Jörg Immendorff
Encyclopedia
Jörg Immendorff was one of the best known contemporary German
painters; he was also a sculptor, stage designer and art professor.
, Lower Saxony
. When he was 11 years old, his father left the family. This traumatic experience has been used to explain Immendorff's later feelings of inadequacy and emotional remoteness..
He visited the boarding School Ernst-Kalkuhl Gymnasium as a student.
He studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf
(Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
) under Joseph Beuys
. The academy expelled him because of some of his (left-wing) political activities and neo-dadaist
actions.
From 1969 to 1980 he worked as an art teacher at a public school, and then as a free artist, holding visiting professorships all over Europe.
In 1989 he became professor at the Städelschule
in Frankfurt am Main and in 1996 he became professor at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf — the same school that had dismissed him as a student.
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His paintings are sometimes reminiscent of surrealism
and often use irony and heavy symbolism to convey political ideas. He named one of his first acclaimed works "Hört auf zu malen!" ("Stop painting!")
He was a member of the German art movement Neue Wilde
.
Best known is his Cafe Deutschland series of sixteen large paintings (1977-1984) that were inspired by Renato Guttuso
’s Caffè Greco; in these crowded colorful pictures, Immendorff had disco-goers symbolize the conflict between East
and West Germany
. Since the 1970s, he worked closely with the painter A. R. Penck from Dresden
(in East Germany).
He created several stage designs, including two for the Salzburg Festival
. In 1984 he opened the bar La Paloma near the Reeperbahn
in Hamburg
St. Pauli and created a large bronze sculpture
of Hans Albers
there. He also contributed to the design of André Heller
's avant-garde amusement park "Luna, Luna" in 1987.
Immendorff created various sculptures; one spectacular example is a 25 m tall iron sculpture in the form of an oak tree
trunk, erected in Riesa
in 1999.
In 1997 he won the best endowed art prize in the world, the MARCO prize of the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Monterrey
, Mexico
. In the following year he received the merit medal (Bundesverdienstkreuz
) of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was a friend and the favorite painter of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
, who chose Immendorff to paint the official portrait of Schröder for the Bundeskanzlerleramt
. The portrait, which was completed by Immendorff's assistants, was revealed to the public in January 2007; the massive work has ironic character, showing the former Chancellor in stern heroic pose, in the colors of the German flag, painted in the style of an icon
, surrounded by little monkeys. These "painter monkeys" were a recurring theme in Immendorff's work, serving as an ironic commentary on the artist's business.
Immendorf skillfully used the media for self-promotion. In 2000, his wedding to his Bulgaria
n former student Oda Jaune
more than 30 years his junior became a public event. The two had daughter, Ida, who was born on August 13, 2001.
In 2006 he selected 25 of his paintings for an illustrated bible
. In the foreword he described his belief in God.
. More cocaine was found in his studio; all in all, the found substances contained 6.6 grams of pure cocaine, above the legal threshold for personal use. In interviews, he attempted to explain his actions with his terminal illness and as an expression of his "orientalism
" that provided inspiration for his work. He also complained about prostitutes "who don't understand that a good whore does not divulge anything about her clients." He cooperated with the prosecution, admitted to having taken cocaine since the early 1990s and supplied the name of his dealer. At the trial in July 2004, he admitted to having organized 27 similar orgies between February 2001 and August 2003. He was sentenced to 11 months on probation and was fined €
150,000. The mild sentence was justified with Immendorff's illness and his extensive confession.
He had been suspended from his position at the university but was reinstated after the verdict.
In March 2004, a woman had attempted to blackmail Immendorff, threatening to divulge further details of the orgies. Immendorff notified the police and she was arrested. Her trial started in September 2004.
(Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1998. When he could not paint with his left hand any more, he switched to the right. In 2004 he funded a stipend to research the disease.
In November 2005 he was treated by emergency physicians and was admitted to a hospital, where a tracheotomy
had to be performed to help him breathe. As of 2006, he used a wheelchair full-time and did not paint anymore; instead he directed his assistants to paint following his instructions.
