Life and Work

1933 – 1952 Years in Neumarkt i.d.OPf.

Lother Fischer is born on 8 November 1933 in Germersheim in the Palatinate. Not only his father, but also his mother was an art educator. In 1934, the family moves to Neumarkt, where Lother Fischer together with his two younger brothers spends their childhood, attends elementary school and obtains his Abitur (equivalent to a high school diploma). Subsequently, he applies for the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

1953 – 1957/58 Studies in Munich

He begins his higher education of art with Anton Marxmüller with a practical work semester in ceramics, before he transfers to Heinrich Kirchner’s sculpture class in 1953. Fischer is named master student of Kirchner’s in 1955. At the end of 1957 he takes part in the “Atelierschau der Gruppe junger Künstler” (“Studio Show of the Group of Young Artists”) in the Pavillion Old Botanical Garden in Munich together with his later protagonists of the artists collective SPUR.

1957 – 1965 The SPUR Era

The sculptor graduates from the Academy of Fine Arts with a state examination for art teachers as well as with a university diploma. On the initiative of the painters Helmut Sturm, Heimrad Prem, and HP Zimmer, Fischer becomes a cofounder of the artists collective SPUR. During an exhibition in the Schwabinger Kunstzelt (Schwabinger Art Tent), the Munich gallery owner Otto van de Loo and the Danish painter Asger Jorn notice the group SPUR. Jorn is interested in Fischer’s sculpture “Entwurzelter Berg” (“Uprooted Mountain”).

1958	The first SPUR manifest and SPUR sketch portfolio are published.
1958	Lothar Fischer meets Christel Zakrzewski. Fischer receives a three-month Rome Scholarship from the Arnold’sche Stiftung (Arnold’sche Foundation). In June 1959 Lother Fischer and Christel Zakrzwski marry in Lübeck.
1959	During the Third Conference,the artists collective SPUR joins Situationische Internationale (S.I./Situational International), of which they are a member until 1962. The artist group exhibits in the Gallery van de Loo.
1960	Fischer receives the Youth Art Award for Sculptures in Mannheim.
1960	The first SPUR Magazine is published; Number 2 and Number 3 follow.

In 1961, for the event of the exhibition “Engagierte Kunst” (“Committed Art”) in the Kunstverein Munich (Art Association), the January Manifesto (Gaudi Manifest – Joke/Fun Manifesto) is published and the Cultural Ministry issues an exhibition ban in the Haus der Kunst (House of Art) for SPUR. As a reaction, the SPUR Magazine Number 4 is published and the flyer Avantgarde is not welcomed. Fischer receives the Villa Massimo Scholarship and goes to Rome for nine months in 1961. The magazines Number 5 and Number 6 are published. Fischer returns from Rome and together they work on the SPUR Magazine Number 7. In November, the vice squad of the Criminal Investigation Department in Munich confiscates the Magazine Number 6.
Fischer receives his first public commissions and designs the Fischbrunnen (Fish Fountain) in Neumarkt and the Chinesenbrunnen (Chinese Fountain) in Dietfurt.

1962	SPUR exhibits in the Gallery van de Loo, before the first SPUR lawsuit at the district court in Munich begins. Fischer is not charged, because for the most part of the group’s 1961 activities he was in Rome. Fischer creates the cement relief “Wagenlenker” (“Charioteer”) for the Oberrealschule (Secondary School) in Neumarkt.
1963	Three collective SPUR works are designed: one painted room in a country house near Munich, the mural “Canale Grande Crescente” in the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, and the SPUR Building. The latter was formed decisively sculptural by Lothar Fischer and was exhibited at the Troisième Biennale de Paris.
1964	In the Gallery Osborne in New York, a SPUR exhibition takes place. Fischer and Prem are invited to the documenta III in Kassel. The artists of the artists collectives SPUR and WIR (H. Bachmayer, R. Heller, F. Köhler, H. Naujoks, H. Rieger), work together more intensively and publish the magazine SPUR WIR.

1966 – 1974 From GEFLECHT via Pop to Wrappers

Through collaboration, SPUR WIR developed – the artists give themselves the joint name group name GEFLECHT (1966 – 1968) in 1966 – color-roomed anti-objects. Even before the magazine GEFECHT is published, Prem and Fischer leave the group because they feel as if they are being robbed of their artistic freedom.
Motivated by the possibility to work object-orientated after GEFLECHT, Fischer discovers Pop Art for himself. He develops oversized toothpaste tubes, whose clay surface he lacquers. Even if the content of Pop Art did not truly interest Fischer, he did find his way through the tubes and flowing forms – his emancipation – to his most important work phase: the wrappers. Starting in 1969, he dealt with wrappers as a sculptural form. His bodiless garment figures feature a shifting surface structure. The empty wrappers have freed themselves from the inherent bodies and occupy the artist as a motif until the mid 1970s.

1975 – 1997 From Austerity to Variation

1975	Lothar Fischer receives a professorship at the Berlin University of Arts. At the same time, a new work phase begins, which he himself titles “Idole – Konzeption, Strenge und Geschlossenheit 1975 – 1985” (“Idols – Conception, Austerity and Closeness 1975 – 1985”). The contours of his sculptures become denser; they become more linear and more symmetrical.
1979	Lothar and Christel Fischer move to Baierbrunn; they live there and in Berlin. Occasionally, the artist teaches at the Academies in Linz, Austria (1980), Heusden near s’Hertogenbosch and Groningen in Holland (1981), at the Academy for Teachers’ Advanced Training in Dillingen (1982) and at the Summer Academy in Salzburg (1984). In the mid 1980s, Fischer departs from the austere forming of his works in favor of organic, spontaneous constructions and interweavement. Moreover, the handling of the material becomes more playful. He deals intensely with the relationship between form and space; his sculptures increasingly show openings and vistas and therefore seem more transparent.
1990	The sculptor receives the Art Award of the German Federal State of Rhineland-Palatinate. At the same time, he creates the sculpture ensemble “Stehende als Dreiergruppe” (“The Standing as a Trio”) as well as the fountain composition “Büste als Vierergruppe” (“Busts as a Quartett”).
1991	He becomes a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. After numerous single exhibitions, Fischer deals more intensely with the commission for the Meßberghof in Hamburg, the “Enigma-Variationen” (“Enigma Variations”). This ensemble is composed of eight exterior sculptures in bronze.
1997	The sculptor finishes teaching at the Berlin University of Fine Arts. The arrangement of the Neue Dovenhof in Hamburg gives insight into the sculptural diversity of the years 1975 to 1998. By means of the eight large sculptures, it becomes evident how austerity and closeness dominate his work, as well as the sculptures formed through spontaneity and transparency as an obvious entity come together as a complete work.

1998 – 2004 Presence in Neumarkt

In 2000, the sculptor receives the Art Award of the City of Neumarkt. Simultaneously, he writes his book “Zur Kunst aus bildnerischer Sicht” (“On Art from a Sculptural Perspective”). He designs the fountain composition “Drei Reiter” (“Three Horsemen”) for the Residenzplatz in Neumarkt, which is placed there in 2002. For the St. Annen Museum for Art and Cultural History in Lübeck the two niche figures “Adam und Eva” (“Adam and Eve”) are developed. Through encouragement of the lyricist Margret Hölle, the City of Neumarkt and the artist think about building a museum for the life’s work of the sculptor.

2002	The Lothar & Christel Fischer Foundation is recognized with its registered office in Neumarkt.

Lothar Fischer dies on 15 June 2004 in Baierbrunn near Munich. On 19 June 2004, the Museum Lothar Fischer opens.