Bernd Bankroth

Photographer, painter, draughtsman, ceramicist, and musician Bernd Bankroth (1941 in Halle – 1991 in Dippolswalde) wasn’t always a multi-media artist. First he learned the electrician’s trade, obtained a degree in cybernetics from the Technische Universität Dresden (1967), and then worked as a scientific assistant on research projects involving structural analysis and information psychology until 1975, when he decided to commit to the arts wholeheartedly. He wasn’t pure autodidact either, as some reports misleadingly suggest, for he did take evening classes in photography at a young age (1962-65). Radically eclectic and ready to experiment with technical equipment in the arts, Bankroth produced photograms, laser drawings, electric-acoustic montages, and a medium he invented, ‘orlidoluminographics.’

Bankroth’s artistic practice was rooted in the home he shared with Ursula Bankroth, a landscape painter trained at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden (1964-69), in the rural mountain village Fürstenau, located near the Czech border. Purchasing a run-down timber-framed house in 1971, the couple renovated the dwelling and installed studios in the attached barn. For income they collaboratively made traditional erzgebirgische ceramics, with Ursula painting the ornamentation and Bernd foraging materials for colorful natural glazes. Bernd’s intimate relationship with nature led him also to criticize in his work the negative impact of technology on the environment, such as the death of local woodlands due to exhaust fumes from down-valley industries.

text: Tobias Rosen