Eugen Schönebeck

Eugen Schönebeck is one of Germany's most significant representational painters of the latter half of the 20th century.

Biography of Eugen Schönebeck

Born in 1936, Schönebeck pursued his initial studies in painting at the Master School of Applied Arts in East Berlin from 1954 to 1961. He later continued his education at the College of Fine Arts in West Berlin, studying under Hans Jaenisch and Hans Kuhn. During this time, Schönebeck, along with his friend Georg Baselitz, authored the Pandemonic Manifestos in 1961/62, critiquing the art world for its perceived bourgeois and oversaturated nature.

Schönebeck's career includes notable exhibitions, such as his participation in documenta 6 in Kassel and the Venice Biennale in 1990. In recognition of his contributions to painting, he was awarded the Fred Thieler Prize for Painting in 1992. A major retrospective dedicated to his work was held at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt in 2011. Despite withdrawing from the art business in 1967, Schönebeck's extensive oeuvre continues to be displayed in exhibitions and collections worldwide.

Since the early 1980s, curators recognizing the importance of his work have featured Schönebeck in nearly every major international survey exhibition of postwar German art. His work has been showcased at prominent venues such as The Royal Academy of Art (1985), the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1987), the Centre Pompidou (1996), and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2009).

Eugen Schönebeck's Art Style

By 1956, Schönebeck had developed a strong admiration for Art Informel, particularly the works of Hans Hartung, Jean Fautrier, and Henri Michaux. Soon after, his first mature drawings began to appear in a Tachist style. The artworks he produced over the next four years retained figurative elements, which were not present in the abstract paintings he was also creating. It wasn't until late 1961 that Schönebeck fully embraced the more figurative approach to his work.

In the mid-1960s, his increasing focus on Soviet intellectuals, politicians, and artists who supported various communist leaders led him to create a series of enduring portraits. In these works, Schönebeck examined not only the character and behavior of revolutionaries like Lenin, Trotsky, and Mao but also drew inspiration from the aesthetic strategies of Mexican muralists such as David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Eugen Schönebeck's paintings can be described as Social Realism, often focusing on traumatic experiences from the Second World War. His works frequently depict dead or suffering bodies, as seen in his crucifixion scenes inspired by Francis Bacon and his key painting "The True Man" (1964). Schönebeck's large-format portraits of isolated figures set against monochrome backgrounds reflect his deep interest in the human face behind political icons. This is evident in his "Heroes of the East" series, which includes "Red Army Soldier" and portraits of Communist politicians such as Leo Trotsky and Mao Zedong (1965).

In addition to his paintings, Schönebeck's ink drawings are hybrids of human beings and animals, continuing his exploration of themes related to death.