Jürgen Claus

Jürgen Claus lives and works in Aachen and Baelen (Wallonia). He was a fellow and research associate at MIT in the USA and was appointed professor at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, which he played a major role in shaping, in 1991. 

Through environmentally conscious underwater art events, which were captured on film, among other things, Jürgen Claus achieved greater fame as an artist early in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, he is still intensively committed to sustainable policies and the protection of the oceans. Together with Nora Claus, he subsequently created solar sculptures for public spaces in order to artistically demonstrate the elementary energetic power of the sun. In 1995 he was awarded the European Solar Prize for this work. Solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Nuremberg, the Museum of Nature Lucerne, the Museum Reich der Kristalle Munich and the Museum of Contemporary Art IKOB Eupen proved the range of his pictorial creations. Currently, works by the artist are in museums in Duisburg, Munich, Rio de Janeiro and many private collections. Since 2021, the ZKM | Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe has housed a large part of Jürgen Claus' artistic oeuvre in its collection and archive.

The artist, who works with a variety of media, is also author of numerous standard works on the (environmental) art of our time. These include Kunst heute (Rowohlt), Expansion der Kunst (Rowohlt), Planet Meer (DuMont Schauberg), Umweltkunst (Edition Interfrom), SonnenMeer (Wienand Verlag), Windiger Protest (Ponte Press, ed. with F. Alt, H. Scheer) with six-figure print runs.  Liebe die Kunst is the title of his autobiography, published by Kerber in collaboration with the ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe. In summer 2020, his book To the Oceans with Imagination. Planet Ocean as Medium and Culture was published in English language by Hatje Cantz (DCV).

[Last updated: December 2021]