Rosemarie Trockel

Rosemarie Trockel – Painting tuition with Werner Schriefers; USA trips with Monika Sprüth

Rosemarie Trockel was born in Schwerte on 13 November 1952. Although art played little role in her family, Trockel discovered her passion for drawing early on, growing up in the countryside. Despite this, she began studying to be a teacher of mathematics, theology, sociology and anthropology in Cologne in 1971, but from 1974, studied painting at the Kölner Werkschulen under Werner Schriefers. She herself stated that she most valued the free atmosphere which allowed for numerous experiments, as well as the great camaraderie. In this stimulating and encouraging environment, she first used the medium of film and shot many Super 8 films including the early work Sei kein Kind von Traurigeit. Her encounter with Monika Sprüth was decisive for her subsequent career path, and Trockel undertook several trips to the USA with the committed urban planner and later gallerist, where she met the American artists Cindy Sherman, Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, who encouraged her to continue on her chosen path. 

Rosemarie Trockel chooses womanhood as the theme of her art

With Monika Sprüth as her gallerist, Rosemarie Trockel released her first works which primarily concerned the theme of womanhood and also presented a critique of the accepted art establishment and its rules. She soon demonstrated her tremendous productivity with ever more new works, quickly filling the spaces of both solo and collective exhibitions. She does not see herself solely as a feminist artist, and even connoisseurs of her works emphasise that Trockel is simply a complete artist who expresses and engages herself in many ways. Despite her conscious seclusion and her distance from the press, she is not a recluse as an artist, but enjoys working with other artists. Interesting works are created again and again: In 1997, she built the Haus für Schweine und Menschen for documenta X in Kassel in 1997 and published the book Duras with Marcus Steinweg concerning Marguerite Duras and her work. Trockel’s so-called ‘knitted pictures’ are famous, with which she wishes to ironise the traditional field of activity of women; the artist did not knit herself but had them made on a machine. 

Award-winning artist and teacher

Rosemarie Trockel has received prizes and awards for her art, among them the Roswitha Haftmann Prize, the highest remunerated European prize for contemporary fine artists, and since 2013, the Kunstkompass has ranked her among the three most successful living artists after Gerhard Richter and Bruce Nauman. In 1998, Trockel was appointed as professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. Her work has been particularly well received in the USA since the 1980s where she exhibited in the renowned Museum of Modern Art in New York, followed by Chicago and Boston. Many of her grotesque works show a strong in fluence of Joseph Beuys. 
Rosemarie Trockel lives in Cologne Hahnwald.