The Leipzig School (german: Leipziger Schule) is a movement of modern

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

from the 1960s to 1980s, founded by painters who predominantly lived and worked in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, East Germany. The movement had its centre at the

Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right to ...

, where several of the most prominent members were teachers. Some of their students, or students of students, became prominent and are referred to as the

New Leipzig School The New Leipzig School (german: Neue Leipziger Schule) is a movement in German painting, centred in the city of Leipzig after the German reunification. The usage and origins of this term are debated. History and characteristics The Leipzig School ( ...

History

The first origins of the Leipzig School are rooted in the city's art scene in the 1960s. The main representatives of the Leipzig School (Leipziger Schule) were

Werner Tübke Werner Tübke (30 July 1929 in Schönebeck, Germany – 27 May 2004 in Leipzig, Germany) was a German painter, best known for his monumental '' Peasants' War Panorama'' located in Bad Frankenhausen Bad Frankenhausen (officially: Bad Frankenhaus ...

(1929-2004),

Wolfgang Mattheuer Wolfgang Mattheuer (7 April 1927—7 April 2004) was a German painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Together with Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig he was a leading representative of the Leipzig School, a figurative art current in East Germany. ...

(1927-2004) and

Bernhard Heisig Bernhard Heisig (31 March 1925 – 10 June 2011) was a German painter and graphic artist. Long-time director of the Leipzig Academy (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst; 1961–64, 1976–87) and a leading figure in East Germany's Leipzig School ...

(1925-2011). All three studied at the Leipzig art academy, the HGB,

(University for Graphics and Book Art) and became professors there themselves in the 1960s and 1970s. Two currents can be distinguished. Heisig's works belong to a group of expressive and colorfully passionate pictures. The second group, to which Mattheuer and Tübke are counted, is more factual and formally strict. All three were repeatedly attacked by the political leadership, only to be courted again at other times. The art of the GDR has the Leipzig School to thank for the fact that the framework of socialist realism prescribed by the party was abandoned in the 1970s and 1980s. Their idiosyncratic imagery made Leipzig a respected center of

fine arts In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwork ...

in the

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

and thus laid the foundation for the international reputation of the so-called

since 2004.

References

German art movements Culture in Leipzig 1970s in art {{Art-hist-stub

History

Further reading

References