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Academy of Fine Arts Düsseldorf

Tuesday, 3 March 2026 - 11:00 am (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: European Union / Europäische Union
Category/Kategorie: General, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  3 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Fine Arts) is the academy of fine arts of the state of North Rhine Westphalia at the city of Düsseldorf, Germany. Notable artists who studied or taught at the academy include Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Blinky Palermo, Magdalena Jetelová, Gotthard Graubner, Nam June Paik, Nan Hoover, Katharina Fritsch, Tony Cragg, Ruth Rogers-Altmann, Sigmar Polke, Anselm Kiefer, Rosemarie Trockel, Thomas Schütte, Katharina Grosse, Michael Krebber and photographers Thomas Ruff, Thomas Demand, Christopher Williams, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky and Candida Höfer. In the stairway of its main entrance are engraved the Words: “Für unsere Studenten nur das Beste” (“For our Students only the Best”).

The school was founded by Lambert Krahe in 1762 as a school of drawing. The first female professor, Catharina Treu, was appointed in 1766. In 1773, it became the “Kurfürstlich-Pfälzische Academie der Maler, Bildhauer- und Baukunst” (Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture of the Electorate of the Palatinate). During the Napoleonic Wars, the count palatine’s art collection was inherited by the Wittelsbach family and moved to Munich, prompting the Prussian government—who had annexed the Düsseldorf region after Napoleon had surrendered—to change it into a Royal Arts Academy in Düsseldorf, in 1819.

In the 1850s, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf became internationally renowned, with many students coming from Scandinavia, Russia and the United States to learn, among other things, the genre and landscape painting associated with the Düsseldorf school.

Bernd Becher was professor from 1976 to 1998. It was the first class dedicated to photography at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Students of Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Düsseldorf School of Photography have included Laurenz Berges, Elger Esser, Bernhard Fuchs, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Axel Hütte, Simone Nieweg, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Josef Schulz, Thomas Struth, Petra Wunderlich. In the 2010 published catalogue “Der Rote Bulli. Stephen Shore und die Neue Düsseldorfer Fotografie.” is a list with all students studied at the Düsseldorf School of Photography.

In November 2021 the academy joined a cooperation with the City of Düsseldorf, Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur (Cologne) and the non-profit DFI e. V. (Verein zur Gründung und Förderung eines Deutschen Fotoinstituts e. V.) to support plans to establish the Deutsches Fotoinstitut in Düsseldorf.

Read more on Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and Wikipedia Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). Photos by Wikimedia Commons. If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.