Introduktion (Zvi Szirs Text)

At the beginning of 1997, I, Zvi Szir, was repeatedly confronted from various sides with the question of whether there could be a program of study in which the complex fundamentals of painting could be taught and conveyed. As a result, I began to ponder the following questions:

"What should a future-oriented art education look like if it follows entirely different foundational prerequisites—paradigms—than those rooted in late capitalism and its accompanying culture industry? What would it mean for painting if the teaching of artistic fundamentals went hand in hand with a study that opens up a more comprehensive view of the world and the human being? What should an art education look like if the human being is more than just the highest animal in an evolutionary chain? What would it mean for contemporary art if the human being is more than a body endowed with reason? What could it mean for the creative artist if the perceptible material world is only a part of reality? Is it possible to expand the boundaries of the visible in order to explore the invisible as well, meeting it with our thoughts and feelings? And if so, what will it mean for our artistic creation?"

It was an enormous challenge and, at the same time, a task that at that moment became more significant for me and my co-founder, Julitta Lea Krebs, than the development of our own artistic careers. We then dedicated ourselves to this work for the next 25 years.

The training at the neueKUNSTschule aims at unfolding and building artistic abilities

In order to direct artistic abilities onto a future-oriented path of development, a careful path of practice and an intensive study of the evolution of art and humanity are required. Thus, the content on which we place our emphasis is always approached from two sides: practice and study, experiencing and attaining through doing, and opening up and recognizing through thinking.

Julitta Lea Krebs and I focused on the training of painters because this provided a manageable and appropriate framework for the scope of our work.

Starting in January 1998, we taught students, initially in three-year and later in four-year full-time programs, during which we simultaneously developed and explored the significance of a paradigm shift.

The path of study that emerged from this can be divided into three main elements. To outline these, here are the central questions: How can I approach the non-sensory—thinking through and exploring those aspects of the real that are buried under terms such as life, soul, and spirit? How can I develop the skills I need in painting and drawing in a way that is in harmony with these thoughts? How can I develop a sensitivity to the elements of painting—line, surface, form, color, figure, space, composition, narrative, etc.—in such a way that they are no longer experienced as mere formal elements, but as active realities, as events taking place within us as creators and observers?

Our Path of Study & The Diplomas

In order to channel these future-oriented abilities into a concrete path of development, a structured, consecutive path of study established itself at the neueKUNSTschule over the course of 25 years: