Hann Trier

Hann Trier (1 August 1915 in Düsseldorf – 14 June 1999 in Castiglione della Pescaia in Tuscany in Italy) was a German artist, best known for his giant ceiling painting in the Charlottenburg Palace. He was married to the sociologist Renata Mayntz and was the elder brother of the art historian Eduard Trier.

The Trier brothers spent their youth in Cologne. From 1934 until 1938, he studied at the Düsseldorf Arts School Werk. During the Second World War he served in the Wehrmacht, from 1941 until 1944 as a technical artist in Berlin.

At the end of the war he returned to painting, setting up his studio in Burg, not far from Bonn. In 1947 he, with other artists including Joseph Beuys, was a founder member of the group 'Donnerstag-Gesellschaft' ('Thursday Group'). The Group organised discussions, exhibitions, events and concerts between 1947 and 1950 in Alfter Castle. In 1950 he won the prestigious Blevins Davis Prize in Munich.

From 1952 to 1955 he worked in Medellín in Colombia, subsequently studying in Mexico and New York. In 1955 he was appointed a guest lecturer at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Art. From 1955 he exhibited in the first, second and third Documenta exhibitions in Kassel.

From 1957 until 1980 he was professor and later Director of Berlin University's Fine Art Academy. In 1967 he began the monumental task of replacing the war-damaged ceiling paintings at the Charlottenburg Palace, completing the first section in 1972, and finishing a further ceiling between 1972 and 1974. He was awarded the 1966 Berliner Kunstpreis (Berlin Art Prize) and the Grand Cross of Merit of the German Republic in 1975.

His auction record is $US51,000 for his 1958 oil on canvas 'Alegria', sold at the Villa Grisebach auction house in Berlin on 23 November 1990.

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