The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts a ...

located in Dresden, Germany. The present institution is the product of a merger between the famous Dresden Art Academy, founded in 1764, the workplace and training ground of a number of influential European artists, and another well-established local art school, Hochschule für Werkkunst Dresden, after World War II.

History

Buildings

One of three buildings of today’s Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, the former Royal Academy of Arts, built in 1894, is located at a prominent position in town on

Brühl's Terrace Brühl's Terrace (german: Brühlsche Terrasse) is a historic architectural ensemble in Dresden, Germany. Nicknamed "The Balcony of Europe", the terrace stretches high above the shore of the river Elbe. Located north of the recently rebuilt Neuma ...

just next to the Frauenkirche. Since 1991, the building built by Constantin Lipsius on Brühl's Terrace between 1887 and 1894 – the glass dome of which is also known as Lemon Squeezer due to its form – has been heavily renovated and the parts that were destroyed during World War II were reconstructed. The studios for painting/graphic arts/sculpture/other artistic media, the graphic workshops, the rector's office and the exhibition rooms of the Academy, which house the annual graduation exhibitions of the graduates, are located on Brühl's Terrace. On the side of the building facing the Elbe, the names of

Pheidias Phidias or Pheidias (; grc, Φειδίας, ''Pheidias''; 480 – 430 BC) was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the st ...

, Iktinos,

Praxiteles Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubitab ...

Polykleitos Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical antiqui ...

Lysippos Lysippos (; grc-gre, Λύσιππος) was a Greek sculptor of the 4th century BC. Together with Scopas and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era, bringing transition into the Hellenistic ...

Erwin von Steinbach Erwin von Steinbach (c. 1244 – 17 January 1318) was a German architect, and was a central figure in the construction of the Strasbourg Cathedral. Biography According to a tradition which arose in a later age he was called Erwin von Steinba ...

, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Dürer are inscribed on the wall and on the other side the motto "''DEM VATERLAND ZU ZIER UND EHR''" - "For the Honour and Adornment of the Fatherland" - is inscribed. Apart from this magnificent building, the Academy owns the building for sculpture in Pfotenhauerstrasse, the studios and workshops of which were built in a big open-air exhibition ground in 1910. The workshops and studios for the courses of study of restoration, stage setting and costume design and the technical college degree course for theatre setting and costume design are located at Güntzstrasse in the buildings of the former Academy of Applied Arts.

Institution

Predecessors

In 1764, the “Allgemeine Kunst-Academie der Malerey, Bildhauer-Kunst, Kupferstecher- und Baukunst” (General Academy of Arts for Painting, Sculpture, Copperplate Engraving and Architecture) was founded by order of the Prince-Elector Frederick Christian. From 1768 to 1786 it was located in the

Fürstenberg Palace Fürstenberg (also Fuerstenberg and Furstenberg) may refer to: Historical states * Fürstenberg-Baar, county (1441–1559) * Fürstenberg-Blumberg, county (1559–1614) * Fürstenberg-Donaueschingen, county (1617–1698) * Fürstenberg-Fürsten ...

. Its first director was the Frenchmen Charles Hutin. After the death of Hutin in 1776,

Johann Eleazar Zeissig Johann Eleazar Zeissig, also known as Schenau (7 November 1737 – 23 August 1806), was a German genre, portrait and porcelain painter, and engraver; director of the Royal Academy of Arts in Dresden. Life Schenau was born in 1737, the son of ...

, referred to as Schenau, became alternating director of the Academy together with Giovanni Battista Casanova. The Academy was the successor institution of the first “Zeichen- und Malerschule” (School for Drawing and Painters) founded in 1680. It was one of the oldest academies of art in the German-speaking area. In 1950 the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Dresden (Dresden Academy of Fine Arts) was merged with the Staatliche Hochschule für Werkkunst (Public Academy of Applied Art) – the successor of the Königlich Sächsische Kunstgewerbeschule (Royal Saxon School of Applied Art)– into today's "Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden” (Dresden Academy of Fine Arts).

