Becker, Wolfgang

Painter, art theorist and teacher

Born: 26.04.1930 in Berlin

died: 30.11.2008 in Wiesbaden

After studying painting at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Berlin (under Wilhelm Tank, 1888-1967) and spending a year studying in Aix-en-Provence, Becker settled in Wiesbaden in 1968. Here he founded the Wiesbaden School of Fine Arts (wfk) in 1972 with the aim of achieving more in the education of lay people interested in art - "housewives", as he himself once put it with Berlin humor - than he felt Wiesbaden's art scene at the time was capable of. Head of the art school until 1999, Becker opposed dilettantism and mere self-dramatization until his death, which for him were the consequences of a false understanding of freedom in art. His credo was always craftsmanship paired with innovative artistic research, in which he himself was involved.

In addition to his painterly oeuvre, which he devoted entirely to exploring the autonomous potential of color - in predominantly geometric-abstract compositions - he developed decisive foundations of design in the field of art theory, the so-called theory of tonality, in which he opened up parallels to music and its perceptual potential. His professional achievements led him to the Bauhaus in Dessau, with which he entered into an intensive collaboration in the 1990s. For a long time, Becker was also politically active for the city of Wiesbaden. He was also a member of the Federal Board of the BBK, the Federal Association of Visual Artists, for over 15 years and played a decisive role in the establishment of the Artists' Social Security Fund.