‘Not so much a painting anarchist, more a painter of anarchism’ is how French publisher Heidi Paris described Sigurd Wendland’s work, quoted in a 2009 interview titled ‘Grassroots Revolution’.

Wendland studied from 1969 to 1973 at the Cologne Werkschule with Dieter Kraemer, and completed his studies with the state examination in painting. He then moved to the Universität der Künste (University of the Arts) in Berlin, where he was a master student of Fred Thieler in 1979. From 1977 to 1979 he was a tutor for lithography and printing techniques with Eduard Franoszek. Since 1980 Wendland has worked as a freelance artist, with studios in Amsterdam (1990), Potsdam (1991), Lisbon (1998) and Cologne (1999–2002). He lives and works in Gross Dölln, north of Berlin, has been married since 1981, and has two adult children.

During his studies, Sigurd Wendland was involved in various politically-aware painting groups, including Wolfgang Niedecken. With Eduard Franoszek from 1975 to 1980, in addition to his painting, he researched printing techniques including photogravure, rubber printing and bromine oil printing, and used them for political art, such as printing texts and photographs onto a canvas as background. He was also the editor of several art catalogues and books, and worked at the Berlin-based Karin Kramer Verlag.

During the 1980s he painted a number of life-size portraits of well-known people from Berlin and German cultural life, and from around 1990 his focus has been large-format group pictures on political topics. From 2005 he has organised the Kaiserbäderpleinair art gathering in Heringsdorf, and regularly hosts events at his home near Templin.

Sigurd Wendlund’s website is here, his blog here, and his Facebook page here.

We are very grateful to our Russian friend Yuri for introducing us to the work of this artist.