Jiri Georg Dokoupil

Jiri Georg Dokoupil was born in 1954 in Krnov, today's Czech Republic, and is a German-Czech painter, draughtsman and graphic artist. He is a representative of the "Young Wild Ones" (or "New Wild Ones"). The term summarizes a style of painting that emerged in Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne in the 1980s in response to the "First Neo-Expressionism" of the 1960s. With large-format, expressive-abstract works, a spontaneous painting style and a deliberate formlessness, artists such as Rainer Fetting, Helmut Middendorf and Martin Kippenberger took a stand against the "coolness" of Concept Art and Minimal Art. A new figurative, emotional and subjective art is the goal, which is characterized by a joyful narrative, liveliness and freedom of movement.

Dokoupil first studied fine arts from 1976 to 1978 at the Cologne University of Applied Arts and Design, then at the Cooper Union in New York under conceptual artist Hans Haacke, and, beginning in 1979, at the Cologne University of Applied Arts and Design under Robert van Ackeren. In 1980, Dokoupil moved into a studio with the artists Walter Dahn, Hans Peter Adamski, Peter Bömmels, Gerard Kever, and Gerhard Naschberger, and they founded the Cologne-based artist group “Mülheimer Freiheit.” Following an initial exhibition with Walter Dahn (1982) and his participation in documenta 7 in Kassel (1982), Dokoupil taught alongside Walter Dahn at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Düsseldorf (1983–84). Since 1989, he has taught at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, the Academy of Fine Arts, in Madrid. work comprises around 60 series and over 100 different styles, techniques, and materials. Rebelling against any particular style and a willingness to experiment are central elements of the artist’s practice: since 1986, he has painted without a brush, relying instead on unusual materials such as breast milk, soot, or soap bubbles, and continually reinventing himself. His participation in major international exhibitions—including “Obsessive Painting—A Retrospective on the Neue Wilde” in Karlsruhe (2003/04), “Painting in the 21st Century—Retrospective 1981–2005” at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg (2005), “The 1980s” at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (2015), and “The New Wild Ones” at the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands (2016).

Dokoupil lives and works in Berlin, Rio de Janeiro, Plovdiv and Las Palmas.