Sculpture "Love Birds" by James Rizzi, made of porcelain and wood

About James Rizzi (1950-2011-painter and graphic artist, New York pop art artist): his friends called him Jimmy, and he looked like the nice boy next door. Despite studying university and academic training in the subjects of painting, etching, lithography and sculpture, James Rizzi managed to keep the positive characteristics of the children alive: childlike curiosity, naive joie de vivre, fun of the colorful and the games of the kids with which he painted dreary house walls, made his work so sympathetic. Jimmy was a real child of the New York melting agent before he became famous with his 3D prints. The painter, graphic artist and sculptor James Rizzi was born in 1950 in the New York district of Brooklyn, where he also spent his entire childhood. At the "University of Florida" in Gainesville, Rizzi first visited the business school. Little by little he turned to art and finally graduated in 1974 in the subjects of painting, graphics and sculpture. In the first years after his college training, Rizzi sold his print graphics and paintings on the streets of New York (next to the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum). In 1977 James Rizzi was asked to present his works in the joint exhibition "Thirty Years of American Printmaking" in the Brooklyn Museum, in which Andy Warhol, Jim Dine and Roy Lichtenstein also participated. Since then he has participated in countless individual and group exhibitions and celebrated success around the world. In addition to use articles such as T-shirts, hats and ties, James Rizzi also realized numerous projects. Volkswagen was able to win the artist for the new publication of the "Beetle" as well as the Brockhaus publishing house for its current encyclopedia. For the 40th anniversary of the airline Condor Condor, Rizzi has a Boeing 757 with an exotic shell ("Rizzi-Bird") and tuned the holidaymakers on the holidays. Music poster, CD covers and even the Atlanta Olympic Games benefited from his cheerful pictures. As part of the Expo 2000, the first and only "happy rizzi house" was built in Braunschweig. Rizzi's colorful 3D graphics from the world of sport are now sought-after collectibles with a high level of increase in value increase. For example, the picture "New York Marathon for All" was published for a price of US $ 4,500 in 1997 and was traded with over US $ 15,000 after 5 years - other pictures even achieved a higher increase in value! He was one of the artists whose claim is none other than creating their own world with their art. On the occasion of his 60th birthday in October 2010, he showed the world's largest exhibition of the New Yorker in Bremen (until July 4, 2011). James Rizzi, who had been the legitimate successor to the New York pop art legends Andy Warhol and Keith Haring for many years, lived and worked in the New York district of Soho until his sudden death in December 2011.