Features

Today it is one of the academies of art in Germany that are especially attractive for a degree in art due to their unmistakable profile and optimum general conditions. The students are provided with spacious studies and well equipped workshops. The possibilities for exhibitions at the Academy are excellent: The Academy is provided with presentation space in the octagon below the glass dome referred to as “Lemon Squeezer” that is a landmark in the town, and in the two big adjacent exhibition rooms as well as the former library and the “Galerie Brühlsche Terrasse” (Brühl’s Terrace Gallery) which may be used by students from all degree courses and co-operation partners of the Academy. The reorganisation of the Academy started in 1990 offered the chance for innovative and organic development of an academy with a long and successful history and distinct traditions. Well-known artists from the global world of art are teaching at the Academy. The different courses available for the study of painting and graphics as well as sculpture are very diverse. The classic cornerstones of artistic teaching at the Dresden Academy complemented and led to discourse and artistic exchange in the project class “New Media” and in a specialised course for comprehensive artistic works. The rules for study allow for changes within and between the specialized courses and for using the courses in the best possible way for one’s own artistic ambitions and projects.

Degree courses

The degree course of Bildende Kunst (Fine Art) consists of 10 semesters and leads to the Diplom degree. The degree course Kunsttechnologie, Konservierung und Restaurierung von Kunst- und Kulturgut (Art Technology, Preservation and Restoration of Artistic and Cultural Assets) is one of the oldest and most renowned education courses on university level in Germany. The degree course Bühnen- und Kostümbild (Stage Setting and Costume Design) and the technical college degree course Theaterausstattung (Theatre Setting and Costume Design) offer with their practical oriented integration of designing and realising disciplines conditions for work and study that are hard to find anywhere else. The Laboratory Theatre in the Güntzstrasse completed in April 2000 which houses a well-equipped rehearsal and experimental stage room allows the Academy to provide the theatre courses as well with ideal teaching conditions in addition to the studios. The new postgraduate course Kunst-Therapie (Art Therapy) that was established just a few years ago does only exist a second time at one other art academy in Germany. After their academy studies, artists and art teachers are given attractive new chances for qualification in the artistic-social field.

Notable alumni and former faculty

Former faculty members

One of its most illustrious teachers was

Bernardo Bellotto Bernardo Bellotto (c. 1721/2 or 30 January 172117 November 1780), was an Italian urban landscape painter or ''vedutista'', and printmaker in etching famous for his ''vedute'' of European cities – Dresden, Vienna, Turin, and Warsaw. He was t ...

, the painter of the world-famous town scapes of Dresden. At the beginning of the 19th century, painters such as Anton Graff and

Adrian Zingg Adrian Zingg (April 15, 1734, St.Gallen – May 26, 1816, Leipzig) was a Swiss painter. Life Adrian Zingg received his professional training with his father, the steel cutter Bartolomäus Zingg, then became an apprentice with the engrave ...

made the Dresden Academy one of the most important art schools in Europe. The engraver Johann Friedrich Wilhem Müller, author of a famous engraving of the

Sistine Madonna The ''Sistine Madonna'', also called the ''Madonna di San Sisto'', is an oil painting by the Italian artist Raphael. The painting was commissioned in 1512 by Pope Julius II for the church of San Sisto, Piacenza, and probably executed ''c.'' ...

after Raphael, was a professor at the Akademie from 1814 to 1816.

Ernst Rietschel Ernst Friedrich August Rietschel (15 December 180421 January 1861) was a German sculptor. Life Rietschel was born in Pulsnitz in Saxony the third child of Friedrich Ehrgott Rietschel and his wife Caroline. From the age of 20 he became an art ...

, Gottfried Semper and

Ludwig Richter Adrian Ludwig Richter (September 28, 1803June 19, 1884) was a German painter and etcher, who was strongly influenced by Erhard and Chodowiecki. He was a representative of both Romanticism and Biedermeier styles. He was the most popular, and ...

consolidated the reputation of the academy, which experienced a further zenith around the turn of the century. Many other eminent artists and scholars closely associated with the history of the Academy include

Eugen Bracht Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht (3 June 1842 – 5 November 1921) was a German landscape painter. Biography Bracht was born in Morges, Waadt (near Lake Geneva in Switzerland) of German parents. His family later moved to Darmstadt, Germany, where ...

