- Year of birth, place
- 1949, Altdorf, Germany
- Role at the ZKM
- in the collection
- Biography
- Isolde Wawrin was born in Altdorf/Schwarzwald in 1949. She started training as a lithographer in 1966, and in 1970 embarked on a career as a print-maker in Frankfurt am Main. She studied (1971-74) at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Karlsruhe, under Horst Egon Kalinowski and Markus Lüpertz, then (1974-77) at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, under Klaus Rinke. She has received many prizes and awards, including a grant from the city of Düsseldorf to study at the Cité des Arts, Paris (1977), the 'Förderpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen' (1980) and a second grant from the city of Düsseldorf to at PSI (Project Studio One), New York. Wawrin lives in Düsseldorf.
In her intensely coloured paintings, Wawrin devises marks that look as if they might be the secret ciphers of exotic peoples and distant epochs. This is also a feature of her drawings, her work in ceramic and her painting on found objects such as driftwood. In her early work as a performance artist, she sought to encourage a new understanding of the human body: she would daub herself with paint or use her fingers as her only painting tool. The principal subject of her work as an artist is the relation between man and nature, and in particular her wish for a harmonious relation between them. In treating this theme, she takes her inspiration from fairy tales and myths originating in various cultures and eras, as well as from her own dreams.
Individual exhibitions (selection)
1978 Galerie Hetzler und Keller, Stuttgart
1980 Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf; Kunstverein, Bann; Kunstverein, Freiburg
1982 »Artist in Residence«, Galerie H, Vienna; Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
1993 Kunstverein, Bremerhaven
1984 Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster
1989 Galerie von der Tann, Berlin
1991 Waßermann Galerie, Munich
1992 Galerie Dacic, Tübingen
1993 Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
1994 Städtische Galerie, Ravensburg
1995 Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg
1997 Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf
Group exhibitions (selection)
1976 »Letztes Mal hast Du doch gesagt, daß Du keine Kunst machst«, Kunstmuseum, Wiesbaden
1980 »Art Allemand Aujourd'hui«, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1981 PSI (Project Studio One), New York
1982 documenta VII, Kassel
1984 »Astrid Klein, Christa Näher, Isolde Wawrin«, Kunstmuseum, Lucerne; »Kunst mit Eigen-Sinn«, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, 20er Haus, Vienna; »Kunstlandschaft Bundesrepublik«, Heidelberger Kunstverein, Heidelberg
1985 »Rheingold: 40 Künstler aus Köln und Düsseldorf«, Turin
1986 »Soonsbeek 86«, Arnheim; »Sie machen, was sie wollen«, Sofia, subsequently at a venue in Sevilla
1988 »Meine Zeit, mein Raubtier«, Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf; »Zurück zur Natur, aber wie?«, Städtische Galerie im Prinz-Max-Palais, Karlsruhe
1989 »Zeitzeichen. Stationen bildender Kunst in Nordrhein-Westfalen«, Ministerium für Bundesangelegenheiten des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, Bonn, subsequently at Museum der bildenden Künste und Galerie der Hochschule für Graphik und Buchkunst, Leipzig; Wilhelm Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg
1990 »Kunstminen«, Kunstmuseum, Düsseldorf
1992 »Bilder für den Himmel«, Goethe-Institut, Osaka
1996 »charm will quark«, Atelier Moustakides, Düsseldorf; Kunstbunker Tumulka, Munich; »Malerinnen«, Galerie Von Loeper, Hamburg; Galerie Dacic, Tübingen
1997 »Saldo«, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf; »Augenzeugen: Die Sammlung Hank«, Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf and Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf; »O.T.«, Das KonTemporäre Kleine Museum©, Düsseldorf
[Konstanze Thümmel, 1997]
