Bernard Schultze

Vita Bernard Schultze

1915

Born on 31 May in Schneidemühl, Province of Posen, East Prussia (today Pila, Poland).

1921

The family moves to Berlin.

1934

Abitur (secondary school leaving examinations) at the Prinz-Heinrich-Gymnasium in Berlin.

1934–39

Studies at the Hochschule für Kunsterziehung (University for art education) in Berlin and at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of arts).

1939–45

Military service in Russia and Africa.

1944

All of his work created up to this time is destroyed by fire during the bombardment of Berlin.

1945–47

He spends two years as a refugee in Flensburg.

1947–68

He lives in Frankfurt and stays regularly in Paris after 1951.

1951

First informal paintings.

1952

Quadriga exhibition in the gallery of Klaus Franck in Frankfurt with works by Bernard Schultze, Karl Otto Götz, Heinz Kreutz and Otto Greis.

1954

He works on sculptural pasting and melting into the pictorial ground.

1955

Marriage with the artist Ursula Bluhm, whom he had met in 1949 in the Zimmergalerie Franck.

1956

First relief paintings.

1957

He finishes his first tabuskris and free sculptural paintings.

1961

First Migofs. The freely invented term establishes itself as a genre concept in his work.

First room installation on the occasion of the Phantastische Architektur (Fantastic Architecture) exhibition together with Louise Nevelson in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden.

1964

Trip to New York.

Large room installation with a first full-room Migof environment for documenta III in Kassel.

1965

Renewed stay in New York.

1967

Kunstpreis der Stadt Darmstadt (Art prize of the city of Darmstadt).

1968

Move to Cologne. He is presented with the art prize of the city of Cologne in the following year.

1970

Study trip to Leningrad and a stay in Paris.

Stage design for the ballet The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf.

1971

Study trip through the USA.

1972

Elected a regular member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.

First grisaille paintings on canvas.

1973

He undertakes study trips to Sri Lanka, Thailand and Burma.

1974

Stay in Paris. First large-format oil paintings, watercolours and drawings.

1975

Study trip to Mexico and Guatemala.

1977

Study trip to Thailand, Hong Kong, Bali and Singapore.

1980/81

Extensive retrospectives of his work take place in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Frankfurt and Saarbrücken.

1981

He is made an honorary professor of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

1983

Wormland art prize, Munich, together with his wife Ursula.

1984

Retrospective exhibition of works on paper in the Albertina, Vienna, as well as several German museums.

Hessian Cultural Prize.

1985

Gesellschaft Bildender Künstler Österreichs (Society of Austrian fine artists) – Künstlerhaus, Vienna, awarded the Golden Laurel. Member of the freie Akademie (Free academy) Mannheim.

1986

He is presented with the Lovis Corinth Prize of the Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie, Regensburg.

1987/88

Work on monumental oil paintings.

1989

Presented with the Order of Merit of the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

1990

He is awarded the Stephan Lochner Medal of the city of Cologne.

1992

Resignation from the Academy of Arts, Berlin. Large-format bronzes created.

1993

He produces etchings in the format 100 x 200 cm at the printer Barbará in Barcelona.

1995

The couple moves into a studio apartment in Paris, which becomes the second place of residence besides Cologne until 1999.

1999

Ursula Schultze-Bluhm dies on 9 April.

2002

Marries Doris Berger in May.

Travel to St. Petersburg on the occasion of an exhibition of his works in the State Russian Museum.

2005

Bernard Schultze dies on 14 April in Cologne.