Peter Ackermann - 4 ETCHINGS " MARX and ENGELS in LONDON "

PETER ACKERMANN , 4 ETCHINGS " MARX and ENGELS in LONDON " .
44 x 49 cm (53 x 54 cm for the sheets) on laid paper with full margin.
Signed and dated 65 in pencil.
Very small edition, 3 / 15.


Peter Ackermann (January 31, 1934 in Jena – February 20, 2007 in Cortona-Valecchio) was a German painter and graphic artist. He became known for his distorted interpretations of architectural subjects.

Ackermann lived in West Berlin from 1949 onwards. After graduating from high school in 1953, he began studying theater studies, philosophy, and German at the Free University of Berlin in 1954. From 1956 to 1962, he studied at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts under Georg Kinzer (1896–1983), among others. As a member of the New Group, Ackermann participated in the Great Art Exhibition in Munich in 1963. After 1963, Ackermann initially worked as a freelance painter in Karlsruhe. In 1965, he received the German Critics' Prize, in 1971 the Villa Romana Prize, and in 1976 the Darmstadt Art Prize.

Ackermann was a guest lecturer at the Karlsruhe State Academy of Fine Arts from 1972/73 and a professor at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts from 1976/77. In 1977, he moved to the Karlsruhe Academy as a professor. A farewell exhibition was held in Karlsruhe in 1997. To mark his 70th birthday, a double exhibition was held in 2004 at the Landesmuseum Mainz (drawings, prints) and at the Dagmar Rehberg Gallery in Mainz (oil paintings, watercolors).

Ackermann was a proponent of Fantastic Realism. His preferred subject matter was classical Italian architecture, which he drew on location. He juxtaposed columns, portals, and walls with machine parts, ruins, and deserted neighborhoods, threateningly stacked and thus alienating them. In his etchings, he displayed references to Old Master techniques; his pictorial approach has been compared to that of Giovanni Battista Piranesi and Canaletto. His drawings After Canaletto II and After Canaletto IV (each pencil with ink on paper, 42 × 53 cm) were shown at Documenta 6 in Kassel in 1977.