Adolf Bierbrauer (26 July 1915 – 2 September 2012) was a German

conceptual artist Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional Aesthetics, aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes ca ...

, painter and sculptor. He is known for his "

hypnosis Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...

paintings" and " somnambulistic paintings" as well as for his sculptures. Self Portrait Adolf Bierbrauer, 1939, Oil on canvas on hardboard, 28 x 21,5 cm

Life

Adolf Bierbrauer grew up with two sisters, Marianne and Gisela, on Glücksburger street in

Düsseldorf-Oberkassel Oberkassel ( li, Ueverkassel) is a part of Düsseldorf's Borough 4. Oberkassel lies on the west side of the river Rhine, the opposite side of the central district of Düsseldorf. It has an area of , and 19,052 inhabitants (2020). Oberkassel ...

. His father was the manager of the ironworks Association in Düsseldorf. During his high school years Bierbrauer studied piano and performed in public as a piano soloist. His piano teacher recommended the philosophical work of

Rudolf Steiner Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as a ...

to him. In 1930 Bierbrauer produced his first

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

and within a year began his first figurative drawings. He created portraits of people in his neighborhood. In 1934 he traveled to the

Goetheanum The Goetheanum, located in Dornach, in the canton of Solothurn, Switzerland, is the world center for the anthroposophical movement. The building was designed by Rudolf Steiner and named after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. It includes two performa ...

Dornach : ''Dornach is also a quarter of the French city of Mulhouse and the Scots name for Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands, and Dòrnach is the Gaelic name for Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands.'' Dornach (Swiss German: ''Dornech'') is a municipalit ...

(Switzerland) to study the works of Rudolf Steiner. In 1935, he began his study of medicine at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg (german: Philipps-Universität Marburg) was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Protestant university in the wor ...

. He continued his study of medicine at

Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

and at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf. From 1940 to 1942 he served in the military service in France. In 1942 Bierbrauer was called back to Düsseldorf due to the lack of military available in Düsseldorf during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He received his doctorate there in 1943 and in January 1945 he sent to the Eastern Front as a military doctor. He was captured in Wroclaw and transported to

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

(Mingitschaur) to work as a roadbuilder and concrete worker as a Russian prisoner of war. During his imprisonment, on behalf of the prisoner-of-war camp management Bierbrauer painted documentary images of the geological investigations of the

terminal moraine A terminal moraine, also called end moraine, is a type of moraine that forms at the terminal (edge) of a glacier, marking its maximum advance. At this point, debris that has accumulated by plucking and abrasion, has been pushed by the front edge ...

s. The prisoners also worked on archaeological excavations of medean graves. He was forbidden from painting and was ordered to create portraits of the guards. In 1949, he returned to Düsseldorf where he became a volunteer physician at the

University Hospital A university hospital is an institution which combines the services of a hospital with the education of medical students and with medical research. These hospitals are typically affiliated with a medical school or university. The following is a l ...

in Hamburg. From 1951 to 1953 he worked as psychotherapist at the 2nd Medical Academy in Düsseldorf, specializing in hypnosis treatments. At this time he began the creation of his first hypnosis paintings. His public opposition against

electroshock therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...

and insulin shock treatments lead to his release from hospital in 1953/1954. During the summer semester, he attended a class called on monumental painting and wall painting under the direction of at the

Kölner Werkschulen The ''Kölner Werkschulen'' (Cologne Academy of Fine and Applied Arts), formerly Cologne Art and Craft Schools, was a university in Cologne training artists in visual arts, architecture and design from 1926 to 1971. History Origins The origins ...

. He applied to the

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Magdalena Jetelová, ...

but was rejected. In 1954 he received the circular medical certificate to establish himself as a general medical practitioner. Bierbrauer now specialized on nervous disorders and psychosomatic disorders. He focused on therapies that utilized hypnosis. After 1960, he began making somnambulistic paintings. A heart attack in 1965 forced Bierbrauer to end working as a doctor. In 1973, he declared himself to be a freelance artist and started teaching painting lessons to children at his home. These lessons later became the first Waldorf kindergarten in Düsseldorf. Bierbrauer also worked as a pianist in Waldorf schools. In 1974 he applied again to the

and was accepted. He spent two years there. At the same time he attended lectures of philosophy at Heinz Rudolf at the

Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) (german: Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf) was founded in 1965 as the successor organisation to Düsseldorf's Medical Academy of 1907 and was named after German poet Heinrich Heine. Followi ...

