Lutz Friedel
The oil paintings and wooden head sculptures by Berlin artist Lutz Friedel can be interpreted both as representations and metaphors. With his visual creations, Lutz Friedel reminds himself and us of the impermanence and transience of life. Always playful, often sarcastic, sometimes dramatic, frequently poetic, but above all painterly, he repeatedly ventures into the interpretation and parody of art-historical motifs, opening up a fascinating art world that oscillates between different eras, their personalities and their artistic expression.
curriculum vitae
| 1948 | born in Leipzig |
| 1968-1970 | student at the Dresden University of Fine Arts |
| 1970-1973 | student at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig |
| 1973-1977 | as a freelance painter in Leipzig and Wismar |
| 1977 | relocation to East Berlin |
| 1977-1980 | master student under Prof. Bernhard Heisig at the Academy of Arts in Berlin |
| studio at Pariser Platz, Berlin | |
| 1980-1984 | as a freelance painter in Berlin |
| 1984 | Departure from the GDR, settlement in Frankfurt am Main |
| 1985 | relocation to West-Berlin (Kreuzberg) |
| 1990 | begin of sculptural work, first head sculptures are created |
| 1992-1999 | multiple study trips to Italy, extended stays in Pompeii and Sicily |
| 1994 | work grant from the Bonn Cultural Fund |
| 2000 | resumption of wood sculpture work in the studio in Havelland |
| 2009 | development of the work cycle »Et in Arcadia ego - ein Totentanz« |
| 2012 | Brandenburg Art Award / Painting |
| lives and works in Berlin |
Friedel stages constellations that draw and release energies, express hope and despair, and above all make demands clear. They contrast the sarcasm of the status report demanded of a 66-year-old painter with the cheerful fervour of an open life programme, for which the artist has found a most fitting term – that of ongoing »self-circumnavigation«.
Laudatio zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung in der Kunsthandlung Koenitz (heute GALERIE HIMMEL) am 11. April 2014, Dresden
Friedel's work tells of the momentum of letting oneself be carried away. Of a theme, of a flow of associations. Of the boundlessness. The series shows someone who practises letting go. That is his true discipline: not to stop changing. It is perhaps the hardest work of all: not to give up on oneself too soon. Trying out the expression so often until what belongs more to others than to oneself can be left out. Marcel Proust said that it is only in repetition that a master reveals himself. Repetition is anything but reproduction. For the painter Friedel, repetition and variation also mean coming closer to himself with each painting.
Welttheater der Träume, in: Lutz Friedel. Das nächtliche Atelier, Berlin 2014
further exhibitions
| 1974 | Frankfurt (Oder): »Junge Künstler der DDR« |
| 1977 | VIII. Kunstausstellung der DDR, Dresden |
| 1978 | Triennale der Jungen Kunst, Sofia/Bulgarien |
| Frankfurt (Oder): »Junge Künstler der DDR« | |
| 1981 | Akademie der Künste, Berlin: »11 Master students« |
| 1982 | XII. Biennale de Paris |
| 1988 | Grand Palais, Paris: »Jeune Peinture« |
| Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin: »Stadt-Stand II« (installation with Barbara Metselaar Berthold und Hans-Hendrik Grimmling) | |
| 1994 | Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Dresden: »Körperbilder« (participation) |
| 1996 | Art Cologne, Köln |
| Galerie Berlin, Berlin: »Nördlich von Italien« | |
| 1998 | Galerie Steinbrecher, Bremen: »Vom Untergang der Titanic« |
| 2001 | Französische Friedrichstadtkirche, Französischer Dom, Berlin: »Nachbilder – Gegenbilder« |
| Galerie Berlin, Berlin: »Selbstumsegelung« | |
| 2002 | Galerie DOMizil, Berliner Dom: »Über Berlin. Flugzeugbilder 1983–89« |
| Kunstkaten, Ahrenshoop: »... aber draußen die Fähre!, Malerei 1965–2000« | |
| Markuskirche Hannover: »Man muß sich Sisyphos nicht als unglücklichen Menschen denken (Camus), Holzskulpturen – Malerei« | |
| 2003 | Art Cologne, Köln |
| Dom Brandenburg: »Köpfe« | |
| 2004 | St. Leonhardskirche, St. Gallen, and St. Georgen, Wismar: »Köpfe« |
| 2007 | Galerie Berlin, Berlin: »Porträts« |
| 2008 | Marienkirche Frankfurt (Oder): »Walhall der Nichtse« |
| Museum Junge Kunst, Frankfurt (Oder): »Carambolage« | |
| 2009 | Kirche am Hohenzollernplatz, Berlin: »Von Angesicht, Paradebilder – Skulpturen« |
| Schloss Landestrost, Hannover: »Nachbilder – Gegenbilder« | |
| 2011 | Berliner Dom, Hohenzollerngruft: »Et in Arcadia ego – ein Totentanz« |
| 2012 | Museum Schloss Burgk and Japanisches Palais, Dresden: »Et in Arcadia ego – ein Totentanz« |
| 2014 | Brandenburger Landtag, Potsdam: »VORBILDER – NACHBILDER – GEGENBILDER« (Übermalungen und Skulptur) |
| Kunsthandlung Koenitz (now GALERIE HIMMEL), Dresden, und Museum Fluxus Plus, Potsdam: »Das nächtliche Atelier« | |
| 2016 | Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin: »Gegenstimmen« (participation) |
| 2017 | Max-Klinger-Haus, Naumburg (Saale): »Mensch!KLINGER« |
| 2019 | Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig: »point of no return - Wende und Umbruch in der ostdeutschen Kunst« (participation) |
| 2020 | Museum Schloss Burgk: »Max Klinger - eine Hommage« |
| 2022 | Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin: »ZEITGLEICHE - Malerei« |
| 2023 | Museum Fluxus Plus, Potsdam: »ZEITGLEICHE - Malerei« |
