“Novemberbilder” | original paper collages | signed
Collages, overpaintings and assemblage techniques characterize the work of the artist Wolfgang Petrovsky. Influenced by the art movement of Dadaism or “Dada”, his art poses questions for us. Founded by artists and writers in the middle of the First World War, a seemingly nonsensical word was deliberately chosen that could not be easily categorized.
In this tradition, Wolfgang Petrovsky always saw himself as a critical artist who championed social and political causes in his actions. Be it in his series of postcards against the stationing of missiles in East and West, or the disputes surrounding Bitterfeld. Layers of newspaper cuttings, stamps and found objects of all kinds tell of historically significant events. And remind us of landscapes that changed fundamentally after the fall of the Wall between the former GDR and the West.
Petrovsky’s November pictures were the subject of a separate exhibition at the Japanisches Palais in Dresden.
Eva Mueller | Art Consultant
Curator of the Koenigshof Collection
VITA WOLFGANG PETROVSKY (short form)
1947 born in Hainsberg, today Freital | 1966-70 art studies at the Karl Marx University Leipzig, diploma | since 1979 freelance artist | 1979 study trip to the Soviet Union and start of the Bitterfeld project | from 1980 postcard series against missile stationing in East and West | 1982 project “aktion = hoffnung” | 1983 FREEZE – book project | 1987 postcard campaign on “Perestroika DA” | 1988 examination of the work of Kurt Schwitters and “Hommage á Schwitters”, from “DADA” to “DA” | 1989 Co-founder of the Kunstverein Bitterfeld-Wolffen | 1990 Working stay in Japan | 1990-93 Teaching assignments at the Dresden University of Fine Arts, Hamburg and at the Faculty of Architecture at the Technical University of Dresden
AWARDS AND EXHIBITIONS (selection)
1990 El-Lissitzsky Prize Berlin | 1990-91 Project “Fahne”, Villa Streccius Kunstverein Landau | 1993 DGB Culture Prize | 1994 Project “Fahne zeigen”, Edition Staeck, Heidelberg | 2000 Study visit to Schloss Wiepersdorf | 2000 Artist in Residence at the University of Erfurt
1979 Dresden, Galerie Comenius | 1980 Karl-Marx-Stadt, Produzentengalerie Clara Mosch | 1983 Dresden, Galerie Nord | 1984 Leipzig, Galerie am Sachsenplatz | 1985 Bitterfeld, Kulturpalast des Chemiekombinates | 1989 Erlangen, Palais Stutterheim | 1990 Munich, Galerie Christoph Dürr | 1990 Uelzen, Kunstverein, Schloß Holdenstedt | 1990 Oberhausen, Städtische Galerie im Schloß | 1997 Freital, k.u.n.s.t.- Verein | 1997 Cottbus, Brandenburgische Kunstsammlungen | 1998 Leipzig University | 1998 Speyer, Kunstverein | 2000 “NovemberBilder”, Japanisches Palais Dresden | 2002 “Land mit Zeichen”, Galerie Hintersdorf Berlin