Wolfgang Mattheuer

Together with Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig he was a leading representative of the Leipzig School, a figurative art current in East Germany.

He came to prominence with allegorical, pessimistic and sometimes heroic paintings which were accused of expressing political dissidence.

He taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB) for many years.

[1] In 1974 he resigned from his position as professor at the HGB to work as a freelance painter.

[2] In the West he was for a long time seen as an untrendy Sunday painter, but a large retrospective held in Chemnitz for his 75th birthday raised his profile.