. Starting in 1990, Bierbrauer created art which he described as ''Müllkunst'' (trash art). 1998 Bierbrauer moved to the

anthroposophical Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Followers ...

ly oriented Heinrich-Zschokke Senior house in

Düsseldorf-Gerresheim Gerresheim is one of the City of Düsseldorf, Germany's fifty quarters. Part of Borough 7, it is located in the eastern part of the municipality. Gerresheim is much older than Düsseldorf itself, having been an independent city with a rich histor ...

, that he also initiated. In 2000, his works were presented to the general public during the presentation of his monography at the

NRW Forum The NRW Forum Wirtschaft und Kultur (Forum NRW), formerly the Museum für Industrie und Wirtschaft, is a museum in Düsseldorf, the state capital of North Rhine-Westphalia, dealing with the development and the economy of the state of North Rhine ...

for the first time.

Bazon Brock Bazon Brock (born Jürgen Johannes Hermann Brock, 2 June 1936) is a German art theorist and critic, multi-media generalist and artist. He is considered a member of Fluxus. He was a professor of aesthetics at the Hochschule für bildende Künste ...

and Gabriele Lohberg, Director of the ''Europäische Kunstakademie

Trier Trier ( , ; lb, Tréier ), formerly known in English as Trèves ( ;) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the ...

'' (European Academy of Fine Arts Trier) held the introduction speeches.(1) Life in Anthroposophic Senior home became intolerable to him. Some of his art works were destroyed due to unannounced renovations at his senior home.(2) At age 91 he moved to a new senior him in the Kasierwerther Diakonie,

Ratingen Ratingen ( li, Rotinge) is a town in the district of Mettmann in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It lies in the northwestern part of Berg about 12 km northeast of Düsseldorf. Administration With a communal reform of 1975 the independent mu ...

. In 2012 Bierbrauer was involved in the exhibition "The Great," at the

Museum Kunst Palast The Kunstpalast, formerly Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf is an art museum in Düsseldorf. History The roots of the museum go back around 300 years. In 1932, the collection of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Art) was housed in the Kunstmus ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

where his hypnosis works were on display. He attended the exhibition. In the autumn of the same year Bierbrauer died of heart failure.(3)

Work

Bierbrauer's key works are his hypnosis pictures from the early 1950s, his somnambulistic works, and his sculptures. The focus of his work is the human being. In his early work pure representations of people, such as portraits and nudes can be found. He approached his artwork with concepts drawn from his background as a physician and psychotherapist, applying concepts of the human psyche to his work. Bierbrauer painted the hypnosis images after stories and pictures from his patients in trance. They were created after the end of

created until the early 1950s. Bierbrauer's art involved his work as a psychotherapist- using what he saw during hypnosis and narration from his patients, who were overcoming the personal traumas left by war. He claimed that he painted his pictures for the patients, in order to connect with them. He believed his works helped the patients while the patients' assisted his development as an artist creating works centered on the human psyche. In his understanding the artist could be a healer. With these works he had been one of the pioneers of the

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

movement in the 1960s in Europe. His hypnosis paintings were accompanied with

and a performance of

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( , ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism, sociology, and anthroposophy. He was a founder of a provocative art mov ...

washing feet. Bazon Brock wrote in his book "Der Barbar als Kulturheld" (The barbarian as a cultural hero): "The results of these images that emerged then, are ultimately that important because they are artistic formally on the absolute highest level of its time. There is nothing comparable in the '50s."⁽⁵⁾ For Bierbrauer, since the late 1960s somnambulistic work had many parallels to works by informal artists like

Emilio Vedova Emilio Vedova (9 August 1919 – 25 October 2006) was a modern Italian painter. He is considered one of the most important artists to emerge from Italy's artistic scene, Arte Informale. Early life Vedova was born in Venice into a working-c ...

and

Emil Schumacher Emil Schumacher (29 August 1912 in Hagen, Westfalen – 4 October 1999 in San José, Ibiza) was a German painter. He was an important representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany. In 2009 the Kunstquartier Hagen was inaug ...

