page_title: Adolf Bierbrauer
section_title: Life
hierarchical_section_title: Adolf Bierbrauer / Life
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Antichristentum ohne Ängstlichkeit, Acryl auf Leinwand, 80 cm x 120 cm, 1999 English: Anti Christianity without fear, acrylic on canvas, 80 cm x 120 cm, 1999
context_page_description: Adolf Bierbrauer was a German conceptual artist, painter and sculptor. He is known for his "hypnosis paintings" and "somnambulistic paintings" as well as for his sculptures.
context_section_description: Adolf Bierbrauer grew up with two sisters, Marianne and Gisela, on Glücksburger street in Düsseldorf-Oberkassel. His father was the manager of the ironworks Association in Düsseldorf.
  During his high school years Bierbrauer studied piano and performed in public as a piano soloist. His piano teacher recommended the philosophical work of Rudolf Steiner to him. In 1930 Bierbrauer produced his first still life and within a year began his first figurative drawings. He created portraits of people in his neighborhood. In 1934 he traveled to the Goetheanum in Dornach (Switzerland) to study the works of Rudolf Steiner. In 1935, he began his study of medicine at the University of Marburg. He continued his study of medicine at Freiburg, Jena and at the Medical Academy in Düsseldorf. From 1940 to 1942 he served in the military service in France.
  In 1942 Bierbrauer was called back to Düsseldorf due to the lack of military available in Düsseldorf during World War II. He received his doctorate there in 1943 and in January 1945 he sent to the Eastern Front as a military doctor. He was captured in Wroclaw and transported to Transcaucasia (Mingitschaur) to work as a roadbuilder and concrete worker as a Russian prisoner of war.
  During his imprisonment, on behalf of the prisoner-of-war camp management Bierbrauer painted documentary images of the geological investigations of the terminal moraines. The prisoners also worked on archaeological excavations of medean graves. He was forbidden from painting and was ordered to create portraits of the guards.
  In 1949, he returned to Düsseldorf where he became a volunteer physician at the University Hospital in Hamburg. From 1951 to 1953 he worked as psychotherapist at the 2nd Medical Academy in Düsseldorf, specializing in hypnosis treatments. At this time he began the creation of his first hypnosis paintings. His public opposition against electroshock therapy and insulin shock treatments lead to his release from hospital in 1953/1954.
  During the summer semester, he attended a class called on monumental painting and wall painting under the direction of Otto Gerster at the Kölner Werkschulen. He applied to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf but was rejected.
  In 1954 he received the circular medical certificate to establish himself as a general medical practitioner. Bierbrauer now specialized on nervous disorders and psychosomatic disorders. He focused on therapies that utilized hypnosis.
  After 1960, he began making somnambulistic paintings. A heart attack in 1965 forced Bierbrauer to end working as a doctor. In 1973, he declared himself to be a freelance artist and started teaching painting lessons to children at his home. These lessons later became the first Waldorf kindergarten in Düsseldorf. Bierbrauer also worked as a pianist in Waldorf schools. In 1974 he applied again to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and was accepted. He spent two years there. At the same time he attended lectures of philosophy at Heinz Rudolf at the Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
  Starting in 1990, Bierbrauer created art which he described as Müllkunst (trash art). 1998 Bierbrauer moved to the anthroposophically oriented Heinrich-Zschokke Senior house in Düsseldorf-Gerresheim, that he also initiated. In 2000, his works were presented to the general public during the presentation of his monography at the NRW Forum for the first time. Bazon Brock and Gabriele Lohberg, Director of the Europäische Kunstakademie Trier (European Academy of Fine Arts Trier) held the introduction speeches.(1)
  Life in Anthroposophic Senior home became intolerable to him. Some of his art works were destroyed due to unannounced renovations at his senior home.(2) At age 91 he moved to a new senior him in the Kasierwerther Diakonie, Ratingen.
  In 2012 Bierbrauer was involved in the exhibition "The Great," at the Museum Kunst Palast Düsseldorf where his hypnosis works were on display. He attended the exhibition.  In the autumn of the same year Bierbrauer died of heart failure.(3)
caption: Anti Christianity without fear,Acrylic on canvas, 80 cm x 120 cm, 1999
exif: {"Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPad mini 2", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "8.1.1", "Image DateTime": "2014:12:08 13:09:30", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "182", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "12/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "40", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:12:08 13:09:30", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:12:08 13:09:30", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "7529/1334", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4845/1918", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "5435/996", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "No flash function", "EXIF FocalLength": "33/10", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1295, 967, 1425, 851]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "133", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "133", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2159", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1432", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "32", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[33/10, 33/10, 12/5, 12/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPad mini 2 back camera 3.3mm f/2.4"}