Leipzig mourns Frank Ruddigkeit: An artist is leaving us!

Leipzig mourns Frank Ruddigkeit: An artist is leaving us!

Frank Ruddigkeit, an important Leipzig painter, graphic artist and sculptor, died on Saturday at the age of 85. He is one of the most influential artists of the second generation of the Leipzig School and leaves behind an extensive body of work that has had a significant impact on the city and the art scene in Germany. Ruddigkeit was born in 1939 in Grenzberg (Pridoroschnoje), then East Prussia. In the last months of the war, he fled as a child with his mother and brother and was subsequently interned on a Russian estate. These difficult circumstances had a strong influence on his early childhood and his artistic development.

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

Important works and influence

The artist's best-known work is the Karl Marx relief, which was created in 1973 for the University of Leipzig and can now be seen on the Jahnallee campus. Other important works include the picture frieze on the history of the Leipzig market square at the entrance to the City Tunnel as well as the sculptural leporello “Market Stories” and the mural “Music and Time” in the Gewandhaus. Ruddigkeit was also involved in the artistic design of the university's cafeteria building and in 1974 won a competition for a bronze relief on the main building of the Karl Marx University.

His teaching career began in 1974 at the University of Industrial Design, Burg Giebichenstein, 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 led them to rediscover their own artistic voice. Even after reunification, Ruddigkeit was often confronted with the question of whether he was a “GDR state artist,” which contradicted his unconventional view of art.

Artistic reflection and posthumous exhibitions

In 2020, a solo exhibition of his work took place at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, curated by art historian Fabian Müller-Nittel. Müller-Nittel expressed his regret over Ruddigkeit's death and pointed out that his diaries offer a deep insight into his artistic reflection as a means of understanding the world and himself. This shows that Ruddigkeit's art was motivated not only by its external appearance but also by deeper philosophical considerations.

Ruddigkeit left a multitude of artistic traces in Leipzig and beyond, bringing his visionary power and life story closer to the art world. He lived his last years in Leipzig's music district and will be remembered as a defining figure of contemporary art.

His legacy will live on not only through his works, but also through the countless students he taught. Ruddigkeit remains an inspiring example of adaptable 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 about his life and work, see also the reporting by MDR.