Self-taught. 1956 first exhibition in Dresden. Trains as a commercial artist. 1957-1963 shares an atelier in Dresden with Peter Makolies. 1961 beginning of his friendship with Georg Kern (Georg Baselitz). Contact with Wolf Biermann. 1967 names himself after the geologist and Ice Age scholar 'Albrecht Penck', henceforth A. R. Penck. 1968 first one-man show in the Galerie Hake, Cologne. 1970 founding in May of the group 'Lücke', with Harald Gallasch, Steffen Kuhnert (TERK), and Wolfgang Opitz. 1972 'documenta 5', Kassel (and subsequent ones). 1973 pseudonym 'Mike Hammer'. 1974 pseudonym 'TM'. 1976 dissolution of the 'Lücke'. Together with Jörg Immendorff founds an artists' collective in East Berlin with political engagement. 1980 moves to West Berlin. Friendship with Markus Lüpertz and Per Kirkeby. 1981 major retrospective in Cologne's Kunsthalle. 1983 lives in Israel. Moves to London. 1984 'Venice Biennale'. 1988 teaches at the Düsseldorf Art Academy.
