Dietmar Schneider (photographer)

Dietmar Schneider (* 1939 in Breslau ) is a German photographer and art educator.

Life

Dietmar Schneider, a trained insurance salesman, is a son of the opera singer Josef Schneider and a nephew of Willy Schneider . As a child, he and his parents took a refugee route from Breslau, where his father had been involved in the opera, to Prague and then to Cologne . There he organized his first art exhibition in 1966: the works of three Cologne artists were shown in the Italian Cultural Institute. Two years later, he turned Hohe Straße into a gallery by persuading 13 business people who had their shops there to exhibit modern art. This started a tradition that only a few years later, 70 shops took part in the campaign and brought customers into contact with modern art. Another way of conveying art was through discussions between artists and the public on the street. For example, Schneider persuaded Joseph Beuys , whom he also got to visit the Rose Monday procession in Cologne. He also let discussions about art take place in the training camp of 1. FC Köln . He organized the first Polish culture week outside Poland with the support of the head of the cultural department Kurt Hackenberg and Alfred Bioleks .

Schneider was also an early promoter of cultural sponsorship. He got in touch with companies like Lufthansa and 4711 as well as the Kölner Stadtsparkasse in order to finance campaigns and exhibitions. The Glockengasse Art Prize from 4711 and the Toyota Art Photography Prize go back to his initiative . The Glockengasse Art Prize is the most highly endowed art prize awarded privately in Germany. He organized over 200 exhibitions in the Galerie Glockengasse 4711.

For 34 years from 1973 or 1979 Schneider published the Cologne sketches , in which the Cologne art scene is documented. Dietmar Schneider is also an employee of the Kunst Köln magazine and publisher of various art editions. From 1993 he designed and organized exhibitions at the Gotha Art Forum in Cologne for ten years.

Dietmar Schneider has also accompanied the art scene in North Rhine-Westphalia photographically since the 1960s. He created around 90,000 artist portraits, some of which were later edited by those portrayed. A selection of his photographs was shown in the Agneskirche in Cologne in 2012 .

Schneider attributes his particular fondness for sculpture to early childhood impressions: his piano teacher was married to a sculptor whose work fascinated the boy. A portrait bust of his father, which Hans Gerdes created, is in his possession, along with numerous other works of art. Schneider lives in Cologne with his wife Christiane.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Dietmar Schneider at www.cologne-info.de
2. ↑ ^{a b} Susanne Kreitz, The Persuading Artist , in: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , December 16, 2006 (online at www.ksta.de )
3. ↑ ^{a b} Edelwalda Klein, foreword , on www.artcontent.de
4. ↑ Jürgen Kisters, A Master of Persuasion , in: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , June 25, 2004 ( www.ksta.de )
5. ^ Susanne Kreitz, Dietmar Schneider. Artist portraits in the Agneskirche , in: Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , February 22, 2012 (online at www.ksta.de )