Wolfgang Mattheuer
1927–2004 · German painter, graphic artist and sculptor of the Leipzig School
Wolfgang Mattheuer (Germany, 1927-2004) was a German painter, graphic artist and sculptor and one of the leading figures of the Leipzig School, a figurative art movement in East Germany. Alongside Werner Tübke and Bernhard Heisig, he helps show how figurative painting developed on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
His early allegorical works, often pessimistic yet heroic, confronted power and were read in East Germany as political dissent. Over time he became an outspoken critic of both socialism and capitalism. For many years he taught at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (HGB), until in 1974 he gave up his professorship to paint full time. In 1988 he left the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, a few months before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
In West Germany he was for a long time regarded as a minor painter. A large retrospective in Chemnitz, held for his 75th birthday, brought his work to wider attention. He was married to the painter Ursula Mattheuer-Neustädt.