Info Flash n° 52 – The Solingen Artist’s Colony « Black House » (Germany)
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The Solingen Artists’ Colony ” Black House” Solingen owes its origin not to enthusiasm for a special landscape or as a retreat into a special, even untouched nature, but rather to the commitment and attraction of intellectuals and free spirits.
First and foremost, the work of a very educated, self-confident and emancipated lady – Erna Heinen-Steinhoff (1898-1969) – who, as a muse of the arts, created, cultivated and
developed a literary salon in the manner of the 19th century in Solingen at the beginning of the 1920s, a meeting place for painters, writers, musicians and intellectuals.
Together with her husband, the business journalist and art-loving lyricist Hanns Heinen (1895-1961), Erna Heinen-Steinhoff developed as a muse into an important patron of the arts.
Over the years, the literary protagonists of the “Black House” were joined by three painters. Erwin Bowien (1899-1972), Bettina Heinen-Ayech (1937-2020) and Amud Uwe Millies (1932-2008).
