Bergleute auf dem Weg zur Arbeit ("Miners on their way to work")

The Homburg artist Kurt Bentz was introduced as part of a brief profile in the almanac of the "Saarländische Künstlergenossenschaft" in 1948. This profile states that the world would hear a lot of this master student of the Akademie Karlsruhe in the future. However, little is yet known of the already deceased painter. He was born in the early 1920s and died in Homburg in 2006. Due to a minor physical disability, he did not have to fight in the war and joined the Homburg painters and their exhibitions after completing his training in Karlsruhe. He later worked as an art teacher in Saarbrücken. One of his few publicly accessible paintings is the oil painting "Bergleute auf dem Weg zur Arbeit" (literally: "Miners on their way to work"). It evidences the expertise and skills of the painter as promised in the almanac. The painting shows a group of miners working underground at a life-size scale. Equipped with their working and protective gear and with a solemn face and downcast look, these miners are on their way to their underground workplace. These characters dominate the composition of the painting. They are the foreground and background at the same time, surrounded by the monotonous black, grey and brown of the tunnel. The only sources of light are the miner's lamps that they have brought with them. They radiate a strong presence thanks to their monumentality. However, they are not presented as illuminated heroes, but rather as representatives of their trade burdened by their heavy labour.