Giovanni Casanova Giovanni Battista Casanova (; 2 November 1730 – 8 December 1795) was an Italian painter and printmaker of the Neoclassic period. He was a brother of Giacomo Casanova and Francesco Giuseppe Casanova and was born at Venice. He studied painti ...

Caspar David Friedrich Caspar David Friedrich (5 September 1774 – 7 May 1840) was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscape ...

, Oskar Kokoschka, and

Otto Dix Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (; 2 December 1891 – 25 July 1969) was a German painter and Printmaking, printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of German society during the Weimar Republic and the brutality of war. Alon ...

, who taught at the Dresden Academy and shaped its profile.The Saatchi Gallery : London Contemporary Art Gallery http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artcolleges/ArtCollege/ac_id/880 Other former artist professors are: * Karl Albiker *

Johan Christian Dahl Johan Christian Claussen Dahl (24 February 178814 October 1857), often known as or , was a Danish- Norwegian artist who is considered the first great romantic painter in Norway, the founder of the "golden age" of Norwegian painting, and, by som ...

* Constantin Lipsius * Richard Müller * Georg Hermann Nicolai *

Moritz Retzsch Friedrich August Moritz Retzsch (December 9, 1779 - June 11, 1857) was a German painter, draughtsman, and etcher. Retzsch was born in the Saxon capital Dresden. He joined the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts in 1798 under Cajetan Toscani and Jó ...

Paul Wallot Johann Paul Wallot (26 June 1841 Oppenheim am Rhein – 10 August 1912 Bad Schwalbach) was a German architect of Huguenot descent, best known for designing the Reichstag building in Berlin, erected between 1884 and 1894. He also built the adjacen ...

famous artist presidents: *

Johannes Heisig Johannes Heisig (born 23 April 1953 in Leipzig, East Germany) is a German Painting, painter and graphic artist. His work combines the tradition of German socialist realism with a subjective expressionism. He portrayed several famous German poli ...

(1989–91)

Alumni

Carl Gustav Carus Carl Gustav Carus (3 January 1789 – 28 July 1869) was a German physiologist and painter, born in Leipzig, who played various roles during the Romantic era. A friend of the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, he was a many-sided man: a doctor, ...

, (1789–1869), German physiologist and painter *

(1891–1969), German painter and printmaker *

Conrad Felixmüller Conrad Felixmüller (21 May 1897 – 24 March 1977) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker. Born in Dresden as Conrad Felix Müller, he chose Felixmüller as his '' nom d'artiste''. Early life and career He attended drawing classes ...

(1897–1977), German painter and printmaker * Fedor Flinzer (1832–1911), German author, educator, and illustrator *

Hilde Goldschmidt Hilde Goldschmidt (7 September 1897 – 7 August 1980) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker. Facing persecution under the Nazi regime, she sought refuge in Britain during the Second World War before establishing herself in Austria i ...

(1897-1980), German painter and printmaker * Tatyana Grosman (1904–1982), Russian American printmaker, and publisher * George Grosz (1893–1959), German painter and caricaturist * Eberhard Havekost (born 1967), German painter and stonemason *

Friedrich Heyser Friedrich Wilhelm Theodor Heyser (September 12, 1857 in Gnoien – September 7, 1921 in Dresden) was a German portrait, landscape, and history painter. Life Friedrich Heyser studied from 1880 to 1883 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden as ...

(1857–1921), German painter *

Ludwig von Hofmann Ludwig von Hofmann (17 August 1861 – 23 August 1945) was a German painter, graphic artist and designer. He worked in a combination of the Art Nouveau and Symbolist styles. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1 ...

(1861–1945), German painter, graphic artist and designer *

Wilhelm von Kügelgen Wilhelm Georg Alexander von Kügelgen (20 November 1802, in St.Petersburg – 25 May 1867, in Ballenstedt) was a German portrait and history painter, writer, and chamberlain at the Court of Anhalt-Bernburg. He is best known for his posthumou ...

