Born in Bonn (North Rhine-Westphalia) in 1906, Peter Janssen studied from 1923 to 1926 at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf. Studies continued from 1926 at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, where he graduated in 1928. In 1935 exclusion from the Reich Chamber of Culture, prohibited him from work. With the war over, he worked once more as a freelance artist in Düsseldorf, was awarded the Cornelius Prize of the City of Düsseldorf in 1952 and became a member of the Neue Rheinische Sezession. From 1957 to 1971 he taught at the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin. Janssen died in Berlin in 1979.
Max Kaminski was born in 1938 in Königsberg (today Kaliningrad, Russia). From 1959 to 1967 he studied at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin under Peter Janssen and was in Hann Trier’s master class. In 1968–69 he worked in Paris and in 1972 at the Villa Romana in Florence. In 1974 he was awarded the Böttcherstrasse Bremen Prize. He took part in documenta 6 in 1977 and garnered the Art Prize of the City of Darmstadt. From 1980 to 2006 he taught as professor at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe. Kaminski died in Augsburg (Bavaria) in 2019.
Carsten Kaufhold was born in 1967 in West Berlin. After school he studied painting from 1989 to 1995 at the University of Arts, Berlin, under Professor Helmut Otto and F. W. Bernstein. Having largely worked as a musician between 1996 and 2002, he went on to devote himself entirely to painting choosing the Berlin cityscape as his most specific subject. In 2017 he was awarded the Neukölln Art Prize. Kaufhold died in Berlin in 2022.
Veronika Kellndorfer was born in Munich in 1962. She began her studies in 1982 at the University of Applied Art in Vienna and continued, from 1984 to 1988 at the University of Arts, West Berlin, under Johannes Gecelli and Armando. Further to which she studied art history and religious studies at the Free University of Berlin. She has been awarded numerous scholarships enabling her to spend periods abroad in places such as Los Angeles (Villa Aurora), Rome (Villa Massimo) and Kyoto, Japan. Kellndorfer lives and works in Berlin.
Born in Johnstone (Scotland) in 1946 Brian Kelly studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1973 to 1977. Scholarships made travel to Istanbul, Paris and Berlin possible for study purposes. From 1977 to 1979 he taught printing at the Print Studio in Glasgow and in 1980 drawing at the Urdang Academy in London. Back in Glasgow, from 1981 to 1988 he gave courses in silkscreen printing at the Glasgow School of Art. In 1988 Kelly moved to West Berlin, where he lives and works today.
Klaus Killisch was born in 1959 in Wurzen (Saxony). He studied at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin from 1981 to 1986. In 1989 his collaboration with the Wilfriede Maaß artists’ cooperative gallery in East Berlin began. In 1990 he took part in the group exhibition L’autre Allemagne hors les murs in Paris and the Venice Biennale. The Stiftung Kulturfonds awarded him a working scholarship in 1992, with the Senate of Berlin following this up with another scholarship. Since 2006 he has been involved in the Collective Task art project. Killisch lives and works in Berlin.
Carl-Heinz Kliemann was born in 1924 in Berlin. From 1945 to 1950 he studied under Max Kaus and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin. From 1966 to 1978 he taught painting and graphic art as a professor at the Technical University in Karlsruhe. He received the Prize for Graphic Art of the City of Berlin, a scholarship for the Villa Romana and the Federal Order of Merit. Numerous retrospectives in German museums and galleries honoured his work. Kliemann died in 2016 in Berlin.
Bertold Haag was born in Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg) in 1912. In 1929 he participated for the first time in an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. He broke off his studies of philosophy and architecture in Heidelberg and Karlsruhe to work as a freelance artist. In 1936 he had a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. In 1938 he moved to Berlin. In 1951 he had a large solo exhibition at the Rathaus Schöneberg in West Berlin. Haag died in Berlin in 1981.
Sabina Grzimek was born in Rome in 1942. From 1962 to 1967 she studied graphic art and sculpture at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin. Afterwards she was a masters student of Fritz Cremer. In 1986 she took part in the Venice Biennale. In 1983 she received the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts of the GDR, and in 2011 she was awarded the honorary prize of the Brandenburg Art Prize. Grzimek lives and works in Berlin and Erkner (Brandenburg).
Werner Heldt was born in 1904 in Berlin. From 1922 to 1924 he studied at the School of Applied Arts. This was followed from 1924 to 1930 by studies at the United State Schools of Free and Applied Art, Berlin. After this he worked as a freelance artist in the Ateliergemeinschaft Klosterstrasse. From 1940 he was a soldier in the Second World War, returning in 1946 after being held prisoner-of-war by the British. Until 1949 he lived in Berlin-Weissensee (East Berlin), before moving to West Berlin. In 1950 he was awarded the Art Prize of the City of Berlin. In 1954 Heldt died in Italy.