1984
Manfred Böttcher
Manfred Böttcher © SLUB Dresden/Deutsche Fotothek/Christian Borchert, http://www.deutschefotothek.de/documents/obj/80197710
The draughtsman and painter Manfred Böttcher first developed his artistic approach under the influence of his teachers Wilhelm Lachnit and Hans Theo Richter and then, from 1961, as a freelance artist in Berlin. During his master student period with Heinrich Ehmsen, he created – along with Harald Metzkes and Ernst Schroeder – strictly constructed “black pictures”. In this way the young master students rebelled against academic optimism and the prescribed doctrine. Böttcher found inspiration for his drawings and dynamic and impasto paintings in nudes, landscapes, still lifes, and in the works of the masters of art history. In the last years of his life his paintings became more abstract, but no less powerful.