Emil Schumacher was born in 1912 in Hagen, Germany. From 1932 to 1935 he studied at Dortmund’s applied arts school, the Kunstgewerbeschule, intending to become a commercial artist. He went on to paint, though without exhibiting his work. From 1939 to 1945 he was obliged to work as a draughtsman in the armaments plant of the Hagen battery factory. Schumacher painted Cubist landscapes until he met the gestural painter Wols in Paris in 1951, under whose influence he developed an imagery close to that of Art Informel. From 1958 to 1960 he taught at Hamburg’s art school, the Hochschule für bildende Künste, and from 1966 to 1977 at Karlsruhe’s academy, the Staatliche Akademie der bildenden Künste. From 1967 to 1968 he was a guest professor at the Minneapolis School of Art. He received numerous awards – among them Germany’s Grand Order 1st Class and the Order of Merit with Star – and was a member of the order Pour le Mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste. In 1998 Schumacher painted a wall painting for the Reichstag building in Berlin. He died on Ibiza in 1999.
