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 art at the University of Applied Sciences for Art and Design in Cologne from 1976-1978, then at the Cooper Union in New York under the conceptual artist Hans Haacke and from 1979 at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences 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 artists' group "Mülheimer Freiheit". After a first exhibition with Walter Dahn (1982) and participation in documenta 7 in Kassel (1982), Dokoupil teaches together with Walter Dahn at the State Academy of Art in Düsseldorf (1983-84). Since 1989 he has taught at the Circulo de Bellas Artes, the Academy of Fine Arts, in Madrid. Dokoupil's work comprises around 60 series and over 100 different styles, techniques and materials. The rebellion against a certain style and the joy of experimentation are central elements in the artist's work: since 1986 he has been painting without brushes, relying instead on unusual materials such as breast milk, soot or soap bubbles and constantly reinventing himself. His participation in exhibitions such as "Obsessive Malerei - Ein Rückblick auf die Neue Wilden" in Karlsruhe (2003/04), "Malerei im 21. Jahrhundert - Werkschau 1981-2005" at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg (2005), "Die 80er Jahre" at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt (2015) and "Die Neuen Wilden" at the Groninger Museum, Netherlands (2016) are of great international significance.

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