Wolfgang Peuker was born in 1945 in Aussig (today Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic), but moved with his family to Halle/Saale (Saxony-Anhalt). From 1963 to 1965 he attended evening classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. From 1965 to 1970 by he completed a study course there under Harry Blume, Bernhard Heisig, Wolfgang Mattheuer and Werner Tübke. Peuker was awarded the Art Prize of the City of Leipzig and the Art Prize of the GDR. In 1984 he took part in the Venice Biennale. In 1993 he became professor at the Weissensee University of the Arts, Berlin. Peuker died in Berlin in 2001.
Stefan Plenkers was born in 1945 in Ebern near Bamberg (Bavaria) and grew up in Görlitz (Saxony). From 1967 to 1972 he completed a study of graphic art at the Academy of Art in Dresden where he became a master student under Gerhard Kettner until 1982. Between 1986 and 1994 he embarked on many study travels taking in Berlin, Iraq, China, Lapland and the USA. In 2011 he was honoured with a retrospective of his work at the Städtische Galerie in Dresden. Stefan Plenkers last lived and worked in Dresden, where he died in 2024.
Arno Mohr was born in 1910 in Posen (today Poznań, Poland), but grew up in Berlin from 1911 onwards. In 1933–34 he studied at the United State Schools of Free and Applied Art in Berlin-Charlottenburg. After the Second World War, from 1946 to 1975 he was a professor at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin, of which he was a co-founder. Mohr received numerous honours, for example in 1961 the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR and in 1980 the National Prize of the GDR. Mohr died in Berlin in 2001.
Helmut Middendorf was born in 1953 in Dinklage (Lower Saxony). From 1973 to 1979 he studied painting at the University of Arts, West Berlin, and was a master student under K. H. Hödicke. In 1977 he co-founded the Galerie am Moritzplatz in West Berlin and numbered among the Neue Wilde. In 1979 Middendorf taught experimental film at the University of Arts, West Berlin, then spent a period in New York with a DAAD scholarship. Middendorf lives and works in Berlin and Athens.
Silke Miche was born in 1970 in Nordhausen (Thuringia). After a study course at the Free University of Berlin, she studied painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts in Berlin from 1997 to 2004, where she became a master’s student. In 2000 she was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship at the Accademia di belle arti di Venezia and in 2010 a scholarship from the Käthe-Dorsch-Stiftung. Miche lives and works in Berlin and Brandenburg.
Werner Liebmann was born in Königsthal (Thuringia) in 1951. After studying chemistry and working as an engineer, between 1976 and 1982 he completed his study of painting under Hannes Wagner at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Arts in Halle (Saale), following which he was a master student of Bernhard Heisig at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. From 1986 he taught at the Academy of Art in Dresden. From 1993 to 2017 he was professor of painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts, Berlin. Liebmann lives and works in Berlin.
Rolf Lindemann was born in 1933 in Magdeburg (Saxony-Anhalt). After an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, from 1951 to 1956 he studied painting at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. From 1980 to 1989 he worked as a visiting teacher at the School of Advertising and Design in Berlin-Schöneweide (East Berlin). In 2000 he was awarded the Helen Abbott Prize for Fine Art. The taught at the Volkshochschule in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg from 1991. Lindemann died in 2017.
Elke Lixfeld was born in 1942 in Königsberg in East Prussia (today Kaliningrad, Russia). In the 1960s she lived in West Berlin. A master student in 19 at the University of Arts, West Berlin in 1979 she was a co-founder of the artists’ group and gallery “1/61”. In 1983 she held a year-long scholarship of the State of Berlin at MoMA PS1 in New York. She taught as a visiting teacher in 1988 at the University of Arts, West Berlin, and in 1998 at the Zanabazar Museum of Fine Arts, Ulan Bator (Mongolia). Lixfeld lives and works in Berlin.
Markus Lüpertz was born in 1941 in Reichenberg (today Liberec, Czech Republic). From 1956 to 1961 he studied at the Academy of Arts in Krefeld and at the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf, he moved to West Berlin in 1962. In 1964 he was co-founder of the Grossgörschen 35 artists’ cooperative gallery. In 1982 he took part in documenta 7 in Kassel. From 1974 to 1986 he taught as a professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. He held a professorship at the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf from 1986 to 1988, where he was rector from 1988 to 2009. The recipient of various awards, among them the Villa Romana Prize and the International Mendelssohn Prize of Leipzig, Lüpertz lives and works in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg) and Florence.
Giuseppe Madonia was born in 1958 in Palermo. From 1975 onwards he took part in numerous theatre projects, for example for the Palermo Theatre. In 1984 he moved to West Berlin. From 1991 to 1992 he worked as a stage-set designer for theatre productions in Treviso (near Venice). In the 1990s he began working in three-dimensional media in addition to painting. Madonia lives and works in Berlin.