*1944 Celle – lives in Hamburg

After the 1980s, the art and gallery scene had all but forgotten about Almut Heise. Only when figurative art saw a resurgence did her paintings grab the attention of collectors, critics, curators, and gallery owners again.

Heise garnered some attention during the 1960s and 1970s when her portraits and peculiar, deformed realist interiors fit into contemporary trends. When the trends changed, Heise stayed true to her style and themes, becoming an outsider.

At the age of 21, she moved to Mainz to become an art teacher. She then began studies in Hamburg under Gotthard Graubner, Paul Wunderlich, and British pop art artists Allen Jones and David Hockney. During the student protests of 1968, the 24-year-old Heise painted some of her first works depicting interiors. Afterwards, she created many more paintings with similar themes. Mesmerised by the interior paintings of Richard Hamilton, Heise created spatial artwork of rooms with clear composition and firm definition. She began to gradually add more detail, and in 1970 she created her first portraits.

Heise works slowly, creating around five oil paintings in the space of a year. She mostly uses photographs as a blueprint, but at the same time each detail feels deliberate and arranged. At the end of the 1970s, Heise became a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, which she continued doing until 2005.

Publications

Available Works

Exhibitions with Almut Heise

Solo exhibitions (selection)

2016 Galerie Michael Haas, Berlin

2013 Galerie Haas AG, Zurich

2007 Lippische Gesellschaft für Kunst, Schloss Detmold

2000 Handelskammer Hamburg

1994 Galerie Christian Zwang, Hamburg

1990 Kunstverein Freiburg / Breisgau

1988 Galerie Christian Zwang, Hamburg

1975 Kunsthaus Hamburg

1974 Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden | Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart

1970 Galerie Neuendorf, Hamburg / Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne

1969 Galerie Hauptmann, Hamburg

Grants and Awards

2000 Kunstpreis Finkenwerder of Airbus GmbH

1978–1979 scholarship Villa Massimo Rome

1975 Edwin-Scharff-Award Hamburg

1970–1971 Royal College of Art London, scholarship of DAAD

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