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[German Version] (c. 1460, Heiligenstadt– Jul 7, 1531, Würzburg), wood-carver and sculptor, principal master of the German late Gothic. Riemenschneider is thought to have been trained in the Upper Rhine Valley and in Swabia, in the Nikolaus Gerhaert and Jörg Syrlin circle. From 1483 he worked in Würzburg, where in 1504 he became a councilor and in 1520/1521 mayor; but in 1525 he was imprisoned because of his support for the peasants. An extraordinary number of works came from his workshop. The car…

[German Version] (Feb 8, 1880, Munich – Mar 4, 1916, Verdun), German painter and graphic artist, leading representative of German Expressionism, co-founder of the Blauer Reiter (“Blue Rider”). Marc studied at the Munich Academy under Gabriel v. Hackl (1843–1926) and Wilhelm v. Diez (1839–1907); from 1905/1907 he lived in Paris. In 1910 Marc became friendly with August Macke (1887–1914). In 1911 he joined the “New Artists' Union” in Munich and in the same year, together with W. Kandinsky, founded the Blauer Reiter. Until his early death, on the front near Verdun, Marc lived m…

[German Version] (Dec 31, 1869, Le Cateau-Cambrésis, France – Nov 3, 1954, Cimiez near Nice), French painter, graphic artist, and sculptor as well as one of the foremost artists of classic Modern Art and an innovator of European painting. Matisse began as a lawyer, then studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1891 to 1892 and under G. Moreau at the École des ¶ Beaux-Arts from 1893 onward. After Impressionist and Divisionist beginnings and under the influence of P. Gauguin, Paul Cézanne (1839–1906), Paul Signac (1863–1935), and Claude Monet (1840–1926), M…

[German Version] (Feb 25, 1887, Aachen – Mar 29, 1965, Büderich near Düsseldorf), German sculptor and graphic artist. He studied under L. Corinth in Berlin from 1907, was master-class student of Arthur Kampf (1864–1950) from 1914, and lived in Berlin from 1918 to 1931. He was appointed professor at the Düsseldorf academy in 1932, removed from office in 1933, and reinstated from 1946 to 1957. Mataré began as a painter, but later turned to sculpture, creating by preference animal sculptures of finel…

[German Version] (c. 1445, Horb am Neckar – Sep 22, 1533, Nuremberg), sculptor, woodcarver, painter, and engraver, outstanding master of late German Gothic art. In 1476 Stoß traveled from Nuremberg to Cracow to create the altarpiece of the high altar in the church of St. Mary for the German congregation there. It was followed by other important creations, primarily in stone. In 1496 he returned to work in Nuremberg. Stoß’s work is characterized by an exuberant, powerful, and dynamic expressive dri…

[German Version] Surrealism is a movement in modern painting and literature that seeks to represent the unconscious and the dreamworld, influenced by the insights of S. Freud’s psychoanalysis. It was an outgrowth of the numerous events staged by the Dadaists: before 1924 most artists of the Paris surrealist group belonged to the provocative satirical Dadaist Cabaret Voltaire in Zürich. Its literary roots were primarily in the works of Arthur Rimbaud, Guillaume Apollinaire, the Comte de Lautréamont…

[German Version] (B.E. Perez Murillo; baptized Jan 1, 1618, Seville – Apr 3, 1682, Seville), Spanish painter, master of the Sevillian school and 17th-century Spanish painting. He apprenticed with the painter Juan del Castillo (1584–1640). In his youth, he may have met Alonso Cano (1601–1667), ¶ who influenced his first creative period, albeit less strongly than Francisco Zurbarán (1598–1664). There is no documentary evidence of a presumed journey to Madrid in 1643. Possibly he did not arrive in Madrid until 1648. He must have been familiar …

[German Version] (Mar 7, 1872, Amersfoort near Utrecht – Jan 2, 1944, New York), Dutch painter, leading representative of the Dutch Constructivists and of De Stijl, founder of abstract Neo-Plasticism. Mondrian obtained a teacher's diploma at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, and was at first (1905–1910) influenced by Impressionism and Fauvism. He developed the achievements of Cubism with logical consistency to the point of total abstraction. In 1917 he founded the journal De Stijl with Theo van Doesburg. From 1919 to 1938 Mondrian worked mainly in Paris, from 1938 in L…

[German Version] (actually Claude Gellée; 1600, Champagne near Mirecourt, France – Nov 23, 1682, Rome, Italy), a French painter, illustrator, and engraver, was a student of Agostino Tassi (1565–1644) in Rome in 1619. In 1627, he settled there permanently and worked for Pope Urban VIII and the Roman aristocracy, among others. Together with Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), he founded the French classical style and devoted himself to “ideal landscape painting.” His classically strict composition was acco…

[German Version] (Feb 11, 1878, Kiev – May 15, 1935, Leningrad), Russian painter, pioneer of constructivism, founder of suprematism, leading exponent of ¶ Russian abstract art; he studied in Moscow from 1900 to 1905. Until 1910, Malevich's painting was influenced by Fauvism; around 1912, he adopted a cubistic style and then moved on to abstraction around 1913/1915. He exhibited his famous Black Square in 1915. Suprematism ( Suprematist Manifesto, 1915) initially meant the radical reduction of art to “pure form,” the black square on a white background (followed b…

[German Version] (c. 1350, probably in Haarlem – Jan 1406, Dijon), 14th-century Dutch-Burgundian sculptor. His name appears for the first time c. 1380 in the guild records of the architects and sculptors in Brussels. Sluter, the outstanding master of late Gothic Burgundian sculpture, was summoned to the court of Philip the Bold to assist Jean de Marville in decorating the burial place of the dukes of Burgundy, the charterhouse of Champmol. In 1389 he succeeded Jean. In his capacity as head of the …

[German Version] (Oct 4, 1814, Gruchy, near Gréville – Jan 20, 1875, Barbizon), French painter and graphic artist, student of Paul Delaroche (1797–1856) in Paris, considered the leading exponent of 19th- century French landscape painting and the “Barbizon school.” After portraits, biblical paintings, and works with sensual themes, he turned in the direction of paysage intime. In 1849 he settled in Barbazon, near Fontainebleau, where he began a friendship with Théodore Rousseau (1812–1867). Millet was an artist of profound sentiment. In his works, he…

[German Version] I. Sociology and Social History First attested in the writings of R. Pannwitz ( Die Krisis der europäischen Kultur, 1917), the concept of postmodernism spans a wide spectrum of heterogeneous meanings, the extremes of which are marked, on the one hand, by the notion of a new age that is meant to follow upon the end of modernity, and on the other hand by conceptions of a reflexive radicalization of modern experiences of plurality. The rapid adoption of the concept since the 1970s began in North Amer…