Opuntien

After training in painting and drawing at the Hamburg-Lerchenfeld School of Applied Arts in 1918 and after completing the teachers' seminar in 1924, Bargheer began studying at the Gerda Koppel art school as a student of Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann. In 1929 he became a member of the Hamburg Secession. In 1933 he was able to finance a longer stay in Paris with his own studio with a grant. In autumn 1935 Bargheer visited the Italian island of Ischia, which he then traveled annually and where he met the painters Werner Gilles and Rudolf Levy in the years that followed and where he developed artistically stimulating friendships. In 1935 he made the acquaintance of Paul Klee, whom he visited a year later in Bern. The war-related relocation of the artist to Foro d'Ischia in 1939 led to a stylistic change. The works of his time in Italy show a clear turn to abstraction and are characterized by a luminous color, as is evident in many of his lively, mosaic-like watercolors. He did not return to Germany until 1950, where the first retrospective was held in 1953 at the Kestner Society in Hanover. This was followed by teaching assignments as guest lecturer and professorships at the universities in Berlin, Hamburg and Rome. On the artist's 75th birthday, the major retrospective opened in the Hamburger Kunsthaus in 1976 and the Eduard Bargheer Foundation was set up to promote young artists. The painter died three years later at the age of 78 in his native Hamburg-Finkenwerder.