Norbert Bisky (born 1970) is a German artist based in Berlin. He is one of the most important representatives of a new figurative painting in the 21st century.[1][2][3]
Norbert Bisky was born in Leipzig and grew up in the former German Democratic Republic[4] as "part of a very Communist family that really believed in all that stuff".[5][6]
From 1994 to 1999 Norbert Bisky studied painting at Hochschule der Künste in Berlin where he was a Master Student of Georg Baselitz and at the Salzburg Summer Academy in the class of Jim Dine.
In 1995, he spent a year as an exchange student in Madrid, where he discovered the works of Francisco de Goya, Francisco de Zubaráns and Jusepe de Ribera.
Bisky was a guest professor at the HEAD Academy of arts in Geneva from 2008 to 2010 and from 2016 to 2018 at HBK Braunschweig.[7][8] In 2015, he swapped studios with Tel Aviv based artist Erez Israeli for three months.[9]
Norbert Biskys early paintings are most commonly described as heavily influenced by socialist realism, the official art of the GDR. Comparing the belief in communism to a religion, he processed his childhood memories by painting "those images of paradise" and "false promises" into dazzling bright images of idealized bodies and untouched nature.[10]
In later years, Bisky's large-size paintings, often depicting adolescents, increasingly shifted towards darker themes. Personal loss, the experience of terror, travels to Brazil and media reports inspired him to examine subjects such as violence, sexuality and destruction symbolized by figures, in many cases floating, falling or tumbling without any gravitational axis.[11][12] Firmly established in the public conscience through media images following the September 11 attacks, these falling figures explore the transience of youth, the loss of autonomy, isolation and the disintegration of modern civilization.
The aesthetic tumult surrounding the figures is punctuated by the cross pollination of cues from Christian ideology, art history, gay culture, pornography and apocalyptic visions.[13][14] Through this, Bisky transmits an impression of instability on the canvas that distinctly resonates with our contemporary state of affairs.[15]
In May 2013, Norbert Bisky created his first stage set for the piece "Masse" by the Berlin State Ballet that premiered in the legendary Berlin Nightclub Berghain in May 2013 and was the subject of a TV documentary by German director Nicole Graf.[16]
Since May 2017 Norbert Bisky's large-format painting "Vertigo" is prominently displayed in Berghain's entrance hall as part of the club's art concept, which also features works by Wolfgang Tillmans and Joseph Marr.[17]
For World Press Freedom Day, Norbert Bisky created the painting "Rauschen" which was printed on the title page of numerous German daily newspapers, in collaboration with the Federal association of German newspaper publishers (BDZV: Bundesverband Deutscher Zeitungsverleger) on 3 May 2019.[18][19]
Bisky is being represented by König Galerie in Berlin.[20] and by Fabienne Levy Gallery in Lausanne, Switzerland.[21]
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