Biography of Jürgen Partenheimer
Jürgen Partenheimer is a German artist who emerged during the 1980s and has since become one of the most striking and philosophical artists working today. He is known for his unique and “metaphysically abstract” works which combine the minimal and the poetic. Jürgen Partenheimer crafts a distinctive universe in his paintings, drawings and sculptures, linking together influences from art, music, philosophy and literature but in an abstract manner which allows him to question his viewer’s notions of certainty.
Born in 1947 in Munich, Jürgen Partenheimer studied philosophy and the history of art at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich before changing to fine art at the University of Arizona. He first gained recognition when his work was included in the 1980 Paris Biennale and then later the 1986 Venice Biennale. He has worked as a professor at universities around the world including the University of California, Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, the Royal College of Art in Edinburgh and the Rhode Island School of Design.
Jürgen Partenheimer’s work has been included in exhibitions at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery in Washington, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Fondacion Miró, Barcelona, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Madrid, Museum Ludwig, Cologne and the National Gallery of Art in Berlin. He was the first contemporary artist to be celebrated with a retrospective at the China National Gallery of Art in Beijing and other notable solo exhibitions include the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Kunstmuseum Bonn and IKON Gallery in Birmingham.