The artist is Johannes Grutzke, a German painter and graphic artist who studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin and participated in O. Kokoschka's summer academy in Salzburg. In 1973, he co-founded the artist group 'Schule der neuen Prächtigkeit' (School of New Magnificence), which was committed to figurative painting. He was a guest lecturer at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg and a stage designer at the Schauspielhaus. He was a member of the Free Academy of Hamburg and held a professorship in Nuremberg. Grutzke is known for his unsparing realism in portraiture and figurative images, often using grotesque ironic exaggerations. He has been awarded the Grand Federal Cross of Merit and the Hannah Höch Prize....