On May 27, 2007, at the age of 61, he succumbed to the disease. He died in Düsseldorf
and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea
. In his will he left his entire estate, estimated at €
15-18 million, to his wife. A 12-year old son from a former relationship who never knew his father went to court over the size of his legitime
.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
painters; he was also a sculptor, stage designer and art professor.
Life and work
Immendorff was born in BleckedeBleckede
Bleckede is a town in the district of Lüneburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated mostly on the left bank of the Elbe, approx. 20 km east of Lüneburg.Bleckede is located on the German Framework Road.-History:...
, Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
. When he was 11 years old, his father left the family. This traumatic experience has been used to explain Immendorff's later feelings of inadequacy and emotional remoteness..
He visited the boarding School Ernst-Kalkuhl Gymnasium as a student.
He studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
(Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...
) under Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
. The academy expelled him because of some of his (left-wing) political activities and neo-dadaist
Neo-Dada
Neo-Dada is a label applied primarily to audio and visual art that has similarities in method or intent to earlier Dada artwork. It is the foundation of Fluxus, Pop Art and Nouveau réalisme. Neo-Dada is exemplified by its use of modern materials, popular imagery, and absurdist contrast...
actions.
From 1969 to 1980 he worked as an art teacher at a public school, and then as a free artist, holding visiting professorships all over Europe.
In 1989 he became professor at the Städelschule
Städelschule
Städelschule, Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste, is a contemporary fine arts academy in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.- History :The Städelschule was established by a foundation set up by the Frankfurt merchant Johann Friedrich Städel in 1817...
in Frankfurt am Main and in 1996 he became professor at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf — the same school that had dismissed him as a student.
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
and often use irony and heavy symbolism to convey political ideas. He named one of his first acclaimed works "Hört auf zu malen!" ("Stop painting!")
He was a member of the German art movement Neue Wilde
Junge Wilde
The term Junge Wilde was originally applied to trends within the art world, and was only later used with reference to politics...
.
Best known is his Cafe Deutschland series of sixteen large paintings (1977-1984) that were inspired by Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso
Renato Guttuso was an Italian painter.His best-known paintings include Flight from Etna , Crucifixion and La Vucciria . Guttuso also designed for the theatre and did illustrations for books...
’s Caffè Greco; in these crowded colorful pictures, Immendorff had disco-goers symbolize the conflict between East
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
and West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. Since the 1970s, he worked closely with the painter A. R. Penck from Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
(in East Germany).
He created several stage designs, including two for the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
. In 1984 he opened the bar La Paloma near the Reeperbahn
Reeperbahn
The Reeperbahn is a street in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's red-light district...
in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
St. Pauli and created a large bronze sculpture
Bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it...
of Hans Albers
Hans Albers
Hans Philipp August Albers was a German actor and singer. He was the single biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1945 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century.- Life and work :...
there. He also contributed to the design of André Heller
André Heller
Franz André Heller is an Austrian artist, author, singer and actor.- Biography :Heller was born in Vienna into a wealthy Jewish family of sweets manufacturers . His almost daily visits to the Café Hawelka were in his opinion a key element in the development of his literary orientation...
's avant-garde amusement park "Luna, Luna" in 1987.
Immendorff created various sculptures; one spectacular example is a 25 m tall iron sculpture in the form of an oak tree
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
trunk, erected in Riesa
Riesa
Riesa is a town in the district of Meißen in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is located at the river Elbe, approx. 40 km northwest of Dresden.The world's first 110 kV power line was inaugurated between Riesa and Lauchhammer in 1912....
in 1999.
In 1997 he won the best endowed art prize in the world, the MARCO prize of the Museum of Contemporary Art
MARCO
Macrophage receptor MARCO is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MARCO gene.-Further reading:...
in Monterrey
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...
, Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. In the following year he received the merit medal (Bundesverdienstkreuz
Bundesverdienstkreuz
The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany is the only general state decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has existed since 7 September 1951, and between 3,000 and 5,200 awards are given every year across all classes...
) of the Federal Republic of Germany. He was a friend and the favorite painter of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Schröder
Gerhard Fritz Kurt Schröder is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor...
