Otto Renner Biographical Notes

Horst Müller is born on 28 February 1943 in Bremerhaven and spends his childhood and youth in Northern Germany.
His interest in painting is awakened at an early age by the picture of a country scene hanging beside the door in his parents’ living room.

1959 He begins an apprenticeship as a typesetter, which he completes in three years. During this time he also develops notable skills as a draughtsman. These prove to be disadvantageous, however – a year later his application to study at the Staatliche Kunstschule Bremen is rejected on the grounds that the submitted works are so highly accomplished that he is probably no longer ›malleable‹. He decides to take an evening course in drawing at this same institution in order to ›unlearn‹ what he has previously learned, but this strategy meets with only limited success. In 1962 he spends six months travelling in Italy, France, Portugal and Spain, where he makes his first visit to the Prado in Madrid.

1964 Having finally managed to create the impression of being ›malleable‹, he enrols at the Staatliche Kunstschule in Bremen. During the preparatory course he changes his mind about the direction of his studies and switches from graphic design to painting. He joins the class of the painter Winfred Gaul, a successor to Karl Fred Dahmen who has turned his back on the fashionable trend of Tachisme and instead gears his students to-wards post-war American painting and British art of the 1960s.

1966 He spends the summer in Scandinavia, where he experiments heavily with hallucinogenic drugs. The following winter he becomes seriously ill and spends a few months recovering. During this time he immerses himself in the religious teachings and philosophies of the Far East, performing spiritual exercises in the attempt to attain the same elevated mental states he had previously achieved with the aid of chemical stimulants; after some initial difficulties this becomes increasingly easier.

Untitled
Polyester, wood,
enamel paint
1966

The sixties Photocopy 2010