| Richard Lindner | ||
| Birth Date: November 11, 1901 |
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| Death Date: April 16, 1978 Artist Gallery |
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| Richard Lindner was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1901, of an American mother and a German-Jewish father.
Lindner studied at Nuremberg’s School of Fine and Applied art in 1922 and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1924.
In 1933, the day after the Nazis took over Munich, Lindner moved to Paris. Until that day he hadn’t paid much attention to the Jewish part of his German identity. Once he was in France, he joined the army. He suddenly realized he was a German in a French uniform and Jewish. He deserted and was then caught by the Gestapo on his way to Marseille. The Gestapo handcuffed him to a chair and while they were dealing with his companion he literally jumped out the window with the chair. He was fortunate enough to run into a local café of sympathizers – they freed him from the chair – and Lindner decided to join the underground.
After coming to the United States in 1941 he illustrated for such magazines as Vogue until 1950. From 1951 through 1965 he taught at Pratt Institute.
He painted in relative obscurity until the 60s, then with the emergence of the Pop Art Movement his characteristic style came into its own.
Although Lindner’s themes have remained the same throughout his life, their flavor has become increasingly American. Circus women from his youth in Germany became New York streetwalkers and authority figures traded European military uniforms for those of New York’s police force.
In April of 1978, Lindner opened an exhibit at the Janis Gallery in New York City……three weeks before it closes…..Lindner passed away.
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