. Their techniques are comparable also to the works of the

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a hor ...

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved fame as part of the graffiti duo SAMO, alongside Al ...

. Bierbrauer, trained by the hypnosis of his patients, began in this period to abstract from the patient's images and now betook himself into a somnambulistic, in a daydream-like state. He made paintings based on the "incorporation" of others and the search for his own identity. Bierbrauer also produced sculptures. In his bronze figures such as the elephantine tantrum from 2001 he used an expressive free, unbound to the concrete form design, which received its informal expression which is increased by the titles-finding. They appear as trash-like sculptures, mostly composed of found material (see also Arte povera), connected with glue, metal wires and tinfoil.

Gallery Samples Hypnosis paintings

Adolf Bierbrauer Case F. 1953, Hypnosis painting, 30 cm x 21 cm, Gouache, contemporary art, conceptual art.jpg, Adolf Bierbrauer Case K, 1952,Hypnosis Painting, 21 cm x 30 cm, conceptual art, contemporary art.jpg, Adolf Bierbrauer, Case F III, 1953, Hypnosis painting, 30 cm x 21 cm, conceptual art, contemporary art.jpg, Adolf Bierbrauer, Case K, 1953, Hypnosis painting, 21 cm x 30 cm, conceptual art, contemporary art.jpg, Adolf Bierbrauer, Case Schn., 1953 Hypnosis painting, conceptual, contemporary art.jpg, Adolf Bierbrauer, Case N., 1952, Hypnosis painting, 21 cm x 30 cm, conceptual art, contemporary art.jpg, Adolf Bierbrauer, Fall H, 1953 Hypnosis painting, 30 cm x 21 cm, Gouache, Contemporary art, conceptual art,.jpg,

Art market

Adolf Bierbrauer did no publicly show case his work until age 85, because he deemed his work a private matter. He did not receive public attention until the release of his monograph, when he gained public exposure. ⁽⁴⁾

Exhibitions

* 2022 ''VOM TRAUM ZUM BILD'' (From Dream to Picture) with the somnambulistic works from Adolf Bierbrauer, Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf * 2022 ''OUR FRIENDS'' with works from Adolf Bierbrauer, Stefan Demary, Jårg Geismar and Hans-Jörg Holubitschka; Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf * 2020 ''Thomas Bernstein - Adolf Bierbrauer Skulpturen'' (sculptures), Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf * 2020 ''Pioneer of Social Sculpture - Part I'', Adolf Bierbrauer's Hypnosispaintings, Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf * 2019 ''ZWISCHEN WELTEN / BETWEEN WORLDS'', with

Armin Baumgarten Armin Baumgarten (born 25 September 1967 in Wolfsburg) is a German painter and sculptor. Life Armin Baumgarten spent his childhood in Lower Saxony and dealt early with drawing and painting, supported by his art teacher Wilfried Wöhler also wit ...

, Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf * 2015 ''Der Andere in mir – Adolf Bierbrauers Hypnosearbeiten'' (The other in me: Adolf Bierbrauer's hypnotic works), Onomato, Düsseldorf. * 2015 ''Natura nutrix- Homo vorax'', Associazione Culturale Italo-Tedesca, Palazzo Albrizzi, collateral-event of the

56th Venice Biennale The 56th Venice Biennale was an international contemporary art exhibition held between May and November 2015. The Venice Biennale takes place biennially in Venice, Italy. Artistic director Okwui Enwezor curated its central exhibition, "All Th ...

