Norbert Prangenberg Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1949 - d. 2012

Norbert Prangenberg (June 23, 1949 — June 29, 2012) was an abstract painter, sculptor, and engraver who was born in Nettseheim, just outside of Cologne, Germany. Though he had no formal training and did not fully engage with art until his 30s, Prangenberg did finally come up with a style that was uniquely his own, not fitting comfortably into the neo-expressionist or neo-geo movements of his time, in the 1970s and 1980s. At this time, he was considered a major figure in contemporary German art. Though he got his start with abstract paintings, he also became known for making sculptures of all sizes; and while his work initially appears abstract, the titles given sometimes allude to the human body or a landscape. As a trained gold- and silversmith, as well as a glassblower, he always showed an attention to materials and how they could be physically engaged with. He was interested in how his own two hands could affect the painting or sculpture's surface. Traces of the artist's hand appear literally throughout his entire oeuvre, before he lost the battle with liver cancer in 2012.

At age 13, Prangenberg was studying to be a gold- and silversmith. After three and a half years of study and a year working for a small company, he attended a werkkunstchule (school for crafts) until the age of 23. Once he was finished with his studies he began working at a glass factory, making designs for wine glasses and vases. At this point, he began dabbling with his own independent drawing and painting. From the age of 26 to 29, he continued freelancing at various glass factories and became a father of two. At this time, he also became critically engaged with the surrounding art world in Cologne and Düsseldorf, visiting galleries and museums frequently and seeing art by leading visionaries such as Jasper Johns and Yves Klein. By the age of 30, Prangenberg felt confident that he was making art that was uniquely his. On a whim, he contacted museum curator Johannes Cladders who began championing his work immediately and connecting him to other curators and dealers. By the 1980s, he becomes a full-time artist, moving organically between watercolor, sculpture, and oil painting, sometimes simultaneously. Throughout his artistic career he always kept a fine eye on material and sought to experiment with how his own hand could change the surface of an abstract painting or bulbous sculpture.