German mountains landscape

Original color linocut, signed and numbered. 1/100

Hansjörg Wagner (born August 3, 1930 in Berlin; † May 14, 2013 in Munich) was a German sculptor, painter and draftsman.

As a young artist, Hansjörg Wagner found painting through drawing, in which he trained himself autodidactically. In sculpture he was instructed and criticized by Fritz Behn in his Munich studio from 1951 to 1958. He was also supported by Arthur Rümann and Ernst Buchner. From 1953 onwards, purchases were made by the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (1953–1955), the Neue Pinakothek Munich (1966, today the Pinakothek der Moderne) and the Georg Schäfer Collection.

Hansjörg Wagner's oeuvre is characterized by periodically recurring basic elements, such as creation and the principle of unity. There are works with similar themes from each decade. The self-portrait in the studio, the horse in the garden and the nuns, for example, were created after a long, overcome illness and in the time of a new beginning. The illustrations for Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and Lev Tolstoy's folk tales also fall at the same time. Etching cycles and illustrations for Charles Dickens and Hans Christian Andersen were created in the following years.

 In 1976, Hansjörg Wagner set up another studio in Italy in addition to his studio in Munich to work in stone and bronze. Large-scale sculptures were continually created, such as the Tiger (private collection), the “Störtebeker Monument” (Hamburg), the “Elk Group”, the “Polar Bear Fountain” (Berlin Zoological Garden), the “Gorilla” (private collection), the “Mourners” (private property), the “Bulle” (Schwandorf), the “William Lindley Monument” (Hamburg), the “Peacocks” (private property), the “Moritatensänger”, the “Zitronenjette” (Hamburg), the “Athletes Group” (Ismaning) and the “Kodiak Bear Group” (private property).

Hansjörg Wagner was an honorary member of the Accademia internazionale delle Muse in Florence and a member of the National Sculpture Society in New York.