FRANEK was born Sabine Franek-Koch in Potsdam (Brandenburg) in 1939. In the 1960s she studied at the University of the Fine Arts, West Berlin. From 1986 to 1987 she held a guest professorship there and from 1989 to 1990 she taught as a lecturer in Helsinki and Lahti (Finland), followed by a guest professorship at the University of Arts in Bremen in 1993. She has been artist in residence at the Djerassi Foundation in California and at the Fundación Valparaíso in Spain. FRANEK lives and works in Berlin and Lower Saxony.
Dan Freudenthal was born in Tel Aviv in 1945. From 1971 to 1979 he studied at the University of Arts, West Berlin, under Hann Trier and Fred Thieler, supported by a scholarship from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation. He received the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship and the Berlin Senate Art Scholarship and spent time in New York. Freudenthal lives and works in Berlin.
Günther Friedrich wurde 1930 in Dresden geboren. Ab 1950 absolvierte er ein Studium an der Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden. Ab 1960 schloss er Werkverträge mit volkseigenen Betrieben der DDR. 1974 erhielt Friedrich den Carl-Blechen-Preis des Rates des Bezirkes Cottbus sowie 1984 die Hans-Grundig-Medaille des Vereins Berliner Künstler. Friedrich verstarb 1986 in Cottbus (Brandenburg).
2015 richtete das Museum Dieselkraftwerk in Cottbus, das zahlreiche seiner Werke besitzt, eine Retrospektive aus.
Georg Baselitz was born Hans-Georg Bruno Kern in 1938 in Deutschbaselitz (Saxony). After interrupting his painting studies, which had begun in 1956 at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin, he continued at the University of the Fine Arts in West Berlin under Hann Trier. Baselitz has participated several times at documenta in Kassel as well as in the Venice Biennale, exhibited his works in the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. From 1978 to 1983 he taught at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, and later became a professor at the University of Arts, West Berlin. Baselitz lives and works in Bavaria and Italy.
Gisela Achterberg was born in 1941 in Bautzen (Saxony). After an apprenticeship as a tailor, she became intensely involved in painting and graphic arts and completed a correspondence course in art and cultural studies at the Humboldt University in East Berlin. In 1962 she made Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg her main residence. She taught foundation art studies at the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. Since 1978 Achterberg has lived in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen.
Gloria Brand was born in Teschen (today Cieszyn, Poland) in 1943. She grew up in Hesse and studied at the University of Design in Offenbach from 1960 to 1965. After a one-year stay in the USA, she worked from 1966 to 1968 as a set and stage design assistant at the Städtische Bühnen in Frankfurt am Main. Since 1970 she has been working as a freelance artist. Her awards include the Eisenturm Prize of Mainz and her appointment as a member of the Darmstädter Sezession. Brand lives and works in Buchschlag/Dreieich (Hesse).
Gudrun Brüne was born in Berlin in 1941. From 1961 to 1966 she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Leipzig. There she met Bernhard Heisig, in whose studio she worked for a time as an assistant and whom she later married. From 1977 to 1999 she taught painting and graphic arts at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Arts in Halle (Saale). She received art awards from the Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund and the GDR. Brüne lived and worked in Havelland (Brandenburg) until she died in 2025.
Claudia Busching was born in Munich in 1954. From 1976 to 1981 she studied painting at the University of Arts, West Berlin, under Hann Trier, with whom she also took her master class. Various scholarships enabled her to work as a freelance artist in Berlin and Bonn in the 1980s, as well as a residence at Casa Baldi in Olevano Romano near Rome in 1988. Busching lives and works in Berlin and Rome.
Manfred Butzmann was born in Potsdam (Brandenburg) in 1942. From 1964 to 1969 he studied graphic design at the Weissensee University of the Arts in East Berlin under Arno Mohr, Werner Klemke and Klaus Wittkugel. From 1970 he worked as a graphic artist and book illustrator in Berlin-Pankow. He received the Käthe Kollwitz Prize of the Academy of Arts (Berlin) in 1991, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1993 and the Ferdinand von Quast Medal (Berlin Monument Prize) in 1999. Since 2007 he has lived and worked in Potsdam-Bornim (Brandenburg). In 2020 Butzmann was an honorary recipient of the Brandenburg Art Prize.
Luciano Castelli was born in Lucerne (Switzerland) in 1951. He studied at the University of Applied Arts there from 1968 to 1969, followed by an apprenticeship as a sign painter. In 1972 he participated in documenta 5, gaining his international breakthrough. From 1978 to 1987 Castelli lived in West Berlin, where he exhibited at the Galerie am Moritzplatz and was assigned to the Neue Wilde group. Castelli has since lived and worked in 2008 in Zurich, Paris and Normandy.