Hubertus Giebe

Hubertus Giebe studied painting and graphic art at night at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden (HfBK) from 1969 to 1972 – then, from 1974 to 1976, continued his studies full-time. He met the writer couple Erwin and Eva Strittmatter in 1974, which marked the beginning of an intense and productive artistic friendship. In 1976, Giebe decided to abandon his degree at the university of Dresden and was able to establish himself with a "preliminary and temporary working permit" as an independent painter and graphic artist. But in 1978 he completed the degree by correspondence at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig, thereafter becoming a masters fellow of Bernhard Heisig. In the period from 1982 to 1986, he led, together with Heisig’s son – Johannes Heisig – the undergraduate study of painting and graphic arts at the HfBK in Dresden. In 1987, Giebe was made assistant professor of painting and the graphic arts there.

Giebe took an active part in the political upheavals that brought down the GDR. At the demonstration organized on 19 November 1989 by the Dresden Artists’ Union on the Theaterplatz, he gave an impassioned speech in favor of the freedom of speech, democracy, and the concommitant political reforms. During this period, he supported the political goals of the Neues Forum party. Giebe remained engaged in history and politics in later years, while showing a passionate sympathy for the specific fates of individuals. After being named deputy rector of the arts faculty at the HfBK in 1990, Giebe resigned from this post and his teaching position a year later.

 Giebe today remains an artist well-known for his critical spirit, one who constantly seeks to renew his forms of expression. In the 1990s, he began his expansion into sculpture. His oeuvre now ranges from large-format paintings, which relate complex historical events with numerous, often metaphorically charged figures, to a broad array of graphic art works and powerful, monumental sculpture.

text: Elke Neumann, translation: Darrell Wilkins