Michael Heckert

Michael Heckert (born October 29, 1950 in Halle an der Saale ) is a contemporary painter who devotes himself to abstract expressionism . In terms of content, the extremely sensitive artist deals with the phenomenon of the feminine. Here he was initially influenced by the American painter Willem de Kooning .

Life

Michael Heckert grew up in East Westphalia, where he completed a business apprenticeship. He then studied painting from 1976 to 1982 at the HBK Braunschweig under Professors Alfred Winter-Rust, Lienhard von Monkiewitsch and Peter Voigt . He then worked as a freelance artist in Cologne, Bonn and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The current studio location is Brieselang in the Havelland district.

Already in childhood he discovered his extraordinary artistic talent for painting and impressed family, friends, teachers and classmates. It was clear to him to become a painter. His parents saw his passion as a “breadless art” and forced him to do an apprenticeship as a wholesale and foreign trade merchant in order to support his parents financially. After eleven unsuccessful years in this profession, he managed to complete a degree in fine arts at the HBK Braunschweig with outstanding achievements, despite a secondary school leaving certificate.

His first exhibition in Cologne in 1982 in the Galerie Heinz Holtmann, who was also his first gallery owner, was a great success, which was followed by many more. His longing for limitless expression led to a change in his painting style in 1984: he turned away from half-figure painting and tried to realize his mode of expression in completely abstract painting . Despite the strong influence of de Kooning, he developed his own form for his artistic content. Exhibitions at home and abroad followed, as well as trips to the USA, the Caribbean and South America.

Private reasons led the artist to Haiti from 2007 to 2012 , living in the capital Port-au-Prince , where he encountered new impressions and challenges. The local art, which mainly deals with voodoo and the everyday life of the Haitian people, inspired him less. For him, the Caribbean attitude towards life was more impressive, the local colors influencing his art: the daily blue of the sky, the everlasting green of the vegetation, the shiny black of sweaty skin of Haitiander, the blood red of the local porch floor. The artist experienced a decisive turning point with the earthquake of 2010 . The experience of his own mortality in the face of this disaster of political unrest, hurricanes, cholera epidemics and the continued traumatization by the quake changed his attitude towards his own life and forced a new perspective on his artistic work. The result was a return to the photo overpainting he had begun in the 1990s , which he now expanded and consistently continued. He developed a new form of connection between photography and painting.

In the last few years Heckert discovered his fatherly roots, which reached back several centuries to the glassworks industry in the Giant Mountains, Berlin and Eastern Europe. Heckert's ancestors were mainly involved in glass production, from windows to award-winning handicrafts. The Second World War and the founding of the GDR destroyed the dynasty.

Works (selection)

Solo exhibitions

• 1981 Gallery Group White Horse
• 1983 Heinz Holtmann Gallery, Cologne
• 1984 Heinz Holtmann Gallery, Cologne
• 1985 Gallery Art Space Cologne
• 1986 Wolfenbüttel Art Association
• 1987 Sassi Gallery Stockholm Sweden
• 1987 Galerie Bistborno Malmö Sweden
• 1988 Engelbrekt Gallery, Örebro Sweden
• 1988 Galerie Hermann Walther Düsseldorf
• 1988 Marburg University Museum
• 1989 Wilhelmshöhe Karlsruhe-Ettlingen
• 1991 Gallery Hermann Walther Düsseldorf
• 1993 Gallery Hermann Walther Düsseldorf
• 1994 Kunstverein Oldenburg
• 1994 Höhne Gallery in Cuxhaven
• 1997 Episcopal Academy Aachen
• 1998 Villa Jule Thyssen Mülheim-Ruhr
• 1998 Arenfels Castle in Bad Hönningen
• 2000 Gallery Lichthof VHS Cologne
• 2001 Arenfels Castle in Bad Hönningen
• 2002 Behringwerke Marburg
• 2003 LOG gallery Marburg
• 2008 Jardin de Gérard Gallery, Pétion-Ville, Haiti
• 2009 Art Association Adenau
• 2010 Expressions Galerie d'Art, Petion-Ville, Haiti
• 2013 LOG Gallery Marburg
• 2016 Art Factory Brieselang
• 2015 Factory Gallery Dallgow-Döberitz
• 2017 Forum Factory Berlin

Group exhibitions

• 1980 Braunschweig artist prize at Wolfsburg Castle
• 1981 Gallery White Horse Hanover
• 1982 Four young German painters Galerie Holtmann Cologne
• 1983 artist in Lower Saxony Kunstverein Hannover
• 1984 Profile impulses in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich Museum Braunschweig
• 1987 Helms-Museum Hamburg (M. René Havekost and Th. Zielinski)
• 1988 Kunsthaus Hamburg
• 1988 Cologne Art 2 Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle Cologne
• 1982–1991 Large Düsseldorf Art Exhibition Ehrenhof Düsseldorf
• 1991 Köln-Kunst 3 Josef-Haubrich Kunsthalle Cologne
• 1999 Deutsche Post AG head office in Bonn
• 2016 Aufbruch 86, Helms Museum Hamburg Harburg

Awards and grants

• 1980 Braunschweig artist prize HBK Braunschweig
• 1982 Lower Saxony young talent scholarship in Hanover
• 1986 sponsorship award of the large art exhibition NRW Düsseldorf
• 1987 artist guest in Hamburg-Harburg
• 1997 'Moments' OPTICA 97, 3rd prize

Works in collections (selection)

• Museum Ludwig Cologne
• Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt / Main
• State government of Hanover
• University Museum, Marburg
• Sparkasse Cuxhaven
• IKB Bank, Düsseldorf
• Lingenbrink, Hamburg
• Foreign Office, Berlin
• Numerous private collections

Web links

• Literature by and about Michael Heckert in the catalog of the German National Library
• The artist's private website
• The art college: HBK Braunschweig
• Museum Ludwig, Cologne
• Deutsche Bank Art
• University Museum Marburg