Leipzig mourns the loss of Frank Ruddigkeit: An artist goes from us!

Leipzig mourns the loss of Frank Ruddigkeit: An artist goes from us!

Frank Ruddigkeit, an important Leipzig painter, graphic artist and sculptor, died on Saturday at the age of 85. It is one of the most influential artists of the second generation of the Leipzig School and leaves an extensive work that significantly shaped the city and the art scene in Germany. Ruddity was born in Grenzberg (Pridoroschnoye) in 1939, East Prussia at the time. In the last months of the war he fled as a child with his mother and brother and was subsequently interned to a Russian estate. These difficult circumstances strongly shaped his early childhood and artistic development.

His family found a new home in Engelsdorf near Leipzig in 1948, where ruddness went to school for the first time and received singing lessons. A sports teacher encouraged him to collect art postcards, which significantly influenced his later career as an artist. After completing his studies at the University of Graphics and Book Art in Leipzig in 1962, Ruddigkeit quickly showed his talent in the art scene.

important works and influence

The best-known work of the artist is the Karl-Marx-Relief, which was created for the University of Leipzig in 1973 and can be seen on the Jahnallee campus today. Other important work includes the image frie to the history of the Leipzig marketplace at the entrance to the City Tunnel as well as the plastic leporello "market stories" and the mural "Music and Time" in the Gewandhaus. Ruddigkeit was also involved in the artistic design of the university's manage building and in 1974 won a competition for a bronze relief at the main building of the Karl Marx University.

His teaching activity began in 1974 at the University of Industrial Form design, Giebichenstein Castle, where he worked as a professor of painting and graphics from 1981 to 2004. During this time he shaped the next generation of artists and introduced them to the rediscovery of their own artistic voice. Even after the turn, ruddness was often confronted with the question of whether he was a "GDR state artist", which contradicted his unconventional perspective on art.

artistic reflection and posthumous exhibitions

In 2020, his work was held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, which was curated by art historian Fabian Müller-Nittel. Müller-Nittel expressed his regret about death and pointed out that his diaries offer a deep insight into his artistic reflection as a means of world and self-admission. This shows that ruddia art was motivated not only through its external appearance, but also by deeper philosophical considerations.

ruddity has left a variety of artistic traces in Leipzig and beyond that bring his visionary strength and life story closer to the art world. He lived his last years in the Leipzig music district and will be remembered as a formative figure of contemporary art.

his heir will live not only through his works, but also through the countless students he taught. Ruddity remains an inspiring example of versatile art and human resilience in a changing social context. Further information about his life and work can be found on his official website Frank Ruddigkeit.

For more detailed reports on his life and work, see also the reporting of MDR.