Isa Genzken's art education: Thorough and even more thorough, from more than one perspective

Isa Genzken grew up in the beautiful Schleswig-Holstein near the Baltic coast in Bad Oldesloe, lived in Berlin from the age of 12 and after graduating from high school initially went to Hamburg to study painting at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts from 1969 to 1971 .

She studied painting (especially with Kai Sudeck and Almir Mavignier), also photography with Kilian Breier, visited as many of the trendy avant-garde exhibitions as possible, and worked as a model on the side to support herself.

Sudeck and Breier were among the experienced teachers who, due to their diverse training (including art school in Paris) and their own contacts with practical art practice, could broaden perspectives; with Almir Mavignier (probably Genzken's most influential teacher at the HFBK Hamburg) came cosmopolitanism: Almir da Silva Mavignier was born in 1925 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has been working as an art teacher and in his artist's studio in Hamburg since 1965/1968, where he still lives and works today.

He had studied painting in Rio de Janeiro with an avant-garde figure of the international art world: Árpád Szenès (1897 – 1985), the most important representative of the modern “École de Paris” , who had come into contact with Art Nouveau, Impressionism and Fauvism, Abstract Art , Cubism and Expressionism , Dadaism and Surrealism in Paris from 1925 to 1940 .

After creating his first abstract artworks around 1950 and exhibiting them successfully in Brazil, Mavignier set off in 1951 to discover the (art) world. First to Paris, where from 1952 onwards he combined Russian Constructivism and Abstract Art in his Concrete Art paintings , then to Ulm, to study Visual Design at the Ulm School of Design until 1958 under the legendary Max Bill and the equally famous Josef Albers, who, since fleeing the Nazis, only came from the USA as a visiting professor.

Genzken's teacher Mavignier discovered pointillist paintings, grid structures, optical art , and monochrome painting; from 1958 onward, he collaborated with the artist group "ZERO" and repeatedly worked as a graphic designer (more than 200 posters); in 1959, he founded his own studio in Ulm; in 1960/1961, he organized and curated the exhibition "New Tendencies" in Zagreb, which was held six times until 1978; in 1964, he was invited to documenta III and in 1968 to documenta 4; and in 1965, he was appointed Professor of Painting at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg – what a career!

With this worldly, internationally renowned artist, who had experience teaching and learning in the art styles of abstract painting, concrete art, and op art as well as practical experience as a graphic designer, Isa Genzken to a great deal of international flair right at the beginning of her artistic training. This was something the already well-traveled Nordic artist clearly embraced with open nostrils.

Isa Genzken also moved on and continued her studies, in 1972 studying art history and philosophy at the University of Cologne, in 1973 photography and graphic design in Berlin , and finally, until 1977, at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. There she earned a premium degree, which is a prerequisite for being invited to attend a master class. She accepted the invitation to 's master class Gerhard Richter and married "her master" in June 1982; the artist couple separated in 1993, and their divorce was finalized in 1994.

The artist whom some German media have recently dubbed "the most important German artist" considered so was married to the most important German artist in the eyes of everyone else, even before she had fully completed her training – that must mean something.

Since experience suggests that such a particular personal constellation is likely to be detrimental to the female part, you should take a look at the article “Isa Genzken: A remarkable history of outstanding exhibitions” before delving deeper into Isa Genzken’s art .

This could help to clear the view of Isa Genzken and her work, instead of perceiving the artist against the backdrop of her long-gone “ex”.

Isa Genzken became a “teacher” even before she was officially a “student.” From 1977, Genzken sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and in 1978 taught design at the Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences in Krefeld, while simultaneously studying art history at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

While master student Isa Genzken entered academically organized training very early on, it is frequently observed that artists begin passing on their knowledge and skills to the next generation soon after their own training. People who attended a regular school (and subsequently completed a structured university degree for an uncritically socially acceptable profession) often express surprise at this.

If art studies were among the few educational programs that not only aim to cram material into students but also use knowledge transfer to educate self-thinking, critical individuals, it would not be surprising but rather consistent: A person is educated when they have learned to find and grasp the facts relevant to a topic in order to develop questions from these facts through their own thinking.

Questions from the teacher to the student; but equally important are questions from the teacher to the student – ​​because the teacher, too, must remain a student for life if he doesn't want his subject to slip away from him at some point.

Genzken never lost contact with art students who asked questions, for example in 1990 during a one-year visiting professorship for sculpture at the Berlin University of the Arts or in 1991 during her one-year teaching position at the Städelschule in Frankfurt, sculpture class.

Nasher Prize 2019: Isa Genzken

Nasher curators and Quin Matthews Films travel to Isa Genzken's studio in Berlin to talk about her love of big cities, architecture, people as sculptures and other themes in her work:

Keywords: Academic art education, Art and the global world, Master student Isa Genzken, Students and teachers in art