GALLERIES, EXHIBITIONS, TV SHOWS, MAGAZINES, AND INSPIRATIONS OVER THE YEARS
I was lucky to have such great mentors throughout the years. It all started off with Nagel, then Picasso, Miro, and Dali.
“ At age 21, I turned my back on my home city, Berlin, and made my way to Mallorca. I painted fences and the walls of houses and drew caricatures of tourists, which I tried to sell in Palma and on the beach, I have to say with moderate success. In the course of that, I met a gnarly man, 70 years old at the time, who radiated a natural competence and authority and who criticized and corrected my work with just a few razorsharp words. He was right in everything he said. Why not? After all, this was the Spanish painter Joan Miro, and since he didn’t completely damn my work verbally and spoke with me as an equal, he reinforced my certainty that I was on the right path…”
Thank you Miro! Without you, I know I would not be where I am today. I find myself lucky to have galleries now all over the world: Paris, London, New York, Georgia, Miami and so many more.
It is strange to think of all the people who have influenced me throughout the years. One other inspiration took place a lot later. I remember very well. One in the 80s and one in the 90s.
“In the early 80s I spent time regularly in Romy Haags’ now legendary club, the Chez Romy Haag in Berlin.
The time when David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, and the Sex Pistols held court there was past, but some of these birds of paradise still kept showing up. For example, Andy Warhol, the uber father of Pop Art and the dervish of the avant-garde. He, the shy, oversensitive, cultivated spirit, always spread a nervous mood that was, however, accompanied by a sizzling creativity. A thousand ideas seemed to swarm through Andy’s head every second, and he desperately tried to capture them. He was bad at sitting still; he overflowed with curiosity, and he constantly took notes or photographed with his Polaroid camera (although that was not allowed in Romy Haag’s club).”
Andy Warhol, I know also would have been very different if I would have not met you as an inspiration. Creativity at its best. Thank you!
Many of those inspirations took me through different TV shows, magazines and many other exhibitions. Below, I will display just a few of them throughout my years.
My last inspiration I want to mention is:
“In the 1990s, my path took me to an art dealer friend in the Art Deco district in Miami, Florida. While my friend and I selected pictures for the next exhibition, a gentleman entered the exhibition rooms and, full of curiosity, peered at my pictures. What I first noticed was his extravagant and yet extremely stylish clothing, which he displayed with a discreet dignity. No wonder! This was Gianni Versace, the greatest fashion czar of this time. He asked my many questions and wanted to see more of my pictures, whereby he evinced a competent and many-sided understanding of art. Versace soon became one of my admirers and commissioned two pictures from me with his own concrete specifications.”
Again, there were many others, such as Rudolph Giuliani, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lucioano Pavarotti, who admired my artwork, and I am proud to have met them.