But Margarete Schall, who herself later enrolled in the Bauhaus for a semester, suggested she study at the art school as it was known for its progressive teaching methods.

Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp née Hermine Luise Berkenkamp (15 May 1901 – 11 April 1976) was a German painter, colour designer, the avant-garde author of children's books, fairy-tale illustrator and costume designer.

""In her school-leaving certificate of 4 March 1920, 'her marked talent for literary and artistic problems' is given positive recognition.

Her 'very good performance in German and in drawing' is also confirmed.

Gifts that marked the rest of her life.""

- CHILDREN AND YOUTH LITERATURE - AN ENCYCLOPEDIA -

After graduating from high school in 1920, Lou Berkenkamp enrolled at the Bauhaus in Weimar and studied under Johannes Itten, Lyonel Feininger, Paul Klee and Georg Muche.

She became acquainted with Hinnerk Scheper, a classmate in the mural painting workshop there and married him on 24 December 1922 in Weimar.

In 1922 the couple left the Bauhaus Weimar and while Lou focused on her artistic work, Hinnerk Scheper worked as a colour designer.

Lou supported an important area of Schlemmer's work with the development of costumes, choreographies, sets and puppets for "Triadisches Ballett", premiere 1922 in Stuttgart, further developed by Oskar Schlemmer in 1926 with music by Hindemith.

She designed and directed costumes and sets for the plays Ojdar“ and Circus and directed.

Berkenkamp lived with her parents in Wesel during the first years of her marriage, with their son Jan Gisbert, born in November 1923.

During this time the first pictures letters were created.

In 1925, he was called to the Bauhaus in Dessau as a master of the mural painting workshop at the Bauhaus Dessau.

In 1926 their daughter Britta was born in Dessau.

After Georg Muche, master woodcarver, left for Berlin in 1927, a semi-detached house became available and the Scheper family was able to move in.

Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp worked - without matriculation - in the stage workshop of the Bauhaus under the direction of Oskar Schlemmer.

In the group exhibition Junge Bauhausmaler (Young Bauhaus Painter), in Halle (Saale), she took 1928 part.

She also created also a number of children's books until the couple's 1929 departure from Dessau.

From July 1929 to August 1930 the Schepers followed a call to Moscow.

Hinnerk Scheper, a specialist in colour design, was to set up a "Consultation Centre for Colour in Architecture and Cityscapes" (Russian Maljarstroj) for the entire Soviet Union.

Together they worked on the colour plans.

During this time Lou Scheper-Berkenkamp wrote articles for the German-language weekly Moskauer Rundschau (Moscow Review) In her contributions she captured the everyday life of people in the big city with an artistic hand and in a socially critical manner.

In the service of her husband, she did not publish her own works in Moscow and supported Hinnerk in organizational problems.

Inspired by the figures of the Triadic Ballet, she created collages of the basic forms circle, triangle and square.

With her abstract work she critically opposed the standardization of architecture and the Soviet citizens.

She painted Moscow's street life with ink and opaque colours.

This resulted in ironic text and skillful picture designs.

""The Soviet star has by no means blinded us.""

After another shorter stay in Moscow in 1931, the Schepers returned to the Bauhaus in Dessau under the new director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

When the Bauhaus moved in 1932, they also moved to the capital Berlin.

""Light-clear and dark-clear tones, pure white and pure black, varied shades of grey without contamination - that was the colour world into which the terrible brown, the burnt red of the Third Reich broke.

Family Scheper remained associated with the Bauhaus until its closure in 1933 and beyond.

- Lou Scheper from the book by Renate Scheper 2007,5.55