, Italy * 2014 '' Man kann es auch übertreiben'' (It can be overdone), Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf * 2012 ''The Great'',

, Düsseldorf * 2012 ''Auf der Suche nach dem verlorenen Ich'' (In Search of the Lost Identity), Municipal Gallery Schwabach, Germany * 2008 ''Tribute to Adolf Bierbrauer'', Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Duesseldorf * 2002 ''The Archaic in art'', Bierbrauer's works on the example of works from the collection of Prof. Hentrich, Duesseldorf * 2001 ''People pictures'', group exhibition with works by Armin Baumgarten, Woytek Berowski, Adolf Bierbrauer and Fabrizio Gazzarri, Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Duesseldorf * 2000

, solo exhibition with presentation of the Bierbrauer monograph, Düsseldorf * 1998 ''A. Bierbrauer'', Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, Düsseldorf

Literature

* Heath Ines Willner, The end of my biography must lead into the future, Rheinische Post, 12 April 1994 * Adolf Bierbrauer, Edited by Martin Leyer-Pritzkow with contributions by Helmut Reuter and Veronika Kolbe and Roswitha Mosl. Euregio Publisher., Nordhorn 1999, (1) * Bazon Brock, Collected Writings 1991–2002, Vol III, The Barbarian as a cultural hero, aesthetics of omission, IV strategies of aesthetics, visual science, 8, incorporation and representation, pp. 465 ff, DuMont Literatur und Kunst Verlag, Cologne 2002, (5) * Helga Master, With 85 years discovered West German newspaper, 29 January 2000 * Rudolf Heinz, editors, pathognomonic Studies, VII, texts for a Philosophy Psychoanalysis Finals, S.113ff., IV How hypnosis images are to be interpreted, Vol 31, The Blue Owl Verlag, Essen 2002, * Rudolf Heinz, editors, pathognomonic Studies, VIII, importune philosophy recourse to psychoanalysis, p 47, approximations to Adolf Bierbrauer's "hypnosis images", Vol 32, The Blue Owl Verlag, Essen 2003, * Klaus Sebastian, messages from the subconscious, Rheinische Post, 29 January 2003 * Ursula Posny, a question of dignity, Neue Rhein-Ruhr Zeitung, 7 October 2006 (2) * Bertram Müller, Adolf Bierbrauer – Lord of the colors, Rheinische Post, 13 October 2008 * Katja Knicker, The Artist as a healer, Adolf Bierbrauer's hypnosis pictures, master's thesis to obtain the degree of Master of Arts Faculty of Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf, January 2010 (3) * Sabine Schuchart, trance and dream worlds, German Medical Journal, Vol 107, Issue 27, 4 July 2010 * Robert Schmitt, The Healing as an artist, Martin Leyer-Pritzkow provides Adolf Bierbrauer's life work in the town house gallery before, Schwabacher Tageblatt, 30 March 2012 * Bertram Müller, artist Adolf Bierbrauer died, Rheinische Post, 1 December 2012 * Christiane Fricke, Durable "Köttelkarnickel", Handelsblatt, Live app., 23 May 2013 (4) * ZWISCHEN WELTEN / BETWEEN WORLDS, Martin Leyer-Pritzkow (Publ.) with works of Adolf Bierbrauer and Armin Baumgarten, with text German / English, Düsseldorf 2019, * The Pioneer of Social Sculpture I - Adolf Bierbrauer, edited by Martin Leyer-Pritzkow, text in English, Düsseldorf 2020,

External links

official website of the artist Adolf Bierbrauer at Martin Leyer-Pritzkow

* [http://bibliothequekandinsky.centrepompidou.fr/ClientBookLine/recherche/noticesDetaillees.asp?iNotice=0&INSTANCE=INCIPIO&PORTAL_ID=&STAXON=<AXON=&BACKURL=%2FClientBookLine%2Ftoolkit%2FP%5Frequests%2Fformulaire%2Easp%3FGRILLE%3DSIMPLESEARCH%26INSTANCE%3DINCIPIO Literature about Adolf Bierbrauer in the Bibliothèque Kadinsky, Centre Pompidou, France]
Bazon Brock: Incorporation and representation, Speech for the exhibition "Adolf Bierbrauer", January 19th, 2000, NRW-Forum Düsseldorf

The Pioneer of Social Sculpture - Online-Booklet, 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bierbrauer, Adolf 1915 births German contemporary artists 20th-century German painters German male painters Abstract expressionist artists 21st-century German painters 21st-century German male artists German conceptual artists Modern artists Anthroposophists Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni Artists from Düsseldorf 2012 deaths 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists German male sculptors