Cornelia Schleime was born in 1953 in East Berlin. From 1975 to 1980 she studied painting and graphic art at the Academy of Art in Dresden. She moved to West Berlin in 1984. In 1989 she was awarded a PS1 Scholarship of the DAAD for a one-year working stay in New York. In 2003 she received the Gabriele Münter Prize, the Fred Thieler Prize in 2004 and in 2016 the Hannah Höch Prize. In 2024 she received the Honorary Award from the Prime Minister of the State of Brandenburg (Brandenburgischer Kunstpreis) for her life’s work. Schleime lives and works in Berlin, in the Ruppiner Land (Brandenburg) and on La Palma (Spain).
Thomas Schindler was born in 1959 in Braunschweig (Lower Saxony). He studied painting from 1978 to 1983 there at the University of Fine Arts becoming a master student under Hermann Albert and Peter Voigt. After his studies he moved to West Berlin. Schindler lives and works in Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt).
Volker Stelzmann was born in 1940 in Dresden and grew up in Leipzig. From 1963 to 1968 he completed his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig, where he worked as a teacher from 1973 onwards and as a professor from 1982 to 1986. He was invited to the Biennale in Venice in 1982 and 1984, and in 1983 received the National Prize of the GDR. In 1986 he applied to emigrate from the GDR and went to live in West Berlin, where he taught as professor of painting at the University of Arts from 1988 to 2006. Stelzmann lives and works in Berlin.
Walter Libuda was born in 1950 in Zechau-Leesen (Saxony). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig from 1973 to 1979 and attended Bernhard Heisig’s master class. From 1979 to 1985 he worked as an assistant at the Academy, before moving to East Berlin. In 1990 he took part in the Venice Biennale. He received the Fred Thieler Prize for painting in 1999 and the Gerhard Altenbourg Prize in 2000. Libuda died in Berlin in 2021.
Kurt Mühlenhaupt was born in 1921 in Klein Ziescht (Brandenburg) and grew up in Berlin. In 1946 he began a course of study at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin, which he abandoned in 1948. In 1956 he moved from East to West Berlin, where he opened the legendary artists’ pub Leierkasten in 1961 where he sold his pictures. Later he was a member of the Malerpoeten (Painter Poets) group. In 1981 his Feuerwehrbrunnen (Firefighters’ Fountain) on Mariannenplatz in Kreuzberg, West Berlin, was inaugurated. In 1991 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin. From 1995 Mühlenhaupt lived in Brandenburg and died there in 2006.
Herta Müller was born in 1955 in Bottrop (North Rhine-Westphalia). From 1975 to 1981 she studied at the Folkwangschule in Essen. In 1993 she was honoured with the Swiss Boswil Scholarship. Since 1990 she has taught costume design as a guest professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. Müller lives and works in Berlin and Italy.
Hartmut Neumann was born in 1954 in Delmenhorst (Lower Saxony). From 1976 to 1980 he studied at the University of Arts in Bremen. In 1981 he received the prize of the Young Art Forum, in 1983 the Young West art prize, in 1988 the Art Prize of the German Association of Artists and in 2003 the Willi Oltmanns Prize. Scholarships enabled him to study in Paris and Rome. Since 1992 he has taught as a professor at the University of Fine Arts in Braunschweig. Neumann lives and works in Cologne and Braunschweig (Lower Saxony).
Roland Nicolaus was born in 1954 in East Berlin. From 1979 to 1983 he studied painting and graphic art at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. From 1986 to 1989 he was a master student at the Academy of Arts of the GDR under Willi Neubert. From 1991 to 2000 he taught at the Humboldt University and the University of the Arts in Berlin. In 1992 he was awarded the VEAG Prize for painting. Since 1998 Nicolaus has lived and worked in Blumberg (Brandenburg).
A. R. Penck was born Ralf Winkler in Dresden in 1939. From 1953 he attended courses in drawing and painting given by Jürgen Böttcher (Strawalde). In the 1960s, in addition to paintings, he produced books, sculptures and his first films. In 1969 he first adopted the pseudonym A. R. Penck. In 1972 he was invited to documenta 5 in Kassel, and in 1975 awarded the Will Grohmann Prize of the Academy of Arts, West Berlin. He left the GDR in 1980 and settled in the Federal Republic, in Cologne. From 1988 to 2003 he taught as a professor at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, upon retiring he moved to Dublin (Ireland). In 2007 a major retrospective of his oeuvre was exhibited at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. Penck died in Zurich in 2017.
Wolfgang Petrick was born in 1939 in East Berlin. From 1958 to 1965 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin. In 1964 he was a co-founder of the artists’ cooperative gallery Grossgörschen 35 in West Berlin. In 1971 he spent a period in Paris with the scholarship of the Cité Internationale des Arts. In 1976 he took part in documenta 6 in Kassel. From 1975 to 2007 he taught as a professor at the University of Arts in Berlin. In 1993 he was elected to the Academy of Arts, Berlin. Petrick lived and worked in Berlin and, since 1994, in New York. He died 2025 in Berlin.