Mike Steiner

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Claus-Michel (Mike) Steiner (born July 8, 1941 in Allenstein ; † January 3, 2012 in Berlin ) was a German painter, film artist and pioneer of video art .

life and work

After a short apprenticeship in the copier factory of the Aktiengesellschaft für Filmfabrikation (AFIFA), a UFA subsidiary, Steiner continued school until he graduated from high school. From 1961 he studied painting at the Berlin University of Fine Arts (today: Berlin University of the Arts ) with Hans Kuhn, among others . During his studies, he recognized the creative limitations of the traditional medium of painting . With a scholarship from the Ford Foundation , he was able to continue his studies in the USA in 1965, where he dealt with minimal art , living theater and the art of happening and made numerous contacts with American artist colleagues.

In 1967 he returned to West Berlin and experimented with slide projections, music, and film and video recordings. As early as the 1960s and 1970s, Steiner bought numerous artist videos and filmed many actions. In 1972 he shot his first video work with Al Hansen . Steiner bequeathed 300 of his video collection of over 600 artist films to the Nationalgalerie Berlin in 1999 .

In 1970 he opened the Hotel Steiner, a legendary artist hotel in Wilmersdorfer Albrecht-Achilles-Strasse not far from Kurfürstendamm. In 1976 he opened his studio gallery nearby , which became a meeting point for the international avant-garde of video art , performance art and Fluxus , drawing on the contacts he had made in the USA. In addition to Allan Kaprow and Jochen Gerz , he exhibited the artists of the Fluxus movement in his gallery and in his hotel: Joseph Beuys , Wolf Vostell , Ben Vautier , Al Hansen and Emmett Williams . He helped the feminist Viennese Valie Export and Friederike Pezold to attract attention, as did Ulrike Rosenbach , Marina Abramović and Laurie Anderson .

A second stay in America followed in 1977, which was followed by a lecture tour through various cities in the USA in 1980. In 1982 he accompanied the pop group Tangerine Dream on a concert tour through Australia. He processed the resulting film material into a documentary in which he combined the rhythmic and melodic structures of the music with adequate, but largely abstract image material.

Literature / catalogs

  • Mike Steiner: nd frozen exhibition. With an essay by Curt Grützmacher . Berlin 1974.
  • Berlin video. Studio of Fine Arts, Treptow Cultural Office, Berlin 1992.
  • Anja Oßwald: Steiner Art Tapes. Ars Nicolai, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89479-049-0 . (Contains: History of Video Art 1976–1992 in the Steiner Collection).
  • Mike Steiner color works 1995-98. National Museums, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-88243-666-2 . ( National Gallery in Hamburger Bahnhof , Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin, National Museums in Berlin April 17 - July 11, 1999).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dieter Honisch , Jürgen Schweinbraden : 1945–1985, Art in the Federal Republic of Germany . Nicolai, Berlin 1985 (exhibition catalog, Nationalgalerie Berlin). P. 436
personal data
SURNAME Steiner, Mike
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steiner, Claus-Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and pioneer of video art
DATE OF BIRTH July 8, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 2012
Place of death Berlin