Johannes Heisig

Biography

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As the son of the well-known Heisig family of artists, the path of an artist’s career that conformed to the system was an obvious one, but the inner and outer break was ultimately unavoidable. Since his retirement from all public functions in 1991, Johannes Heisig has worked as a freelance artist whose works combine complexity of content and masterful technique with an open joy in experimentation. Heisig conveys his observations, collected with a precise eye, by means of an expressive-impressionist pictorial language: he layers colors to create apocalyptic depictions of chaotic city life, impressive reflections on German-German history, as well as portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. In this way he takes the realistic image out of the familiar, alienates and finally transforms it – often after months of overpainting – into something unknown and unique for the viewer.

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1953: Johannes Heisig is born in Leipzig.

1973–1977: Studies painting and graphic art at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, graduating with a diploma; works in the studio of his father, Bernhard Heisig.

1978–1980: Master student of Gerhard Kettner at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

1979–1980: Scholarship at the F+F School for Experimental Design in Zurich.

1980–1991: Returns to Dresden; teaches at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

1988: Professor and chair of painting and graphic arts.

1989–1991: Rector of the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.

1990: Founding member of the New Saxon Art Association.

1991: Resignation from teaching; since then working as a freelance artist in Dresden and Berlin.

1991: Guest seminars at German universities and in Trondheim, Norway.

1992: Founding member of the Förderverein für die Europäische Werkstatt für Kunst und Kultur Hellerau e.V. (Friends of the European Workshop for Art and Culture Hellerau).

1998: Creation of the picture cycle ‘A Love Parade’.

1999: Start of the portrait series ‘Willy Brandt’.

2000: Move to Berlin; film portrait ‘Ende der großen Belehrung’ (End of the Great Lesson), arte/ZDF.

2003: Professorship at the University of Dortmund.

2003–2004: Portrait commission ‘Willy Brandt’ for the German History Institute in Washington, USA.

2004: Exhibition tour Aus der Neuen Welt (From the New World) in Osnabrück, Göttingen, Lübeck, among other places; guest artist of the city of Eisenach in Thuringia.

2006: Portrait ‘Johannes Rau’; retrospective in Meiningen/Kleinsassen; appointment to the board of trustees of the Lippmann and Rau Foundation for Music Research and Art.

2007–2008: Picture series ‘Es war einmal’ (Once Upon a Time) in collaboration with the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse; exhibition ‘Es war einmal’ in the Berlin House of Representatives.

2009–2011: Creation of the key work ‘BeBerlin oder die einende Kraft der Musik’ (BeBerlin or the unifying power of music).

2011: Exhibition ‘Übergänge’ (Transitions) at the Willy Brandt House in Berlin.

2012–2013: Traveling exhibition on the occasion of his 60th birthday in Frankfurt am Main, Dresden, Eisenach, Oldenburg, Berlin, and other cities.

2014–2015: Further exhibitions, including Gegenüber (Opposites) at the Emsdettener Kunstverein and Angesicht (Face) at the Marburger Kunstverein.

2015: Moved from his studio in Berlin to Kyritz (Teetz district) in Brandenburg.