Gotthard Graubner was born in Erlbach, Germany, in 1930. From 1947 to 1948 he studied at Berlin’s major art school, the Hochschule für bildende Künste, and then switched to Dresden’s art academy. After a previous interruption of his studies, he withdrew in 1951. In 1954 Graubner left East Germany and studied at Düsseldorf’s art academy as a master student under Georg Meistermann and Karl Otto Götz. He began producing his cushion paintings in 1962. Graubner began teaching at Hamburg’s Hochschule für bildende Künste in 1965, and became a professor there in 1969. He was represented at documenta 4 in Kassel in 1968. In 1973 Graubner travelled to India, Nepal and Bhutan. Trips to Japan, China and Yemen followed. In 1982 he represented West Germany at the 40th Venice Biennale. In his abstract works Graubner investigated colours and the spaces they create. He frequently gave his works the nature of objects. He died in Neuss in 2013.