(1802–1867), German painter and writer *

Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler Elfriede Lohse-Wächtler (born ''Anna Frieda Wächtler''; 4 December 1899 – 31 July 1940) was a German painter of the avant-garde whose works were banned as "degenerate art", and in some cases destroyed, in Nazi Germany. She became mentally il ...

(1899–1940), German painter and graphic artist * Yana Milev, German philosopher, sociologist, and ethnographer *

Otto Mueller Otto Müller (16 October 1874 – 24 September 1930) was a German painter and printmaker of the Die Brücke expressionist movement. Life and work Mueller was born in Liebau (now Lubawka, Kamienna Góra County), Kreis Landeshut, Silesia. Betw ...

(1874–1930), German painter and printmaker * Rolf Nesch (1893–1975), Norwegian printmaker, painter and sculptor *

Bencho Obreshkov Bencho Yordanov Obreshkov ( bg, Бенчо Йорданов Обрешков, 27 April 1899, Karnobat - 8 April 1970, Sofia) was a renowned Bulgarian painter. He graduated under Petko Klissurov and Ivan Angelov from the Sofia Academy of Fine Arts ...

(1899–1970), Bulgarian painter * Hermann Prell (1854–1922), German history painter and sculptor
Richard Burde
(1912 - 1998), German painter * Sandra Rauch (born 1967), German artist * Thomas Reichstein (born 1960), German sculptor *

Adrian Ludwig Richter Adrian Ludwig Richter (September 28, 1803June 19, 1884) was a German painter and etcher, who was strongly influenced by Erhard and Chodowiecki. He was a representative of both Romanticism and Biedermeier styles. He was the most popular, and ...

(1803–1884), German painter and etcher *

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, and also photographs and glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important contemporary German ...

(born 1932), German painter and photographer *

Osmar Schindler Osmar Schindler (December 21, 1867 – June 19, 1927) was a German painter belonging to the Dresden Academy school of artists. His works were considered a mixture of impressionism and Art Nouveau. Life Osmar Schindler was born on December 2 ...

(1869–1927), German painter *

Cornelia Schleime Cornelia Schleime (born July 4, 1953, in Berlin, Germany) is a German painter, performer, filmmaker and author. Born in East Berlin under the East Germany, GDR, she studied painting and graphic arts at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts before becomi ...

(born 1953), German painter, performer, filmmaker and author *

Sascha Schneider Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider, commonly known as Sascha Schneider (21 September 1870 – 18 August 1927), was a German painter and sculptor. Biography Schneider was born in Saint Petersburg in 1870. During his childhood, his family lived ...

(1870–1927), German painter and sculptor *

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, paint ...

, (1887–1948) German painter *

Lasar Segall Lasar Segall (July 21, 1889 – August 2, 1957) was a Lithuanian Jewish and Brazilian painter, engraver and sculptor. Segall's work is derived from impressionism, expressionism and modernism. His most significant themes were depictions of hum ...

, (1891–1957), Brazilian painter, engraver and sculptor *

Karl August Senff Karl August Senff (12 March 1770 – ) was a Baltic German painter, engraver and teacher. He is best known for his etchings of famous German and Baltic German military figures in service to the Imperial Russian Army. He served as professor of d ...

(1770–1838), Baltic German painter, engraver and art teacher * Hans Unger (1872–1936), German painter * Otto Kaule (1870–1948), German painter

Locations

The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts is located at three places along the Elbe river: * Brühlsche Terrasse 1, Dresden-Altstadt * Güntzstraße 34, Dresden * Pfotenhauerstrasse 81/83, Dresden-Johannstadt Each year in early June the graduation ceremonies and annual exhibitions are held at the locations on the Brühl Terrace and at Pfotenhauerstrasse.

References

External links

Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden

Website of Students and Masters of the Fine Arts Department
{{Authority control Education in Dresden 1764 establishments in the Holy Roman Empire Educational institutions established in 1764 Universities and colleges in Saxony