Conrad Felixmüller

Conrad Felixmüller is considered one of the most important representatives of the "second generation" of German Expressionism. He was born Conrad Müller in Dresden in 1897 and adopted the artist's name "Felixmüller" at the age of 27. From 1912, he studied at the Dresden Academy of Art, where he became a master student of Carl Bantzer, among others. There he met the painter, graphic artist and sculptor Peter August Böckstiegel, who, alongside Otto Dix, Otto Griebel and others, joined Felixmüller's avant-garde "Dresdner Sezession Gruppe 1919", founded in January 1919. In the same year, Felixmüller became a member of the "November Group" artists' association founded in Berlin and a political member of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany).

After completing his studies, Felixmüller worked as a freelance painter in Dresden and exhibited at the "Sturm" gallery in Berlin and the Hans Goltz gallery in Munich, among others, and wrote essays in left-wing political magazines such as "Die Aktion". Initially, expressive portraits of people close to him, colorful landscapes and socially critical depictions of coal miners in the Ruhr area became the central motif of his artistic work. Felixmüller taught himself various graphic techniques.

In the further course of his artistic career, Felixmüller distanced himself from his early Expressionist work and turned to New Objectivity. Due to his earlier political stance, Felixmüller's works were shown in the propaganda exhibitions "Degenerate Art" in Dresden (1933) and Munich (1937) when the National Socialists seized power in Germany. In addition, works were removed from public collections from 1937 onwards and 151 works were destroyed. From 1949, Felixmüller taught as a professor of painting and drawing in Halle. When he moved to East Berlin in 1961, his works were once again not recognized by the official GDR state art, so he moved to West Berlin in 1967 and died there in 1977.