, who chose Immendorff to paint the official portrait of Schröder for the Bundeskanzlerleramt
German Chancellery
The German Chancellery is a federal agency serving the executive office of the Chancellor, the head of the German federal government. The chief of the Chancellery holds the rank of either a Secretary of State or a Federal Minister ...
. The portrait, which was completed by Immendorff's assistants, was revealed to the public in January 2007; the massive work has ironic character, showing the former Chancellor in stern heroic pose, in the colors of the German flag, painted in the style of an icon
Icon
An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, from Eastern Christianity and in certain Eastern Catholic churches...
, surrounded by little monkeys. These "painter monkeys" were a recurring theme in Immendorff's work, serving as an ironic commentary on the artist's business.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
n former student Oda Jaune
Oda Jaune
Oda Jaune is a painter. In July 2000, she married Jörg Immendorff with whom she has a daughter Ida, born August 13, 2001...
more than 30 years his junior became a public event. The two had daughter, Ida, who was born on August 13, 2001.
In 2006 he selected 25 of his paintings for an illustrated bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
. In the foreword he described his belief in God.
Drug scandal
In August 2003 Jörg Immendorff was caught in the luxury suite of a Düsseldorf hotel with seven prostitutes (and four more on their way) and some cocaineCocaine
Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine. It is a stimulant of the central nervous system, an appetite suppressant, and a topical anesthetic...
. More cocaine was found in his studio; all in all, the found substances contained 6.6 grams of pure cocaine, above the legal threshold for personal use. In interviews, he attempted to explain his actions with his terminal illness and as an expression of his "orientalism
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
" that provided inspiration for his work. He also complained about prostitutes "who don't understand that a good whore does not divulge anything about her clients." He cooperated with the prosecution, admitted to having taken cocaine since the early 1990s and supplied the name of his dealer. At the trial in July 2004, he admitted to having organized 27 similar orgies between February 2001 and August 2003. He was sentenced to 11 months on probation and was fined €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
150,000. The mild sentence was justified with Immendorff's illness and his extensive confession.
He had been suspended from his position at the university but was reinstated after the verdict.
In March 2004, a woman had attempted to blackmail Immendorff, threatening to divulge further details of the orgies. Immendorff notified the police and she was arrested. Her trial started in September 2004.
Disease and death
Immendorff was diagnosed with ALSAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , also referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a form of motor neuron disease caused by the degeneration of upper and lower neurons, located in the ventral horn of the spinal cord and the cortical neurons that provide their efferent input...
(Lou Gehrig's disease) in 1998. When he could not paint with his left hand any more, he switched to the right. In 2004 he funded a stipend to research the disease.
In November 2005 he was treated by emergency physicians and was admitted to a hospital, where a tracheotomy
Tracheotomy
Among the oldest described surgical procedures, tracheotomy consists of making an incision on the anterior aspect of the neck and opening a direct airway through an incision in the trachea...
had to be performed to help him breathe. As of 2006, he used a wheelchair full-time and did not paint anymore; instead he directed his assistants to paint following his instructions.
On May 27, 2007, at the age of 61, he succumbed to the disease. He died in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
and his ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
. In his will he left his entire estate, estimated at €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
15-18 million, to his wife. A 12-year old son from a former relationship who never knew his father went to court over the size of his legitime
Legitime
In Civil law and Roman law, the legitime , or forced share, of a decedent's estate is that portion of the estate from which he cannot disinherit his children, or his parents, without sufficient legal cause...
.
External links
- Some works exhibited in the Bonn Kunstmuseum
- Biography (German)
- Current exhibitions worldwide, gallery representations and museums collections, from artfacts.net
- The Saatchi Gallery - Jorg Immendorff, includes images, biography and information
- Michael Werner Gallery, includes images for sale and biography
- Jörg Immendorff on Artcyclopedia
- Jörg Immendorf at Contemporary Fine Arts, with biography and selected paintings
- Obituary, The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 30 May 2007 - Obituary, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 31 May 2007 - Obituary, The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, 31 May 2007 - Obituary, The IndependentThe IndependentThe Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, 9 June 2007 - Obituary, The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 13 June 2007